Posted by MHK on September 11, 2000 at 09:02:34:
In Reply to: Re: Diver Injured/The Facts (long & detailed) posted by msblucow on September 11, 2000 at 07:05:00:
The best way to check your weighting, and remember that you need to take into account a variety of things when you weight yourself:
1) steel -v- AL tank
2) Weight of a backplate
3) weightbelt
4) ankle weights
to name a few. The recomendation is to start with 10% of your total body weight plus 6 - 8 lbs. Use this as a starting point and fine tune from there.
Then there are 2 good ways to check the weight.
The first and probably more accurate than the two is to bleed your tank down to 500 psi ( please make sure you have a buddy with you ;-) ) and try to hold a 15' stop. If when all the air is out of your bc and lungs if you sink you are too heavy, if you float to the surface you could add a pound or so.
The second which is the easier of the two is to go off the back of the boat ( we generally make sure there is a drop line available ) with wetsuit and weightbelt only. If when you let all the air out of your lungs ( and not kicking ) the water level comes about eye level that's a good starting point. Bear in mind this method is a little less applicable to the extent that you are relying on additional sources of weighting ( ie; light cannister, ankle weights, SS BP's, steel tanks ).
You must account for all of these various pieces of equipment when computing your total weighting package.
Later