Drysuit weighting advice

[mddolson]

Bob,
I`m 6 ft , 250 lbs, in a 7 mm farmer John WS I wear 18 lbs. (aluminum 80, aluminum BP& wing)
In my viking HD (similar thickness to your 1.5 mm compressed neoprene, I wear 25 lbs = 7 lbs added.
I`m wearing Bare polar extreme underwear in my drysuit.
As previously noted you should start your dive about 5-6 lbs over weight, to account the loss of air mass from the tank throug out the dive.

regards

Mike Dolson

 

[Dhboner]

Bob,
I`m 6 ft , 250 lbs, in a 7 mm farmer John WS I wear 18 lbs. (aluminum 80, aluminum BP& wing)
In my viking HD (similar thickness to your 1.5 mm compressed neoprene, I wear 25 lbs = 7 lbs added.
I`m wearing Bare polar extreme underwear in my drysuit.
As previously noted you should start your dive about 5-6 lbs over weight, to account the loss of air mass from the tank throug out the dive.

regards

Mike Dolson

Thanks Mike...that gives me a great starting point. I'm doing a buoyancy check dive on Sunday so I'll let you know how it works out.

Bob

 

[JohnE]

I've found that when I dive with the bare minimum weight it eventually causes water to seep in through my wrist seals. I think this is due to having the suit shrink wrapped while spending time in the shallows. If I add just 4 lbs I have more warmth and dryness. This has happened on multiple suits (shell and crushed neo).

 

[Zesty]

Ineresting post - I have been diving since June, and out of my 25 dives now, 19 have been in DS. I started out with 28 lbs and AL80's and am now at 24 lbs with steel 100's. I did the trial method to get to these weights. In FW, I barely sink, while my buddies drop like rocks. Based on what I have read, and my buddies actions, i will probably add a couple of pounds. I am getting ready to dive dry with a pony (19 lbs with air), and am wondering if anyone removes weight when they dive "ponied". Would seem like the right thing to do, right up to the point where you had to give someone your pony and suddenly were 19 lbs too light?!

 

[USCScubaboy]

Would seem like the right thing to do, right up to the point where you had to give someone your pony and suddenly were 19 lbs too light?!

Are you sure that's not the dry weight you're referring to? When in water, you would need to refer to the buoyancy of the bottle to determine how much "weight" you would be losing.

 

[DaMaDo]

My personal issue with weighting came more from placement than quantity. I bought an 11 pound v-weight bar that goes between my doubles and I was extremely head heavy. Even with my feet down and squeezed, I experienced a huge forward rolling moment at a 45 degree angle from horizontal. I tried moving my tank bands, backplate, etc but I eventually cut the lead bar and put it on upside down on the bottom bolt so that it's flush with the tank bottoms and that fixed it. It's either that or hip weights.

To weight a DS I'd recommend bringing weights that can be placed in different locations.

 

[sambolino44]

I worked out my weight a long time ago, and hardly think about it anymore, even though it goes in every entry in my log book. I have a High Tide SE neoprene drysuit, a DUI double layer fleece undergarment, dry gloves, a DSS steel backplate with 8-lb weight plates, a Worthington X7-100 steel cylinder ( -2.5 lbs empty with valve), 4 lbs on my ankles, and 14 lbs on my weight belt. I'm 5'9" - 160 lbs.

One thing that's kind of a pita to do, but really the best way to do it, is to check your weight at the END of the dive, with about 500 psi in your tank. See if you can comfortably rest at 15' for your safety stop. At the end, your tank is "empty", and you're as cold as you're going to be. The point is, a big factor is how much air is in your suit; you can squeeze the hell out of yourself to stay down, but if that makes you too cold, then maybe you need to add weight so you can have a comfortable amount of air in the suit for the safety stop.

This also gives you a bit of safety factor, in that if for some reason you have a problem staying down, you have a little "extra" air (the amount that keeps you comfortable) that you can exhaust if you have to.

 

[sambolino44]

My personal issue with weighting came more from placement than quantity. I bought an 11 pound v-weight bar that goes between my doubles and I was extremely head heavy. Even with my feet down and squeezed, I experienced a huge forward rolling moment at a 45 degree angle from horizontal. I tried moving my tank bands, backplate, etc but I eventually cut the lead bar and put it on upside down on the bottom bolt so that it's flush with the tank bottoms and that fixed it. It's either that or hip weights.

To weight a DS I'd recommend bringing weights that can be placed in different locations.

Oh, yeah! Placement is critical, and another thing that I worked out so long ago I don't really think about it. But how high I attach my cylinder to my BP/W makes a difference. Also my wing has two places it can attach to the plate. I can skootch my weight belt up or down an inch or two. And I have ankle weights. All of these factors affect my trim, thus comfort, thus air consumption and enjoyment.

The point is, I only worked these things out by fine-tuning over the course of many dives.

 

[aquaregia]

I had a really hard time with drysuit weight because I couldn't figure out how squeezed I wanted to be. However, too light was exactly as fdog promises.

Wetsuit weighting was trivial by comparison.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

I am getting ready to dive dry with a pony (19 lbs with air), and am wondering if anyone removes weight when they dive "ponied". Would seem like the right thing to do, right up to the point where you had to give someone your pony and suddenly were 19 lbs too light?!

I don't dive dry (yet), but I'm perusing this thread because I might someday. On the pony weighting: it should be the same as for "wet" diving, right? If it's aluminum the charts show it should change buoyancy by just a bit over 1# from full to empty (and is only just a bit over a pound negative when full with valve), so it seems like it should be a relatively minor consideration. I guess if you were to hand it off there would be the potential loss of another pound or so for the reg and SPG...

Here is a chart that shows the buoyancy change of aluminum 19's (19 cubic foot capacity)