Dropping Weight

[Shugrnutz]

I must have had an instructor that is the exception. On our pool dives, she checked us at the beginning, and end of every session. I dropped 6 pounds over the course of five classes.

 

[TMHeimer]

I must have had an instructor that is the exception. On our pool dives, she checked us at the beginning, and end of every session. I dropped 6 pounds over the course of five classes.

Interesting. Each time you dropped a little weight what did she say the reason was? Was it related to your general diving ability in the pool?

 

[Diving Dubai]

I can concur with the weight loss and experience. When I restarted diving 16 months ago with BCD, steel 12 l tank and a 5mm with hood, I had 24 lbs around my waist. A few dives later I went to a wing with SS backplate and 15l tank and was down to 11lbs ( including the SS plate) as dives progressed the weight reduced until at the end of last year with a 3mm I carried zero lead. This year ( after an initial increase in lead having not been in the water for 6 months) even in my 5mm with zero lead I'm a bit over weighted. Hence I've just got an Ali plate - ill dive it in a week and dial that one in. So two factors. 1. My trim and breathing has improved massively - the trim was quite fast to get better, obviously with smaller improvements as time went on and breathing and being relaxed got there with experience ( clearing a mask or shooting a smb no longer caused a significant depth change). This in turn has had me generally surfacing with 100 bar (1500 psi) so there is extra weight.


I like to have an empty with at the stop with 50bar rarely get that low now, however I'm reluctant to go down a tank size (apart from the fact I own 8 x15l tanks no one has every died from too much back gas. A lot of our dives have the plan to hit 25m with the option on 35m max depending on visibility, current, creatures etc on a certain site. So depending on actual conditions I can hit the 60 mins dive time, go as deep as my gas MOD permits and not dip into my reserve.

I tend not to weight check, purely because it's a guide to a starting weight and I know that already. I can tell at the start of a dive if I'm too much (or too little) and when I refer to myself as over weighted I mean by a couple of lbs which in the great scheme of things is nothing, it's just me aiming to be exact

 

[Shugrnutz]

Yes, it was ability and relaxing.

 

[Bob DBF]

So, in 9 years I've dropped 2 pounds.

You were weighted right in the first place and your suit is 9 years old. I just picked up a new farmer john and had to add 2# to make up for the added buoyancy of the new suit. Just a thought.



Bob
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“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”
― Winston Churchill

 

[AJ]

Currently I'am taking lessons for my OWD. At first I could not get under with a 10 l tank and a shorty with 2 kg of lead in the swimming pool. So I asked the instructor for more lead. He laughed and told me too breath out until I started to sink. That worked great. Now I am even starting to change the amount of air in my lungs to change depth in stead of in/deflating my BC. Being able to control your depth trough varying the amount of air is much more important than the amount of lead of BC capacity. My air consumption dropped significantly during a few lessons since I started to control my descend and ascend by controlling the amount of air in my lungs.

 

[FM1520]

Just curious. How do they define optimal buoyancy in your class? Did you actually dump air and check for neutral buoyancy at your shallowest stop?

yes, at the end of a dive at the 10' stop, the instructor would have me dump air (purging the back up second stage) until less than 500# . We did this multiple times.

 

[TMHeimer]

You were weighted right in the first place and your suit is 9 years old. I just picked up a new farmer john and had to add 2# to make up for the added buoyancy of the new suit. Just a thought.


Bob
-------------------------------
“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”
― Winston Churchill

Thanks Bob, forgot about the suit's age, which is more than 9 years being bought used. Need a safety pin to hold up the zipper now though I think I've actually lost body weight.

 

[industrious95]

As I became more experienced, I also began to change HOW I used weights.

My first dive was in the Atlantic ocean in a 7mm farmer john, and the dive shop had me wearing 30 lbs of lead blocks on my hips. No fun climbing up a boat ladder in that get up.

Now I use OMS wings and an IQ Harness with an Aluminum backplate, which took 6 pounds off of my weight belt. The weight is still there, but spread across both shoulders, which is much easier to carry and saves my hips and back some stress. Since I have both Aluminum 80 & and Steel 120 tanks, I added a 4 lb lead weight to the Aluminum tank so I don't have to change my weight harness depending upon which tank I use. But now I don't have to add extra weight to my weight harness when I switch tanks.

You need to have a certain amount of weight ditchable in case of emergency, no question there. But if you can take a few pounds off of your hips and put it in other places where it controls your trim better, you can dive more comfortably, which is as important as being weighted properly.

Tank weights seem to be very popular around here.