Newly certified, but I still have some questions...

[RJP]

The boat will give you the amount of weight you request...

Unless the boat doesn't provide weights... in which case they won't give you any.

 

[djb_1965]

At home, find a good dive shop to work with. They will help you, and guide you through set up and using your gear (especially if you purchase through them). If you can, dive locally to get some experience, and confidence, as stated, use your logbook, keep track of everything for future reference. When going on dive travel, contact the operator before you go if you can. Visit with them, tell them your concerns, and ask questions. They should be able to get you into the water before a boat trip, or have someone assist you on your first dive or two. Tell them your experience and they will pair you with someone of close ability if they can. Stick with the DM on dives for awhile until you are comfortable, that is what they are there for. Have fun, and enjoy the underwater world!

 

[boulderjohn]

A whole lot of factors go into determining how much weight you need, including the kind of tanks you will be diving, the BCD you will be using, and the kind of thermal protection you will need. In almost all cases, a boat will provide your weight, and a DM will ask you what you want. Despite having a lot more experience than you, I have several times over the past years responded to the DM's request for weight needs by saying, "I'm not totally sure because I have never dived this combination." I then gave a quick explanation of my past needs and what made this situation different. Most DMs can give a good estimate with that information because they have a lot of experience giving people weight.

Not all can do that, though. Just a few weeks ago I was getting my gear together and noted that the shop had two different models of aluminum tanks. I told the people giving out gear that I thought one of them was different from the other, and the guy looked at me like I was crazy. No way, he insisted. Thank goodness for smart phones. I pulled up a specification chart and showed him that one model was 4 pounds more buoyant than the other, meaning the diver would need 4 more pounds when using that model tank than the other model tank.

The main point of my post is that there is no shame in discussing your weighting needs with the DM and getting advice. They do that with someone nearly every day. The only real problem with it is that they do have a tendency to give you a little more weight than you need because they don't want you bobbing at the surface in search of more weight after you hit the water.

 

[Lorenzoid]

1) When I go to rent, do they ask me what kind of weight distribution to provide???

2) When I get my own BC, how do I go about getting weights and making sure they're distributed properly? Does the DM help with that? Do I have to rent a guide to go with me? Do I have to buy a number of each weight to bring along? How do I go about figuring out if I want to use a weight belt?

Dive ops provide lead weights, either in the form of a weight belt or in the form of individual weights if you have a BC that uses integrated weights. Experienced divers know how much lead they need, and when the dive op asks how much lead they need, the experienced diver replies "__ lbs." However, on your first dive trip, simply tell them you're newly certified and still trying to figure out your optimal weighting. Everyone was once a newly certified diver. Dive ops get this kind of question all the time. They are happy to help new divers get situated. They'd rather have a new diver ask for help than have a new diver pretend he knows everything and end up with the wrong amount of weight or have other problems. The bottom line: ask for help.

3) Until I get a dive computer, any recommendations for an inexpensive dive watch?

What did you use in your OW class? If you used a Timex Ironman and dive tables to plan your dives, you could continue doing that for a while. However, since it's so rare to see anyone without a computer these days, my recommendation is to rent one from the dive op until you can buy your own. But really, you can pick up a perfectly usable computer for $300 or so. It should be one of your first purchases.

4) I know I can't use this with the water temps I have local right now, but is there any other reason why I couldn't dive in a 3/4 surfing wetsuit?

A wetsuit is a wetsuit. If you feel it keeps you warm, it's fine.

5) Does anyone dive alone when going on a boat?

Search for some of the threads on SB where the buddy system has been discussed in the context of boats, and you'll get some good insights into what to look out for. Many of us would NOT dive without being buddied up and having discussed the plan with our buddy. The wrinkle in the buddy system is that on some dive boats the divemaster will encourage everyone to dive as a group, with buddy pairs (or trios) either not assigned at all or loosely assigned. Many of us object to that sort of loose approach. I want to know who my buddy is and discuss with the person what we expect of each other on the dive. By the way, you will rarely be the only person who boards the boat without a buddy. If you don't have a buddy, then make sure the divemaster knows that and helps you buddy up with someone. Again, there are many old threads on SB discussing how to deal with the buddy system and divemasters on a boat--see what Google turns up.

 

[kafkaland]

A wetsuit is a wetsuit. If you feel it keeps you warm, it's fine.

One quick comment on using surfing wet suits for diving, as I went through this: surfing wet suits are not optimized with respect to compressibility, or lack thereof. When I used my surfing 3/2 for the first time for diving, it was very floaty, and it lost almost six pounds of lift as I decended just ten feet. After a few dives the neoprene was permanently compressed an I didn't have the buoyancy swings any more, but I suspect I also lost a bit of insulation. Scuba wet suits also have a bit of that, but I don't think its quite as extreme as what I experienced with the surfing suit.

 

[TSandM]

Just a quick comment . . . not all charters provide weights. The ones here in Puget Sound carry a few weights, in case someone forgets theirs or loses one. The boats in SoCal do the same, but in both places, the diver is expected to arrive with his own weights.

 

[boulderjohn]

Just a quick comment . . . not all charters provide weights. The ones here in Puget Sound carry a few weights, in case someone forgets theirs or loses one. The boats in SoCal do the same, but in both places, the diver is expected to arrive with his own weights.

That shows how varied dive practices are around the world, and not knowing what to expect because of it can be a problem, especially for newer divers. I have dived in a lot of places, and I have been on exactly one boat on one day of diving that did not provide weights. Fortunately, I had advance warning so that I did not expect them to be like the other 99% of my dive boat experiences.

That is a problem with getting advice on places like ScubaBoard. A lot of the people will tell you what diving is like in the real world, when in fact they are only telling you what it is like in the corner of that real world in which they have experience. A common example is the role of the dive master. I have had students tell me that their experienced diving friends have told them that they don't need to remember any of the dive planning instruction in their class because "in the real world," the dive master does that and you just follow. Well, a lot of divers in a lot of places do that kind of diving exclusively. In other cases, there are divers with hundreds of dives who have probably never seen a divemaster in the water. In those locations, you had better be ready to plan your own dive.

 

[TMHeimer]

I think there is a difference in general (from what I read) between tropical vacation ops and those in the U.S. (& Canada). My only tropical experience was in Panama and I had my own weights anyway. I have been on one charter in Canada and quite a few in the U.S. and no one has asked me if I needed weights--I guess it is assumed you have your own?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Just a quick comment . . . not all charters provide weights. The ones here in Puget Sound carry a few weights, in case someone forgets theirs or loses one. The boats in SoCal do the same, but in both places, the diver is expected to arrive with his own weights.

I think it depends on the dive op. When I dived in San Diego, the dive op provided weights and offered other gear for rent. Catalina, too. The key here is to ask the dive op in advance, since some (in SoCal, maybe even the majority) do not provide weights. I have not encountered a dive op anywhere in the world that did not provide weights, but my diving is almost exclusively in warm-water destinations or otherwise places where the majority of divers are visitors as opposed to locals.

 

[Nasser]

You will have to do a buoyancy check... and it's worth noting that you will have to do that whenever you change something significant in your rig, use different diving cylinders, dive in a different environment, have not been doing for a while and maybe your body composition has changed a little (gained or lost weight) etc.

What I usually do, and what some centers may even require is a checkout dive. They may want to see how good your buoyancy control is and your general comfort and skill level of diving. If they don't require it ... ask for it - they should be able to set that up for you. It will give you the opportunity to fine tune your weighting, tweak your rig, and get familiar with the diving environment you're in. It will also allow you to be a little more confident and enjoy the subsequent dives a little more.