Weight belts

[covert]

Hi all I assume there should be a thread around here with the info I am requesting but I cant seem to find it while searching.

I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread somewhere with some general guidelines as to weights and buoyancy. Example
Have a table or breakdown which contains the following: If the diver weighs 85KG has a 5mm wetsuit, will dive in conditions 12m to 20m (ocean) he needs to achieve neutral buoyancy at X m and needs to use approx X amount of KG’s to achieve this.

If that makes sense J Then have sort of a sliding scale with different diver mass and different diving depths. ????

Or am I just silly.

[joe123321]

sounds like a good idea, would be helpful.

[sanso]

Sadly, this will be hard to do. One could make a relative table on the differences, but not an absolute table like You describe. The problem is, that buoyancy depends on many things, from suit over body fat to what You had for dinner yesterday (Yes, beans do add positive buoyancy ).

But a table for weight differences, yes. So You could look up the answer for a question like this:
"I am buoyant at -10m with x kg of lead, how much do I need to add to be buoyant at -4m?"
That one should even be fairly simple...

[covert]

Yeah i was basically talking about estimated guidelines, I know there are many variables but the margin of error cant be too great.

[covert]

lets take mysef for example, I weight 87KG's am going to wear a 5mm open cell wetsuit, to dive in conditions no more than 15m in cold 8-14c salt water.

Now i know that in itself has many variables, ie type of suit, body fat etc etc. but there should be a relative guidline for those specs? If not oh well trial and error would be the only way to go then

[sanso]

Hmm.. maybe a range could be given, but that will be a big one ... For You this could be around 4-10 kg ? dunno..

A possibility might be finding out Your - let's call it default load - (e.g. kg Pb needed for neutral buoyancy in saltwater at -10) in well-defined settings and then the table could provide a corrective factor to be applied to this default load.

doable?

[Huw]

I was in the same position as you... wait there i will try and dig up my responses.

[Huw]

10kg?!?!?!?!?!?

[Huw]

http://forums.deeperblue.net/general...6807-lead.html

There we go. Its not much, but i can tell you that when i used 6kg i sunk like a stone!!!! Just make sure whatever you start with, there is a buddy closeby. Like spaghetti said on the other thread... tis just a matter of keeping experimenting untill you get it right.

Huw

[sanso]

I've seen a lady dive with a 3mm suit and 8kg of Lead... I had the '!?!?!?' written all over my face

[Huw]

sorry for jumping and over-reacting but... how large was the lady ????

[sanso]

You don't want to know.
Extremely nice person, but lots of trouble when travelling by plane.

[Huw]

Originally Posted by sanso

Extremely nice person...

Well thats what matters

Perhaps we should get back to the matter in hand now. I am sure there is a general rule when it comes to applying weights, but i really cant remeber what it was... maybe it was spaghetti that said it... lets wait for him

Huw

[Spaniard]

Add 2 to the thickness in mm of wetsuit to give approx. weight of belt; i.e. 5mm suit + 2 = 7Kg of weight. I have followed this principle and it has worked fine for me. cheers

[Huw]

There we go!! Thats the rule i was thinking of!! It did work for me. Of course other factors do enter into it, however it is a good place to start.

Huw