Do yourself a favour and be *very* careful about buying gear. Also, start with the real essentials. This is something I learned the hard way, as I've got into diving three times: 1968, 1981 and 2001 (and eventually gave up on it twice, because like you, I lived in T.O.!)
Fins vary quite a bit in buoyancy. For me they're so important that I dragged my huge, heavy Biofin Pro Xt's all the way to the Galapagos with us last Christmas, as much for their negative buoyancy as for their "drive" in current. And also because some gimmicks, like their spring-stainless-steel straps really work, making doffing and doning in a drysuit or thick wetsuit much easier. (If you do get hard rubber fins like these or jets or turtles, size them very carefully: their one fault is that toe pockets don't have the "give" of lighter "floatier ones...oh there is another...should you drop them, they sink like a stone...
Ankle weights are an annoying but common crutch for many of us diving in drysuits, but I seldom see them with wetsuits. I'd try fidling with the placement of your tank, and also experimenting with reducing weight a little, by making sure that your wet suit is completely soaked, etc. Then try floating vertically, feet pointed down, relaxing as completley as possible and slowly raising your arms as breathe out (with a working regulator in your mouth, of course!)
The more weight you wear--especially if its all in a place in which it acts as a pivot--the more difficult it is to maintain a smooth and steady trim. Steel tanks definitely work better with thick wetsuits and dry suits for much the same--centred weight on the back--reason that people give for backplates.
Also, while I'm sure that backplate-wing combinations are wonderful, they are not exacly the cheapest or the simplest kind of gear for the new diver. Weight-integrated Back-inflation BC's like my Knighthawk and my wife and daughter's Ladyhawks have turned out to be a quite acceptible compromise. They really work for us, especially when combined with a moderate amount of well- distributed weight on a padded or soft-weight hip-hugging belt. This provides you with:
1) The safety (and cost saving) of being able to ditch only part of your weight so that you don't risk rocketing to the surface. (Studies have shown that we do stupid things in emergencies...like worry about losing expensive weight-pockets instead of losing our lives!)
2) The relative comfort of a BC that *doesn't* end up weighing 30 pounds *plus* the weight of the tank. Ditto for the then-more-managable belt.
3) Much better trim because of the improved weight distribution.
You'll definitely find that you need less weight as you become more comfortable diving and stop--quite unconsciously--holding extra air in your lungs. (We're land animals and initially tend to gulp in every underwater breath as if it we're our last!) It does get better...especially if you dive as often as possible and try out every bit of gear several times over before buying *anything*.
), just so I have a little extra push downward if I need to assist another diver, or to add to someone else's weighting. When I dive with 10, I do rely somewhat on my BCD for bouyancy at depth. With 8 lbs, I am neutral and use my BCD only on the surface following a dive.
