ams511
Contributor
There has been many threads on here about instructors overweighting their students to make their job easier. When you did your checkout dives how much weight did you use?
First BCD, want integrated weights, mostly for travel
- Thread starter bvbellomo
- Start date
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There has been many threads on here about instructors overweighting their students to make their job easier. When you did your checkout dives how much weight did you use?
eelnoraa
Contributor
Just read covert xt spec, the total weight it can carry is 34lb for x-small to 42lb for x-large. You are 200lb, assuming you need large with 40lb capacity. This is way more than you need in warm water travel. I would also say is it more than enough for most cold water diving. If you need more than 40lb, there should be other things you should change to fix that, not to carry more weight.
If covert xt is what you like, I don't see the spec can block your usage.
If covert xt is what you like, I don't see the spec can block your usage.
MichaelMc
Working toward Cenotes
OP
bvbellomo
Contributor
I don't understand how that makes their life easier, and actually don't understand the need for much precision, especially in a pool. The XT provides somewhere around 40lbs of lift (again the specs don't match the size chart). So someone completely neutral with no weight and no air would be neutrally buoyant with a full BCD and a 40lbs weight belt. Obviously neither is the way to go on a real dive, but I don't see how it matters for a pool, and don't understand how being off less than 10lbs on a real dive matters.
My open water dive was in a quarry - very cold fresh water. I don't remember how much weight or what thickness wetsuit I used, but it was a thick suit with a lot more weight.
ams511
Contributor
It makes their life easier because you can stay down and not be floating up. Remember your bouyancy changes the most in the first 30 feet of water.
MichaelMc
Working toward Cenotes
Scuba Diving Tips: The Bad Habit of Overweighting
The Ups and Downs of Buoyancy Control — DAN | Divers Alert Network — Medical Dive Article
Not the best, but a start on why it matters and is dangerous for you.
The Ups and Downs of Buoyancy Control — DAN | Divers Alert Network — Medical Dive Article
Not the best, but a start on why it matters and is dangerous for you.
eelnoraa
Contributor
Oh got it. Just reread soec, lead capability is 16lb ditchable + 10 non ditchable. 26lb is still more than enough for warm water tho. For cold water, it is on the border. But I would say, if you need more than that, putting all lead on the BC isn't a good idea either. You rig can sink if you are not in it even full y inflated. Better to split between integrated and belt.
OP
bvbellomo
Contributor
This is surprising to me.
I am not sure what 'thoroughly understanding' a BCP means. Buoyancy is an extremely simple concept.
I am surprised so many accidents involved overweighted divers. Overweight a diver beyond what they can compensate for with a little more air in their BCP, and they need more effort and use up air faster. Overweight them to an extreme, and they'd get clumsy and maybe disturb the bottom. But I don't see how this is dangerous. I can see how ignorant divers are more dangerous in general and also less likely to be properly weighted, but I'd assume an equal chance they'd be overweighted vs underweighted. Maybe extremely underweighted divers can't descend and don't have accidents?
If I am 10lbs within 'perfect' and either overweighted or underweighted, I can descend by exhaling, breath normally without ascending or descending, and ascend at least 10 times faster than I would ever want to. If I am 20lbs overweight, I can still do this with extra air in my BCP and extra effort. How could anyone be more than 20lbs overweight unless they were completely new and so was their whole group?
eelnoraa
Contributor
It is dangerous, more so if you don't realize it.
To your example of 10lb off, I think 10lb is quite a lot off.
If you are 10lb light, at the end of the dive, the best case if you don't be able to hold your safety stop. Worst case you will have a uncontrollable ascent, which can be deadly.
If you are 10lb over, at the beginning of the dive, you are actually 16-18lb over depend on the tank you are using. That means you will need 16-18 lb worth of air in your BC just to be neutral. It make it so much harder to control buoyancy. Also you will need a bigger lift, more clumbay BC that you won't need otherwise.
ReadyDiverOne
Contributor
I am really perplexed by the buoyancy issues raised by the OP. First, I'm 6' and 195 lbs; I use the Covert (not the XT), and I've never had to use more than 12 lbs in warm water, and I'm usually using 10, or even 8lbs. If you need more than the 16 lbs the Covert carries (yes, it does, easily, I think I got 20 in there for a dive in La Jolla Cove where I was wearing a 7mil and a shorty), then I would suggest a weight belt, not non-ditchable weights. Second, in terms of trim, I have not had any issues with that with the Covert. Maybe it's just me, but that's what I love about the Covert: as a back inflate, it more or less automatically orients one horizontally. Third, as @eelnoraa explains, if you don't have your buoyancy dialed in to well within 10 lbs (down to a pound or three I would say), you are really asking for trouble in terms of either being way over-weighted at the beginning of the dive or super light at the end. So a "give or take 10lbs" approach seems nuts to me. Finally, I agree with whomever said the OP was overthinking this: you just can't go wrong with either of the Coverts.
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