I'm being forced to snorkel!

[tracydr]

I like night snorkeling with a good light and buddy. Lots of cool life on shallow reefs at night.

 

[smellzlikefish]

Some of my best encounters have been whilst freediving. I wouldn't knock it for a second. Enjoy your vacation from the confines of SCUBA.

 

[USdiver1]

Do to a recent knee surgery I won't be able to carry my dive gear down the beach in Maui. My wife has decreed this year it will be a no dive trip. So I have succumbed to her wishes and will be spending 10 days in Maui with my fins and snorkel only . When I have snorkeled before it was a struggle to stay down if I could get down at all. I was planning on renting a weight belt and some weight. I'm a round guy, 5'10" and 230 pounds, will probably just be wearing my board shorts and leave the shorty at home. About how much weight do you think I will need?

Here's the easy solution: Before you leave on vacation go to the local pool with the suit that you plan to wear in Maui, your own weight belt and weights in 2 pound increments. Get in and add weights until you are neutrally bouyant (float just below eye level when in a vertical feet down position and lungs holding a normal sized breath). If the pool is freshwater calculate another 2 pounds for salt water's additional specific gravity.

 

[fisheater]

Here's the easy solution: Before you leave on vacation go to the local pool with the suit that you plan to wear in Maui, your own weight belt and weights in 2 pound increments. Get in and add weights until you are neutrally bouyant (float just below eye level when in a vertical feet down position and lungs holding a normal sized breath). If the pool is freshwater calculate another 2 pounds for salt water's additional specific gravity.

+1, except that you should weigh yourself with your snorkel gear and freshwater weight and then add 2.5% for saltwater.


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[ScubaSteve]

10% of mass +5 pounds is the calcualation that i got off my dive shops website.. sometimes u need a little more

Wowza! That would put me at 37 lbs. No wonder new instructors load students up with lead. I'm about 8 lbs negative to start a dive BTW, and I end about 6# negative. No wetsuit.

It is also good to point out that strapping lead to your body using the formula that YoungLegs has come up with when you have no air strapped to your back = BAD IDEA. I think YoungLegs missed the part about the OP freediving.

 

[Linedog]

I have a pool where I'm staying in Maui, so I will dial in my weight before I hit the salt. I'm not looking to free dive as I am just going to swim along the surface and submerge when I see something to photograph or video. Then back up and swim along for a while. I'm bringing my weight belt with two pockets and 4 pounds of soft weights. I will have to rent a few more as I need them.

 

[Dave C]

As an avid snorkeler who for 40 years has used a weight belt while snorkeler, I recommend that you start with 8 lb if you are not using a shorty wet suit. Then if necessary you can add weight for your personal preference. I am 6 ft tall, and when I was younger and weighed 150 lb, I used 8 lb and was still posiitvely buoyant at the surface. Now I weight 185, and I find 11 lb is about right, so given your size I suspect your ideal weight will end up being more than 8 lb.


Enjoy snorkeling! If you snorkel off the beach (the holy grail for snorkelers is great snorkeling off the beach), you can go at your own pace, spend unlimited time in the water, see more things than you would with scuba, have everything gorgeously illuminated with natural light, and save all the money you would spend on a dive boat.

 

[BWDubbs]

I've never snorkeled that deep. I suppose by the time you're considering 40 feet, you need weight. Myself I haven't bothered to dive down more than 10 feet, so never really thought about the math on this with a shorty. I don't trust my (in)experience yet to get a little bit of that freedive feel. Thinking of the physics, you have to remove roughly 5-10 lbs of your own buoyancy + a couple lbs for the shorty/gear. average 200 lbs person * 80% body is water = 40 lbs left to support average 200 lbs person * ~15% body fat = ~30 lbs of body is buoyant 40 lbs - 30 lbs = 10 lbs of buoyancy + gear

 

[LGHT]

I've been free diving for years and took the PFI intermediate course. I dove Aruba and used between 4-6 lbs of weight and just my shorts and didn't have any problems getting down. Keep in mind I was using cressi-sub gara blades and long kick strokes. If you have smaller fins you may need 2lbs more.