cold water weighting

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Heffey

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Location
Toronto, Canada
# of dives
25 - 49
I am in the middle of preparation for my first cold water dive this weekend. My LDS suggested that since my BC is weight integrated that I use both my weight belt and my BC weights to spread out the load a bit.
How many of you cold water divers do this? Anyone have any opposing views?
 
It depends on total weight. Is this a drysuit dive, 5 mm wet, 5mm wet with a core warmer...?
If you're just diving the St Lawrence down around Prescott, wetsuit is fine now.

If you exceed your BC's lift capacity due to the combined weight of tank plus weights, it could put you to the point where the unit will self-dump, sink, if you took the BCD off.

First couple of times, if it's a drysuit and you're just doing your certs in it, can be pretty horrendous, weight wise. There's a steep (rapid) learning curve, dropping weight as your comfort level builds, you get your buoyancy in better shape. I actually used 39 lb (8 on a belt, 3 lb ankle weights, 4 pound tank weight, 24 pounds in BC pouches) first couple of drysuit OW dives, dropped to 32 on my last OW/DS cert dive, then 28, then 24.

At open water dive 12 I switched to wetsuit (warmer water). My pool dives in a wetsuit had been 20 pounds, then 18 for the last one. Now I'm down to 12 pounds in a full 5mm wetsuit, comfortable. Practice, getting wet, really helps.


Good luck!
 
markfm:
It depends on total weight. Is this a drysuit dive, 5 mm wet, 5mm wet with a core warmer...?
If you're just diving the St Lawrence down around Prescott, wetsuit is fine now.
I am going to be using 7mm wetsuit (2pc farmer john & jacket) and diving in the Kingston, ON area.

markfm:
If you exceed your BC's lift capacity due to the combined weight of tank plus weights, it could put you to the point where the unit will self-dump, sink, if you took the BCD off.
Interesting point about the self dump thing. My BC has 36 lbs of lift so I guess that should not be an issue.
Thanks
 
There's a couple of points worth considering here.

One is the weight capacity of the bc. Many seem designed for tropical use and just don't hold very much in the pouches. This may force you to put some weight some place else...which is ok because of the other consideration...

Which is that you don't need to have all your weight ditchable especially all in one place. In recreational gear you really shouldn't ever have to dump weight at depth if you're correctly weighted and on the surface you shouldn't have to dump much of it to make you comfortable buoyant. I've recovered an awful lot of weight pouches from the bottom and found more than a few divers stuck on the surface with all their weights on the bottom. Weights comming off unintentionally is about as risky and far more common than divers not being able to get rid of them. Over stuffed weight pouches is just asking for it to happen.

A third problem is that with all the weights at the waist and a compressed (not very buoyant suit) at depth a diver can be left very foot heavy resulting in the terrible head up foot down rototiller trim we see all too often.

With my two piece 7 mil and stainless back plate and an al 80 cu ft tank I wear 4 pounds on a belt and 4 pounds threaded onto one of my cam bands. That's in fresh water. Different wet suits can be more or less buoyant and your own body type can of course change things a bit.
 
It quickly gets BC-dependent. I use an Aeris Reefrider. It has two tank pouches that each hold up to 5 lb, then the two ditchable pockets, then I use a tank weight...

Mike's 8 lb might be a tough target for another newbie (like me). Given my numbers, I expect I'd be 16 pounds in a full 7 mm right now, and that's after having shed a bunch of lb over the course of my first dozen post-cert dives. I'm content to see if I can drop a few pounds every couple of times in. No rush, it's not a race, and at least in my case my general comfort/form really seems to just get better with practice.
 
Heffey:
I am going to be using 7mm wetsuit (2pc farmer john & jacket) and diving in the Kingston, ON area.


Interesting point about the self dump thing. My BC has 36 lbs of lift so I guess that should not be an issue.
Thanks

Why? you still have dumpable withs in the integrated BCD

I weight 195 and 6'2", I ware a 6.5 mil 2xl farmer jon with hood, gloves and boots.

I need 26 lbs of lead, 3 in each upper trim and 1 in each lower trim (non dumpable), and 9 in each dumpable pocket. You ride better in the water and trim easier.

With a weight belt and you get deeper it is alway lossening and sliding from side to side.


Wouldn't use won with neoprene.
 
markfm:
Mike's 8 lb might be a tough target for another newbie (like me). Given my numbers, I expect I'd be 16 pounds in a full 7 mm right now, and that's after having shed a bunch of lb over the course of my first dozen post-cert dives. I'm content to see if I can drop a few pounds every couple of times in. No rush, it's not a race, and at least in my case my general comfort/form really seems to just get better with practice.

It's not really 8 pounds. The stainless back plate is 6 ponds neg and my wing has no inherant buoyancy like many bc's do. That brings it to 14. With one of these floaty bc's I'd need a couple more. I might also need a couple more with a different or newer wet suit. The weight is there but I don't have it all stacked on my waist.

The 4 pounds that is on the belt and ditchable though is more than enough to make me comfortably buoyanct at the surface if I need to dump and little enough that if I were to loose it at depth things won't get out of control.
 
MikeFerrara:
A third problem is that with all the weights at the waist and a compressed (not very buoyant suit) at depth a diver can be left very foot heavy resulting in the terrible head up foot down rototiller trim we see all too often.

A question about the trim here, other than the trim pockets how can the weights be placed higher than waist level? I have put all of my weights into the integrated BCD and I think it has moved it up higher than a weight belt but I would like to get them even higher up as my feet are still a little "heavy".
 
TorontoDive:
A question about the trim here, other than the trim pockets how can the weights be placed higher than waist level? I have put all of my weights into the integrated BCD and I think it has moved it up higher than a weight belt but I would like to get them even higher up as my feet are still a little "heavy".

In the configuration I described I thread 4 pounds (2-2pounders) onto one of my cam bands. The backplate also places 6 pounds right up next to the wing/bc. In cold water and heavy exposure protection a steel tank can also make far more sense than an aluminum tank. Floaty tanks, buoyanct bc's, heavy wet/dry suits and lots of weight on the waist make for foot heavy divers.
 
I think this is as good a thread as any to ask....

What about weight placement on the belt? I will have thirty pounds on my belt and another ten in my bc. Does it matter how the weights are spaced on the belt? Or as long as the weights are "balanced on both sides, it doesn't matter?

This is my cold water dive with a 6.5mil farmer john. I had forty pounds on in the pool while trying to get weighting for all the rubber. Seems alot to me as well, but that's what it took to keep me on the bottom! And that didn't include hood and gloves.

Thanks guys! Didn't mean to jack the thread....

Jack
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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