fresh water lead

KelpCoasters · Aug 30, 2005

Hey all. I'm a 6'1", 230lb guy planning on doing some lake diving. Anybody got suggestions for how much weight I should wear in fresh water with a full 3mil, 8mil around the torso?

While we're at it, my girlfriend is 5'8", 135lb. How about her?

Thanks for any help...

ScubaSarus · Aug 31, 2005

I'm 140' and I drop about 4 lbs going from salt to fresh wearing a 7mm suit. I'de say try dropping 4 lbs and have 2 more lbs on stanby incase you need add back. Do you have trim pockets in the BC were they can be easily added ?

I hope you are properly weighted in salt water to do these estimates successfuly.

Canadian_Diver · Aug 31, 2005

KelpCoasters:
Hey all. I'm a 6'1", 230lb guy planning on doing some lake diving. Anybody got suggestions for how much weight I should wear in fresh water with a full 3mil, 8mil around the torso?

While we're at it, my girlfriend is 5'8", 135lb. How about her?

Thanks for any help...

This should have been covered in your OW course. What did you wear in the pool during your course?

KelpCoasters · Aug 31, 2005

ScubaSarus:
I'm 140' and I drop about 4 lbs going from salt to fresh wearing a 7mm suit. I'de say try dropping 4 lbs and have 2 more lbs on stanby incase you need add back. Do you have trim pockets in the BC were they can be easily added ?

I hope you are properly weighted in salt water to do these estimates successfuly.

Thanks Scubasarus. I appreciate the advice and I'll try that configuration out with some buoyancy tests.

KelpCoasters · Aug 31, 2005

Canadian_Diver:
This should have been covered in your OW course. What did you wear in the pool during your course?

Oh, I'm sure it was covered. To be honest I don't remember; do you? Perhaps you could enlighten me. If I remember correctly, it was an OPEN WATER course....

I only dive in cold water so the weight difference between 12mil of neoprene vs. the 3mil in a pool is significant.

I'm looking for a general rule... like a percentage of my body weight maybe.

Thanks anyhow.

abitton · Aug 31, 2005

I've heard 10% BW +- 5#

You really should test it out.

I wear a full 7 mm with a 7 mm tunic, am 6 ft 245 lbs, and use 24 pounds...

Hope this helps.

KelpCoasters:
I'm looking for a general rule... like a percentage of my body weight maybe.

KelpCoasters · Aug 31, 2005

abitton:
I've heard 10% BW +- 5#

You really should test it out.

I wear a full 7 mm with a 7 mm tunic, am 6 ft 245 lbs, and use 24 pounds...

Hope this helps.

Thank you, that is helpful. Sounds like I'm gonna have to wear somewhere in the ballpark of 10% of my BW since I have to account for the change to fresh water and less neoprene (about 50% of what I wear in the ocean).

Thanks again.

Tanked Monkey · Aug 31, 2005

I'm not sure if this helps, but I wear the exact same weight when going from a 3mm in salt water to a 7mm in fresh water. I'm a bit smaller than you, tho, at 5'9" 165lbs

Example:
salt water wearing a 3mm wetsuit: 10lbs of lead
fresh water wearing a 7mm wetsuit and full hood/gloves: 10 lbs of lead

Mike

treedawg · Aug 31, 2005

I'm 6'4" 225 pounds. I dove the quarries in Alabama for my OW cert. I was wearing a 5mm wetsuit. I used 16 lbs of lead. Earlier in this summer in Ft Lauderdale I didn't wear any exposure protection and used 16lbs of lead.

KelpCoasters · Aug 31, 2005

Thank you everyone for the advice and examples from personal experience. They are all helpful and I do appreciate it.

fresh water lead

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