Weights for new wetsuit

I have been diving with a 5mm one piece wetsuit using between 10-12Lbs. I have a new 6.5 farmer john, how much lead should I add to get in the ballpark. I understand fine tuning is necessary, just want to have an idea before I hit the water.
Thanks in advance,
Doc

A lot of that depends on how worn out the 5 mil was and how you were weighted (heavy or light).
If you keep all your other gear the same and you're just changing the suit and your weighting was right, I'd go with 8 to 10 Lbs. to start with and see how that works.

For me, I like to fine tune my weights so that I can hold a 15 foot stop at the end of a dive with an almost empty tank and no air in my BC and control my buoyuancy spot on with breathing alone.
That means that about every last ounce of excess weight has been trimmed off and that's about as good as it gets.

8 lbs should be close. I would probably add 10 lbs thinking it is better to be a little heavy than too light. It depends a lot on how old and crushed the 5 mm suit is too.

What size Farmer John? I wear an XL and use 22# with a steel tank in fresh water. I maybe 2# over but thats all.
Bouyancy in the upper 30 to 40 ft is a pain when all that neoprene compresses and uncompresses.

ZKY:

A lot of that depends on how worn out the 5 mil was and how you were weighted (heavy or light).
If you keep all your other gear the same and you're just changing the suit and your weighting was right, I'd go with 8 to 10 Lbs. to start with and see how that works.

For me, I like to fine tune my weights so that I can hold a 15 foot stop at the end of a dive with an almost empty tank and no air in my BC and control my buoyuancy spot on with breathing alone.
That means that about every last ounce of excess weight has been trimmed off and that's about as good as it gets.

Click to expand...

Thats exactly what I was looking for!! Thanks guys!
Doc

Diving a lbs or 2 heavy is never an issue. I think its better to be a couple lbs heavy than light.

I'd throw on 10lbs and see where you stand at the end of the dive. Its one reason I dislike farmer john wetsuits, very cumbersome and require a bunch of weight to sink that 12mm+ of neoprene.

With my 7mm farmer john I require 18lbs to get remain neutral at 15ft when I'm skin diving.

I use 20lbs with Al80's 63's, & 50's
I use 16lbs with Steel 72's & 80's

There is no one single answer that is right when it comes to how much weight for diving wet for each individual, there are way too many variables.
For instance, I am pretty tall and big so there will be more square inches of neoprene that has to be sunk than somebody weighing 50lbs less than me who just happens to be wearing the same style suit made out of the same material.
So people who give weight numbers of their belts is kind of useless because we don't know what style suit, what material, how worn out the suit is already, body composition of the diver, size of the diver, wether they are weighted light or heavy, etc.

We can take a shot in the dark and maybe suggest a starting point, but that's why I say the only true way to find out the exact weighting for you would be to do the 15 foot stop with near empty tank and empty BC method. From there you will know what the minimum required weight is and if you want to add a pound or two to be a tad heavy fine, or maybe some people would like to go even lighter so they start to drift up at 20 feet with no air in BC, that's fine to. Some vintage/minimalist divers will do this that don't use BC's and they will carry around rocks at the end of the dive to stay down so they can integrate a stop.

But at least you will know where your weighting needs to be and you can go from there.