How much negative buoyancy can you swim up with?

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Did not want to hijack a parallel thread but there seems to be a lot of difference in peoples perception of how much negative buoyancy can a diver swim up with in the event of a wing failure? Curious.

Thanks.

CS

 

[tbone1004]

I have taken up 30lbs before not including my 5mm wetsuit compression from 40ft. It wasn't particularly enjoyable, but I got it to the surface

 

[Lorenzoid]

Dunno as far as numbers, but during a discussion with an instructor about "balanced rigs" and "swimming it up," he said that a worthwhile exercise to give you a general idea of the difficulty is to try to freedive down 20 feet or so to retrieve some lead.

 

[GreggS]

My wife and I was diving in a quarry a couple of years ago when she found a 5 lb soft weight at about 35 feet. I was neutral at the time and when she handed it to me, it was like she handed me an anvil. I could have probably gotten it to the surface without adding any air to my BC, but it sure made it a lot easier when I did.

 

[2airishuman]

I've done 10 pounds as an exercise, but wasn't trying to find my maximum. Depends on your strength, fins, and how far to the surface. Of course, once you get to the surface, it's not easy to stay there.

 

[Akimbo]

I have recovered a 20 Lb anchor and about 5' of chain before BCs were available. It was in 30' and suit compression was much less in those days. I doubt that I could have managed much more weight.

 

[Chavodel8en]

I once picked up someone's lost weight belt in Kay Largo -- the dude who lost it was a BIG guy in a wetsuit, it looked like it had about 16-20 lbs. on it.

Tried swimming it up from about 40' w/o using the BC. I barely got off the bottom, finning vigorously, but I couldnt make any headway at all, and gave up (I was pretty new then and wary of inflating my BC to lift objects (which is probably a good policy anyways) -- someone else took the belt to the surface, using her BC)

 

[decompression]

lots of variables like: wetsuit, drysuit, no suit, fins, how far........

 

[Charles2]

Once upon a time, before the days of BCs, my buddy and I were in a fresh water lake and were following the bottom back to shore. When we reached about 20' of depth, I spotted this trolling motor battery on the bottom. Since we were just young, broke kids, it was obvious to me that I could salvage that battery for enough money to pay for a tank fill or two. I picked it up and tried swimming, but not for long. I then tried to walk backwards across the bottom of the lake. I finally left it on the bottom, deciding that I could probably figure out another way to pay for my tank fills. Those batteries weigh 45 to 50 pounds. I think that I could have gotten it to the surface, but there was no way I could have lasted more than a minute or two.

 

[Lorenzoid]

lots of variables like: wetsuit, drysuit, no suit, fins, how far........

I'm thinking the premise of the OP's question is that this is a diver who has lost all the buoyancy of his wing due to some major failure of it (and all wetsuit buoyancy, due to compression at significant depth) without a redundant source of buoyancy (such as a drysuit or lift bag) but who still has his fins on.