I don't know where this talk about weighting for the safety stop at the end of the dive comes from. This means that the last 15 ft of every dive involve an uncontrolled ascent, which is something you want to avoid.
Of COURSE you want to be weighted right for the 15 ft stop but also at 10ft and 5ft or even 2ft. Cutting back on the couple of pounds of weight it takes to maintain control throughout the *entire* dive from surface to surface is like having breaks on your car that stop at some point AFTER the stop sign. Someone said above that the perfect weight was with 500# in the tank. What if the diver gets delayed and he has 300# in the tank? Cutting the margin so thin will mean that he will not be able to hold his safety stop if he has to use any of the reserve air he has...... think about what you're saying here.
Anyway, I think this is wrong thinking. Obviously we are dealing here with two different paradigms but I think the difference in how much weight you need to be in control all the way to the surface isn't worth the potential issues involved in making an uncontrolled ascent through the last 15ft of every dive. Seriously.
If you think about it, no technical diver on the planet would weight themselves to make an uncontrolled ascent over the last 15ft of every dive for obvious safety reasons so why are you recommending for recreational divers to do just that? It's bad advice if you ask me.
R..
Boy do I agree with this post