Here we go...

[mwhities]

Michael, did you have an empty tank for weighting purposes? Don't forget you'll ALWAYS be overweighted (purposely) at the beginning of a dive, where you have 6 pounds (or so) of gas in your tank that goes away as you breathe it down. An empty (or rather, nearly empty @ 500 psi) tank is what you should be neutral with. With next to no exposure protection and a full tank, you'll be 6 pounds negative, which is easily enough to sink you pretty quickly.

Yesterday I dove again and this time I was "fully loaded" 3mm covered literally every square inch of my body. Minus my face where the mask covered up most of that. See this.

I also had my SMB and spool (with a brass clip) hooked on my butt d-ring. I was running about 1200psi and I noticed that I had to put forth effort to try to stay down. Much like I was becoming positive. If I were to exhale fully, I'd drift down but, as soon as I took on a deep breath, I'd almost shot up to the surface. I'm thinking that I need to add some weight, plus add more (when fully suited) to get in salt water.

When the tank was full, I had no issues of staying down. Which that surprised me that once I hit 1200 or so, I started getting "floaty". Should it happen that soon? I think at empty, my tank is -2 and -7 when full. I guess that could happen...

So now I need to get some weight pouches. I think I'm still feet heavy and I can't move my tank up any further as it's already hitting the back of my head. So much that I feel I could move my head up/back further but, it doesn't allow me to. It was suggested once to put weight on my tank via the cam bands. I tried to find some on line but, I couldn't. (Late last night and tired. ) Do any of you have a site or number to someone I could call? I've seen a few sites before but, I never thought I'd need them so didn't book mark them.

After I get the weight pouches in, I'll need to head to salt water. I know if in the pool I could barely keep down, I'll definitely need to have weights then.

Thanks again all,

Michael

 

[GTaylor]

You might want to try www.divesports.com, they have a couple different types of XS Scuba weight pockets for the cam bands. I have both types and no complaints about them.

 

[TSandM]

I second the recommendation for the XS Scuba weight pouches. I have the Trident ones, and they're much bulkier (and therefore harder to pull through the channel in the wing, if you're assembling gear.

If you're diving a LP tank and you're at 1200 psi, you've used 1400 psi, which is about half the gas in your tank. That means you've lost 2.5 lbs of weight, so it's not surprising that you might feel light. If you are weighted just negative of neutral at the beginning, you'd be light by then.

Do a formal weight check with 4 or 500 psi in the tank; that will give you the information you need for fresh water diving. For salt, you need to add 2.5% of the total weight of you and the gear (and do a weight check at the end of your first salt water dive, to make sure you've got it right).

 

[do it easy]

Other options would be a v-weight that sits in the groove of the tank. I Think DSS also has a few other wieght options. As far as getting the correct amount of weight, I suggest that you barrow a weight belt. Once you figure out how much more you need, then you can decide how and where to put it.