Amberjack:
Farmer john/jacket for me too. As for redistributing the weight a bit more, that'll be my priority when I buy my own BC, but I'm spacing out the gear purchases, and for the time being, I'm stuck with rental gear, which in this neck of the woods, seems to mean belts. Big, heavy belts.
I did do a weight check when I'd breathed the tank down to 500 psi and 24 lbs kept me floating at eye level with a full breath and empty BC. It just seemed a LOT so I thought (hoped?) I must have messed up somehow. But I guess not. Sigh. But thanks all for the reassurance!
Since I never had the floating feet with full foot fins (say that five times fast) I guess it's the boots that do it. Anything to be done about that other than weights?
Hello fellow Ontario/cold water diver
Thick wet suits (Or dry suits) and the accompanying weight that goes along with it is a fact of life around here unfortunately.
To attack the floaty feet issues, yes it's because of your boots. I would suggest a different fin. The norm around here are generally jet fins and/or Turtles. They are negatively buoyant and should elliminate the requirement for ankle weights. The bonus is they are also a great fin and I would suspect you'd like how they move you through the water, most likely better than what you have now.
As for the redistribution etc of weight, rental gear etc, that's a bit tougher to deal with maninly because odds are pretty good your rental jacket may be different from day to day.
I would find it hard to do anything else but suggest you buy one of your own as soon as financially possible. It will probably save you a ton of grief in the long run.
I would further suggest you buy a backplate and wing combo vs. a jacket style BCD.
Several reasons really, but a big selling feature for single tank 7mm wet/suit and/or drysuit divers (with ALU80's to boot) is the ability to have a weighted stainless steel backplate, with that weight more centrally located (read ideally positioned) and thusly allows you to remove some of that lead around your hips. It also separates the weighting in the unlikely event that you have to dump your belt, you at least have some non-ditchable weight on you with the hope here that you'd not get into a completely out of control runaway ascent.
The trick is to have a balance of enough ditchable weight, evenly trimmed, and to have it comfortable. I find that most easily done with a BP/Wing.
My wife looks to be your size, and she wears about the same weight as yourself, and she's in a drysuit.
Hope this brief discussion helped. It's not complete, but I think it'll give you a bit to chew on for now.
PM's are always turned on.
Steve R.