Question on weighting

I'm a diver who is doing freediving for spearfishing (brand new to it). I'm having trouble finding the right weight for freediving. I'm wearing a 7mm suit, hood, boots, and gloves. What's a good starting point 10% of body weight?

wow... well ...

wouldn't you want as much weight on you as you can handle on the way up, so you can sink quickly?

that's just a gut response, i don't freedive

Nah, there's some special sexy weight I need to get to that's a mix of heavy enough to keep me underwater but light enough to keep me on the surface. Just seeing if anyone had any good starting points.

I'm guessing it varies as much as weighting for scuba. Neutral bouyancy on the surface is probably ideal. Just do a weight check same as with scuba. For me, 10% of body weight would be a little much, but I don't have much fat.

Use enough weight to make you neutral at 10 meters.

freediver:

Use enough weight to make you neutral at 10 meters.

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Bingo! Be neutral at approximately 30 ft. That way if you experience shallow water black out, you'll ascend.

Walter:

Bingo! Be neutral at approximately 30 ft. That way if you experience shallow water black out, you'll ascend.

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It is not that simple, it depends on how deep you are spearfishing. Many hunters are willing to over weight a little to allow them to lay on the bottom motionless. I suspect that you will be crawling on the bottom and looking into holes which means you want to be negative on the hunt and might well be diving at less than 30 feet.

You will have to experiment to find the correct weighting, but it is safer to be a little too light than too heavy. I suspect that somewhere between 14 and 22 lbs might be correct, but realize that being even 2-3 lbs too heavy can make the diving much harder and more unsafe.

When diving with a full 7mm suit, you will undergo a lot of suit (and the normal chest) compression and to wear only enough lead to be neutral at 30 feet would make hunting in 10-15 feet impractical in my expereince.

I normally weight myself to be neutral at 30 feet, but that is for diving with a thinner suit and I might be hunting at 50 + feet. The deeper you dive, the less lead you are going to wear.

For an intial attempt, you could also weight yourself so that you barely float after exhaling completely at the surface.

As you have admitted to being a new diver, my only suggestion is that you make safety your prevailing directive. But please keep in mind that spearfishing is far more dangerous than freediving itself. Good luck in your new venture!

As long as the subject is open... what about freediving without a wetsuit? I imagine a couple pounds would do the trick, but then again I have no idea. thanks

2ndjetty:

As long as the subject is open... what about freediving without a wetsuit? I imagine a couple pounds would do the trick, but then again I have no idea. thanks

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Totally dependant on body makeup... soft bodies may need lead.. solid bodies may need a life jacket.