cannon fodder
Contributor
I went out to Dutch Springs today with a new dive buddy I met. I did my first dive in a 7mm jacket over a 5mm full with 28 pounds, 2 pounds less than I did my AOW in with the same suits in May. After a short and definately over heated dive, I took of the jacket and went back in with the 18 pounds, 5 in each dumpable pocket and 4 in each trim pocket, 5mm full suit. We went down and after a while I felt like I was torquing, twisiting to one side, but I didn't lose bouyancy control. The dive continued and sudenly I was head down, the torquing stopped, but I lost trim. Still decent bouyancy. When I got up I realized that the weight pockets were twisted out, I still had them, but the two 5 pound weights were gone. I went from 18 to 8 in a single dive and just let air out of BC or lungs without thinking about it and and continued on. I did another dive with 8 pounds, and while it was tricky getting down, I managed. This was a real eye opener for me, to lose that much weight, over 50% without popping up or even noticing that much. The last dive felt a little light, but I may go to 10 or 12 pounds in the same conditions and wetsuit, but not back to 18 and I will definately start taking weight off on other dives. Any comments on this? Being grossly over weighted and not realizing it until the weights fall out?