do I need a weight belt?

[serafino]

Ok everyone is going to get a good laugh out of this. I'm fairly skinny I'm 5'8 and 140 pounds. The thing is I work out a lot and all the 140 pounds is muscle and bone lol. When I where a 3mm full body wet suit, 3mm gloves, 3mm booties, cressie sub gara 3000 LD's, mask and snorkel, no weights at all I am almost neutrally buoyant in a pool I still sink. In the ocean I am neutrally buoyant at about 5m down. I don't really plan on going deeper that 30m so is weight really necessary? I mean I guess I could wear a pound lol but I'm not even sure if its worth it to try.
Thanks for any advice,
Serafino

 

[Bill]

By my quick calculations you need about 5# of non compressible flotation for standard weighting on a 30 meter dive. Five litres more air would just about do it too. Step down carefully the first few times and have a line to pull on, if needed. You'll be about 15# heavy at 30 meters but that's only a little more than some divers I've seen at 70+. You might want to check the fins carefully too. I've torn my foot pocket out at thirty meters with 22# of lead and snapped a blade at 55 meters. Exhilarating!!

 

[serafino]

That must have given you a huge adrenaline rush lol. Did you drop the weight belt to come up?

 

[cdavis]

Hi Serafino,

My training partner is almost as heavy as you; I suspect it is more common than we realize. Heavy bones, no body fat and relatively small lungs would do it. Anyway, congratulations, you are naturally set for all the advantages of exhale (frc) diving without having to exhale and, no, you don't need any weight.

Bill's got a point about jumping into deep dives. You will be quite negative at depth and will need to work into it slowly to adjust to what it feels like.

 

[Bill]

'Did you drop the weight belt to come up?'
10 kilos of lead, a 160 cm wooden canon with huge reel, one broken fin and me. I knew at least one of us might not make it to the surface. $10 weight belt, $1000 gun and I'm priceless.
You can count the number of times that I ever dropped a weight belt on the fingers of one hand but that time was a 'no brainer'.