CALI68
Contributor
7/5 (7 in the extremities and 5 in the lower arms).
Think I'm over weighted
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7/5 (7 in the extremities and 5 in the lower arms).
Hey Bertschb,
Ignore the ridicule. If you can do your safety stop with a slight drysuit squeeze and a near-empty BC, you're there.
If you can't, add more lead and tell everyone else to shut up.
In a drysuit, body length seems to be the killer, especially if you're wearing any amount of underwear. Extra 5 pounds in salt water would be about normal.
BTW the real test is whether you can function in shallow water.
Good luck & safe diving.
Ignore the ridicule. If you can do your safety stop with a slight drysuit squeeze and a near-empty BC, you're there.
If you can't, add more lead and tell everyone else to shut up.
In a drysuit, body length seems to be the killer, especially if you're wearing any amount of underwear. Extra 5 pounds in salt water would be about normal.
BTW the real test is whether you can function in shallow water.
Good luck & safe diving.
bertschb
Contributor
I should also point out that I'm not trying to add enough air to my suit to blow up like a balloon. The best I've been able to do so far is eliminate SOME of the squeeze. I'm still not as comfortable as I'd like. That might take ANOTHER 2 or 3 pounds (42lbs total for salt water).
Hey, I like your idea of body length playing a role. Since I'm 6'4", it would seem my suit would have more volume than the "average" guy? More volume means more air to eliminate squeeze.
Is anybody here brave enough to say they dive with 40+ pounds of lead????
Hey, I like your idea of body length playing a role. Since I'm 6'4", it would seem my suit would have more volume than the "average" guy? More volume means more air to eliminate squeeze.
Is anybody here brave enough to say they dive with 40+ pounds of lead????
42 pounds in the Pacific Northwest with both sets of underwear, using an AL 80.
6'5". Large lung volume. (Also a major factor.) Smallish bones.
Worst of all possible worlds, in other words.
Do try to allow yourself to be squeezed a bit, though. You get used to it.
6'5". Large lung volume. (Also a major factor.) Smallish bones.
Worst of all possible worlds, in other words.
Do try to allow yourself to be squeezed a bit, though. You get used to it.
bertschb
Contributor
Sounded good until I got to the AL80. That makes your equivelant weight closer to 37lbs (compared to my steel 80). But, I still feel a little better 
At least somebody out there is pushing 40lbs.
I do a 1 hour heavy-cardio workout 4 days a week. Maybe my lungs are larger than "normal" as well. That might help explain a little of my problem.
At least somebody out there is pushing 40lbs.I do a 1 hour heavy-cardio workout 4 days a week. Maybe my lungs are larger than "normal" as well. That might help explain a little of my problem.
I don't know, seems a little much. I'm 6'5", 215, similar build probably, diving a loaner CLx 450 while I wait for my CF200 SP with 300 wt Softwear (similar to what you're wearing I think), LP 98 and no light canister with 16 lbs of lead. Perhaps I tolerate more of a squeeze in my suit than you do.
Nemo-the-Fish
Guest
Hi,
I'm a fairly new diver, started down south last Christmas, and then again seriously in the St. Lawrence in May with full 7mm, farmer john, and 5/3 (maybe?, don't have my gear with me now) scubapro hooded vest. Started with 28lbs, but by August, with all the same gear except the farmer john (which makes a small diff but not this much, I was down to about 10 lbs with an AL 80( 5 if i had my pony), and 0 with a steel 120. From talking to other people and personal experience, as you relax in the water, and stop fighting and the surface to get down, just calmly breath out, relax etc, this should help your weight go down, because when i started I did need that 28 to go down, 38 in a dry suit. Maybe someone with more experience could pipe in, but this seemed to be a pretty big factor for me in dropping weight.
Eric
Holy cow! I wear a 4mm neoprene drysuit and an almost neutrally buoyant steel tank and with 12kg (that's about 26 lbs) I'm a shade heavy in salt water (the extra kg is nice if it's cold
). No canister light or whatever. I dove last summer with the same suit and an AL 80 but without the undergarment (only jogging stuff) and with 10kg (22lbs) I was a shade heavy. With a steel bp/wing I can dump another kg or so (yes, even accounting for the bp). I'm not sure why but I think it's because it gives me better trim. In a 5/7mm semidry (2pc) I need 4kg (8-9 lbs) in fresh water with my steel tank and about 6kg (13 lbs give or take) in salt. I think you'd have to add 2kg to that if you accounted for an AL80. with my normal tank and the steel bp I can dive wet without any weights in fresh water but it's more comfortable with about 2kg.
I'm 5'9" / 190.
Just goes to show you that you can't tell anything by looking at the numbers on paper.....
R..
bertschb once bubbled...
Sounded good until I got to the AL80. That makes your equivelant weight closer to 37lbs (compared to my steel 80). But, I still feel a little better
I do a 1 hour heavy-cardio workout 4 days a week. Maybe my lungs are larger than "normal" as well. That might help explain a little of my problem.
I'm pretty sure your lung size is more or less hard wired, but great job on the workouts. I'd like it if more divers took that seriously.
Bottom line is once you're relaxed in the water and your equipment works you need as much lead as you need. If you need more, use more. It isn't a point of pride; it's a point of physics, and that's all. No magic to it. CERTAINLY no shame to it.
scubasean
Contributor
CALI68 once bubbled...
That was funny.
Somewhere in between. I have been using 36 lbs I have been diving since I was 12 (in the tropics)...I'm 35 now but I only just recently started diving in Monterey with the cold and the thick suit.
I use nearly the same weight in a 7mm wetsuit (26lbs) as I do in a drysuit (28lbs).
My wetsuit is a henderson hyperstretch with a hooded vest, and the drysuit is a DUI TLS350 with a 300 weight fleece undersuit...
Monterey is where most of my diving takes place.
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