Your weight belt

[Vayu]

This is a simple question: How much weight do you use? I have heard that an industry standard is 10% of bodyweight, however my class uses MUCH less. I am a 167 lb male and wear 6 in the pool with a 3mm shorty wetsuit (2-4 without). On my certification dives last weekend I wore 10 lbs with wetsuit and in salt water.

-V

 

[DTB1981]

It sounds about right to me I am a 215 lb male and wear 14 lbs in saltwater with a 3mm full wetsuit. Most places use the 10% During certifications to keep control of the students.

 

[H2Andy]

i use enough weight to make me slightly negative to neutral on the surface with
a near-empty tank

this will ensure that i will be able to control my ascent when i am at my lightest
(the last 15 feet or so on near-empty tanks)

 

[Brian Gilpin]

This is a simple question: How much weight do you use? I have heard that an industry standard is 10% of bodyweight, however my class uses MUCH less. I am a 167 lb male and wear 6 in the pool with a 3mm shorty wetsuit (2-4 without). On my certification dives last weekend I wore 10 lbs with wetsuit and in salt water.

-V

Be glad. Who wants to carry around a lot of lead? What will you be asking next? How come my air lasts so long?

 

[Kriterian]

This is a simple question: How much weight do you use? I have heard that an industry standard is 10% of bodyweight, however my class uses MUCH less. I am a 167 lb male and wear 6 in the pool with a 3mm shorty wetsuit (2-4 without). On my certification dives last weekend I wore 10 lbs with wetsuit and in salt water.

-V

I wouldn't say it was an "industry standard", it's more like a starting point until you can do a more accurate weight test. There are too many variables to keep their from being a standard:

Muscle makes you sink and fat makes you float.
Equipment may be buoyant or negative.
Tanks can be buoyant or negative, changing with the air volume.
The type of water you're diving in can make you more buoyant or less.

Just use the ole, 500 PSI in the tank, hold a breath at the surface and see if you float at eye level.

 

[Azza]

The estimates also depend on what you are wearing.



1. Swimsuit or dive skin 0.5 - 2 kg/1 - 4 lb.

2. Thin (3 mm/1/16 inch), wet suits – shorties or jump suits - one-piece 5% of your body weight

3. Medium-thickness (5mm/3/16 inch), two-piece wet suit - 10% of your body weight

4. Cold-water (7mm/1/4 inch), two-piece wet suit with hood and boots - 10% of your body weight, plus 1.5 - 3 kg/3 - 5 lb.

5. Neoprene dry suits 10% of your body weight, plus 3 - 5 kg/7 - 10 lb.

6. Shell-style dry suits* (using light-weight, nonfoam underwear) - 10% of your body weight, plus 1.5 - 3 kg/3 - 5 lb.

7. Shell style dry suits* (using heavy-weight or foam underwear) 10% of your body weight, plus 3 - 7 kg/7 - 14 lb.

I wear a 3mm compressed neoprene drysuit with heavyish underwear, so according to my weight I should be using around 13-15 kilo's. I wear 8 kg.​

They are only rough guidlines to give you a starting point to work from, and different people with different body composition and differing experience, diving in differing equipment in differing environments will need different weight.

 

[ryanmacneil8448]

i am 215 6'2 and i use 30 to 32 lbs i dont think im fat i dont use a wet suit and with 28-30 lbs i have problems gettin down but i do have a 7 mm wetsuit if that matters

 

[String]

The 10% thing is just rubbish. Everyone has differnet masses, different suits and so on.

I wear 26lbs in full drysuit/thermals, 12lb in a 5mm semi dry and 8lbs in a 3mm full wetsuit (all steel tanks).

Not one of those comes anywhere near my 10% body weight which is roughly 175lbs.

The only way to weight yourself is with a proper in water weight check using whatever method your training agency teaches.

 

[spectrum]

The question is really just a point of trivia since exposure protection and cylinder selection, body type and fresh and salt water all play big parts in it all.

That being said...
In a 7mm full suit + 3/5 hooded vest + E7-80 + 205 pounds with 15-20 that are slowly going away (I hope) in salt water I wear a 12 pound belt, 6 ponunds of integrated/ditchable and 6 pounds od non ditchable trim. for a total of 24 pounds of actual balast. I'm pretty sure 2 pounds can come off anytime I want to chance a dive.
That looks like 11.7% at 24 and 10.7% at 22.

* If I were diving an AL80 like most of the rest of my buddies I'd need to carry about 7 pounds more.
* When I dive in fresh water I leave 6 pounds behind (the integrated ditchable)
*When I wear my full 7mm hooded shortie over my 7mm I will need to add 4-6 pounds compared to the 3/5 vest.
*And when i go dry.......

As you can see even for one diver there is a plethora of answers.

Pete

 

[cummings66]

The 10% thing is just rubbish. Everyone has differnet masses, different suits and so on.

I wear 26lbs in full drysuit/thermals, 12lb in a 5mm semi dry and 8lbs in a 3mm full wetsuit (all steel tanks).

Not one of those comes anywhere near my 10% body weight which is roughly 175lbs.

It's interesting, I also weigh 175 lbs and must have a similar body type because I use 8 lbs in a 3mm as well. As you noted each person is different and you take what you take, that's it.

My instructor tried the 10% rule with me at the start and I sunk like a rock, took off weight so I had 12 lbs and I still sunk quickly. Finally got to 8 and it was pleasant. Being overweighted made it very hard to remain horizontal, caused actual pain after diving a while. With 8 it's comfortable and everything I hoped it would be.

I was told the 10% rule applied to 7mm wetsuits, and it's close at that point.