diving weight..

Did my first cold water dive this last Sunday with fellow A-Hulls..

Question for you pros.. How do I properly determine how much weight i need to have on?

I struggled to get down below the water line...? i think i had roughly 24 pounds on.....

That seems like a lot!  Can't imagine that you'd need more than that.

Most of it is dependent on an assortment of factors - body composition, thickness of suit, & type of suit.


Getting below water line is more about technique.  Lifting your leg into the air effectively to get downward momentum.  If you're doing it wrong, you'll end up kicking your fins out of water like a diver duck.   

Fuzz,

I had a 7mm one piece on...

for sure my technique was poor... Il also had a problem with the weight belt slipping, getting loose and sliding to the front of my body...

Not sure if this helps, but im about 6'2" and 224-228

using the technique you mentioned, do both legs pop out of the water when you fold over?

They taught us in SCUBA diving school that when you're holding your breath in water and your mouth at water line then you're properly weighted.  Do this in a swimming pool and you'll be safe in salt water.

For reference sake, the old guesstimate for shallow diving in 7mm suits was 10% of your body weight.



The "proper" technique is to lift just one leg.  The other leg is just slightly below water surface.  Instead of lifting your leg up in straight, draw your driving leg in & bend your knee... then extend it upwards.  You can use your arm(s) for an additional push while at surface.

Not a lot of videos in my quick search, but this one does a decent job of showing it:

Sailfish, thanks for the input, ill try that next time...

Yeah, Fuzz, my technique was nothing even close to that.... i got some work to do!..

Ill start with the 10% rule too..

Brent, I took a Freedive course at Wallin's in Redwood City. We spent quite a bit of time learning the technique for initiating a dive. Towards the end of the course everyone was able to dive to the bottom of the pool wearing 5/7mm and without the weight belt. The video Fuzz provided seems pretty much the way we were taught in the class, but I would still recommend some sort of Freediving course.

ernest

ernest,

Thanks, i will for sure look into that!!!

I am 5' 11" 250 and use 26 pounds.  7 mil one piece suit but I generally float cuz of my blubber content.  Once in the water I cinch down the belt to keep it from sliding around.  I too am a newb buy took a class in santa cruz.  That technique really does work well.

Eugene

I have messed around adjusting my weightbelt weight a lot. I have the soft weights so it is pretty easy to do.
I weighed my weightbelt 5 minutes ago. It's still a little wet from yesterdays dive, but not enough to make THAT much difference.
I wear a 2 piece 7mm FJ Henderson Gold Core. I am a little on the positive side of buoyancy at the surface but once I hit the 10 foot mark I have a pretty good rate of descent.
I am 5'11'' and weigh 180 lbs.
I can't believe my belt weighed in at 29.5 lbs!!! It seems way too heavy for what I weigh, and I weighed it 4 times, twice holding it and twice by itself, and all 4 times the weight was the same.
I hate that it's so heavy but it works for me in the water.
Maybe I need a thinner suit but I am very comfortable in the water with what I have.

I wear a 2 piece 7mm FJ Henderson Gold Core.

I can't believe my belt weighed in at 29.5 lbs!!!

Think about it 2 piece 7mm ... thats a lot of neoprene in the chest area.  I usually wear about 30-32lbs with my 7mm 2 piece at 6'2" at 185lbs.

I wear a 2 piece 7mm FJ Henderson Gold Core.

I can't believe my belt weighed in at 29.5 lbs!!!

Think about it 2 piece 7mm ... thats a lot of neoprene in the chest area.  I usually wear about 30-32lbs with my 7mm 2 piece at 6'2" at 185lbs.

Thanks for that. Now I don't feel so bad.

They taught us in SCUBA diving school that when you're holding your breath in water and your mouth at water line then you're properly weighted.  Do this in a swimming pool and you'll be safe in salt water.

I agree with this.  Also after you dive down to 20-25 feet. you should be neutrally buoyant  (not float up or sinking either)
There are 2 issues to deal with
1) getting down (deals more with your diving technique)
2) staying down (deals more with having the correct amt weights)

They taught us in SCUBA diving school that when you're holding your breath in water and your mouth at water line then you're properly weighted.  Do this in a swimming pool and you'll be safe in salt water.

I agree with this.  Also after you dive down to 20-25 feet. you should be neutrally buoyant  (not float up or sinking either)
There are 2 issues to deal with
1) getting down (deals more with your diving technique)
2) staying down (deals more with having the correct amt weights)

Use it only as a general rule though, once you pass the 25 foot mark your suit compresses a bit and your bouyancy goes negative and you don't have a BC to adjust for it.  Its a bit freaky the first time you get down to 30-40 feet and realize that you're being dragged down. Even freakier when you're surfacing and realize that you're kicking super hard and ascending super slow.



Get a rubber belt to combat slippage, they're far superior to web belts. 
 

Just weighed my belt on A UPS scale and its at 24lbs, I am 5'9" 200 lbs. I dive in A 6.5 mil wet suit and seems to be just right...