Feeling embarassed about ballast / weight
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fire_diver
Contributor
The problem is if I take weight off I simply cannot sink as we start the descent, this sometimes makes ( and understandably ) other divers impatient with me, I am not nervous, I exhale, but I cannot obtain negative buoyancy with less weight..
Is this normal, I am not a giant, only Mt / 1.70ish and weigh 65 Kilo, I keep myself very fit and lean..
Am I getting paranoid about this and I am just one of those freaks that demands a lot of ballast or are my diving buddies right to comment it ? ?
You are nervous, your words say so. Using more weight than your friends, people getting impatient, paranoid..... Nervous divers float. Just like searcaigh posted above, as you get more comfortable and RELAXED you will need less weight.
In the mean time, just use however much lead you need and enjoy your dives. In a few months (assuming you dive often) do another weight check and see if you can take some lead off the belt.
PPB is a good class, but not really needed, if you pay attention to your self and what is happening.
My 1st instructors put me 12kg, I allready knew the 10% rule and start from there, but I didn't say nothing, didn't like those 12kg on me, had a hard time to change depth just by the fins and needed to put a lot of air in the BCD,
2nd instructor told me I had the BCD with too much air, and ask me how much weights I had on me and what was my weight, once I answer, he told me that is to much, to go for the 10% something that sounded already familiar with, and then fine tune it to my confort, so I did, I still think I have room to go with less, I will try later 6 or 5kg.
Again that is my case, it may be different for you.
My 1st instructors put me 12kg, I allready knew the 10% rule and start from there, but I didn't say nothing, didn't like those 12kg on me, had a hard time to change depth just by the fins and needed to put a lot of air in the BCD,
2nd instructor told me I had the BCD with too much air, and ask me how much weights I had on me and what was my weight, once I answer, he told me that is to much, to go for the 10% something that sounded already familiar with, and then fine tune it to my confort, so I did, I still think I have room to go with less, I will try later 6 or 5kg.
Again that is my case, it may be different for you.
jeangadbois
Contributor
I found that i had a hard time going down myself in a wet suit, it was quite a tight wellfitting suit .i always had to open up a wrist cuff and make sure there was no air trapped in my suit. I was able to drop weight that way. Not sure if this helps you or not.
mrdre
Contributor
Few things new divers do which makes it harder to descend:
1. Keep moving the legs without noticing it. There are fins on them, right? Every move pushes the diver towards the surface (unless the diver is upside down).
2. Not exhaling completely and not keeping the lungs empty until -1, -2 meters.
3. Not being able to dump the air completely from BCD.
4. Diving with aluminum tanks
1. Keep moving the legs without noticing it. There are fins on them, right? Every move pushes the diver towards the surface (unless the diver is upside down).
2. Not exhaling completely and not keeping the lungs empty until -1, -2 meters.
3. Not being able to dump the air completely from BCD.
4. Diving with aluminum tanks
Do a formal weight check at the end of a dive. If you can, lie on the bottom in very shallow water, with all the air out of your wing, and hand off weights to your buddy until you can't stay down any more. That will tell you how much weight you NEED. If you have troubles with descending with that much weight, look to the tips you've been given above. I'll give you another one -- you may have been taught that, when you want to descend, you hold your inflator up, push the exhaust button, and exhale. Well, if you do that, about the time your head goes underwater, you are going to want to take a breath, which will bounce you back up. Instead, push the button and INHALE. If you are properly weighted, you will begin to sink -- when your head gets to eye level in the water, exhale sharply and exhale some more. The exhalation will finish bringing you under the water.
The above won't work unless your feet are still, though.
I'll tell you a story about weighting. When I took my GUE Fundamentals class, back in 2005, the first night was lecture, and part of what we talked about was proper weighting. The instructor, attempting to outrage us, said, "I've seen women YOUR size carrying 28 pounds of lead!". And I said, "Well, that's what I HAVE.". And he smiled condescendingly and said, "We'll take some of that off you tomorrow."
He tried. But I am not a stupid woman, and I had done my homework, and 28 pounds was what I had to have. (Today, using thicker undergarments, I use 31.).
Weight is what it is. If you are properly weighted, then you have the lead you need and no more. But you can't fight physics, and if that's what you need, you have to wear it.
The above won't work unless your feet are still, though.
I'll tell you a story about weighting. When I took my GUE Fundamentals class, back in 2005, the first night was lecture, and part of what we talked about was proper weighting. The instructor, attempting to outrage us, said, "I've seen women YOUR size carrying 28 pounds of lead!". And I said, "Well, that's what I HAVE.". And he smiled condescendingly and said, "We'll take some of that off you tomorrow."
He tried. But I am not a stupid woman, and I had done my homework, and 28 pounds was what I had to have. (Today, using thicker undergarments, I use 31.).
Weight is what it is. If you are properly weighted, then you have the lead you need and no more. But you can't fight physics, and if that's what you need, you have to wear it.
Few things new divers do which makes it harder to descend:
4. Diving with aluminum tanks
Can you explain that one for me, the reason I ask, is all my dives are with aluminum tank, and I don't have a problem to descent, actually I sink easily, I don't know if it have partially to do with that I don't dive with wet suit, tropical waters 28*C all day long.
mrdre
Contributor
Aluminum tanks are simply more bouyant than steel. So with steel tank you can easily shed 4-6 pounds (2-3 kilos). Moreover, aluminum tanks are positively bouyant when empty, so you will need weights anyway. Steel tanks are negatively bouyant always, so in tropical water without wetsuit you may not need weights at all.
AfterDark
Contributor
Here in RI AL80 are used by some divers especially new ones. Most seasoned cold water divers use steel for the reasons mrdre posted. I started diving with a steel LP72 but switched to the latest and greatest when AL80s came out. That caused me to add more weight to my belt (no integrated BC then) with a neoprene dry suit and heavy undergarments I'd find myself with 40pounds of weight on a belt! After a couple of years I switched back to steel and dropped a lot of lead. When ever I dive warm water I configure my gear so I have a few pounds to dump. IMO having weight to dump is not a bad thing.
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