Posted by RaiderKarl on March 20, 2001 at 17:10:34:
In Reply to: I agree. Overweighed. posted by Steve on March 20, 2001 at 15:54:40:
thing is, i wear lots of neoprene. first, a 7mm full wetsuit underneath, NOT a farmer john but a FULL wetsuit, plus a 7mm shortie with attached hood over that, for a total of 14mm of neoprene on my chest, abdomen, and thighs. then add boots and gloves and an ALUMINUM pony bottle.
i could cut the weight down to 15 pounds from 32 pounds if i didnt wear the shortie over the other suit, but i really like being toastie warm in the cold, cold Northern California Ocean.
in SoCal i would certainly leave the shortie behind, and then would only need 12 to 15 pounds of lead, and you would be precisely right. so we are saying the same thing, only there are different geographic/oceanic considerations.
you are SUPPOSED to weight yourself appropriate to neutral buoyancy at the END of a dive not at the BEGINNING of it. if you are using your full steel tanks to sink yourself, you are Doing It Wrong, per the PADI Encyclopoedia of Recreational Diving, Page 3-45.
additionally I dont carry a lot of gear. I have the ScubaPro miniature gauges and the light weight S600 / Mark 20 regulator. very small flashlite, small knife, wrist compass. plus the oversized mask and the dry snorkle both hold air too, and need to be compensated for.
diving with steel and freediving should be about the same, in terms of lead weight required to sink you in your wetsuit. for diving with aluminum, you should need about 6 to 7 more pounds per tank than freediving or with steel, unless you WANT to float up at the end of your dive when your air is down to 500 PSI.
D.I.R. would probably want you to be able to float with your aluminum tank at the end of a dive in a lake or the Ocean. Thats probably a safe idea. Then if you ditched your weights, with a ruptured B/C, you could swim up. I never thought of it, I dont do it that way, but its a good idea, from a safety perspective. A good freediver could ascend without any tank, of course, but not without getting bent.