Snorkel vest/BC when skin diving?

If I understand correctly, wearing a 7mm suit, you should be completely buoyant. If this is correct, why would you wear a BC or snorkel vest when just snorkeling?

Thanks.

liability for whatever boat you are going out on I would guess, insurance stuff

Well, if you wanted to submerge, you would need to add weight. Once you got yourself balanced, you would need enough BC to counteract the loss of buoyancy in the wetsuit at depth. And you need enough buoyancy to lift your head out of the water when you are on the surface. Perhaps 10# or so.

If you don't want to submerge and you aren't on a charter where a BC is required, go fot it! You are at least 20# positive and probably closer to 30#.

Richard

in 35 years of snorkeling I never wore anything but mask, fins, snorkel & a bathing suit.

Wearing a BC or vest when snorkelling or freediving????
I'm sorry, I've never heard of this. There would be no reason to wear any floatation device when snorkelling with a 7 mil suit. It's all in your weighting. Freedivers know to weight themselves light so they float on the surface and break neutral when they get down to about 10 -15 feet, at least locally here. Any type of BC or vest would just add drag and be a nuissance.
Besides, if someone thought they needed it to offset getting heavy, think about where the air would come from to inflate it, from your lungs? If you orally inflated it at depth freediving then you've just traded one for the other, air out of your lungs and into the bag. You've gained nothing.

I weigh about 170lbs. How much weight would I need to be able to float on the surface with only the 7mm suit and also be able to dive down 10-20 ft if I wanted?

Thanks.

schoolba:

I weigh about 170lbs. How much weight would I need to be able to float on the surface with only the 7mm suit and also be able to dive down 10-20 ft if I wanted?

Thanks.

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Easier done than said.

schoolba:

I weigh about 170lbs. How much weight would I need to be able to float on the surface with only the 7mm suit and also be able to dive down 10-20 ft if I wanted?

Thanks.

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Depends on if it's a one peice w/ attached hood or hooded vest, or a two piece step in farmer john, or two piece beaver tail either w/ hooded vest or attached hood.
The one piece w/ attached hood will require the least amount of weight.
The two piece step in will require the most because it will generally mean extra neoprene on the upper thigh plus a hooded vest. The beaver tail will be in the middle because the thigh neoprene is eliminated but it also depends on wether the beaver tail has an attached hood or needs a hooded vest.

If it's a one piece attached hood chest zip in new condition start with 12 to 14 lbs and add in small increments if you need to. If it's the two piece step in with hooded vest start with 18 to 20 and add if you need to. If it's any of the beaver tail combos then somewhere in the middle. Do a shore test somewhere and have some extra weight with you in small increments. Trial and error is the only way you're going to get it right. You want it so you have to fight your way down for the first 10 to 15 feet or so. Bring some sort of depth guage like an analog wrist mount one. When you get down to 15 feet stop kicking and see if you sink or float back up or sit still. Weighting for freediving also depends on the depth you plan to average, but never weight yourself so heavy that you have to fight just to stay on the surface. You should be able to float around comfortably and snorkel.

Good luck and let us know.

captain:

Easier done than said.

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Classic!

And true.

Best wishes.

Edit: But ZKY made a valiant effort above. To the OP: Like ZKY said, it's just trial and error. Don't over-weight.