How do I determine the correct amount of weights to use?

[Izzoriffe]

Hi guys, Im new to the website. A little about me, I have Fished and snorkled the waters off of Tavernier for many years. I am new to spearfishing and free diving but have been around it. I for years was the good team player and handled the boat for my fellow spearfishing family and friends. I was recomended to this site by a friend of mine whos name is miguelstingray. Him and I took the F.I.I. level one free diving class together and thats were I have recieved almost all of my knowledge so far about free diving. I just recently shot my first hog with my new Riffe paduk comp #2 speargun and boy was it fun. You guys can call me izzy or izzo and thanks in advance for the welcomes and advice.
My first but not last question is on how much weight should I use when free diving/spearfishing in thirty to forty feet of water??.
I recently was in about thirty feet of water on a nice reef called "Pickels". I used my three MM omer 3d camo wet suit, with about four pounds of weight. I felt that I had been strugling to get down, and felt that I used a lot of energy to do this. I had been taught in the F.I.I. class to determine how much weight to use for being neutraly buyoant at around thirty three feet. I take safety seriously so with that I do not want to just throw on a bunch of weight and sink like a brick just to dive in thirty feet of water. God for bid something happen to me on the way up from a dive. I want to be positively buyoant at a certain depth to float to safety so my dive buddy can help me. But this is again talking about being in thirty feet of water or shallower. So again thanks for any advice, I have more questions that I will ask later. Thank you guys and have a good day.
rofl rofl

 

[JuptrFreediver]

Hey izzy,

I'm stoked you and your buddy took a Fii class! What did you think of it? Who was your instructor? As far as your question goes what I generally like to do is weight myself to be neutral at about 6 feet off the bottom. This way when I'm on the bottom I'm not fighting to stay down but also on my way back up I'm safe in the sense of being positively boyount. Hope this helps.
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[takisG]

I think the best thing would be to experiment with the number of weights you are using. If you are struggling to get down you are probably positively buoyant rather than neutrally buoyant. I haven't tried this yet, but my best guess would be to go down to 14m with different weights and try and be buoyant there. See what happens and good luck.

 

[Izzoriffe]

Hey izzy,

I'm stoked you and your buddy took a Fii class! What did you think of it? Who was your instructor? As far as your question goes what I generally like to do is weight myself to be neutral at about 6 feet off the bottom. This way when I'm on the bottom I'm not fighting to stay down but also on my way back up I'm safe in the sense of being positively boyount. Hope this helps.
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The class was the best thing I ever did for myself. I learned more in two days then people learn in years. All I have to do is practice my breathing apnea and basic free diving techniques. But also there are a lot of other little things I want to learn and thats another reason why I am on this site now. Our instructors were Brett Scagoline, and world record holder Martin Stepnak. I hope I spelled there names right lol. As for the advice I was kinda hoping there was a method to this when it comes to finding out the weight needed for proper shallow water buoyancy. Or a more solid foundation of procedure for this. But thank you for your advice.

 

[Izzoriffe]

I think the best thing would be to experiment with the number of weights you are using. If you are struggling to get down you are probably positively buoyant rather than neutrally buoyant. I haven't tried this yet, but my best guess would be to go down to 14m with different weights and try and be buoyant there. See what happens and good luck.

Thanks for the advice. I wold like to try this but I do not believe I posses the needed knowledge or experience. To determine while im going up and down whether I have the right amount of weights. Im not sure if I actually would be able to say ahh that feels like the right amount of weight. So with that I am hoping I can find like a formula for this or something lol. Thanks again for replying though.

 

[Mr. X]

Sounds like you need a bit more weight - "suck it and see". In the interests of safety, it is best to start light and gradually increase the amount of weight.

You might also want to look into the "pendulum weight" technique [described in Len Jones's rather excellent introduction to spear fishing booklet - often available from South African suppliers like Rob Allen/Rabitech/(Orcas/Freedivers/...?).]. Omer (and others) sell weights designed specifically for this. I believe the idea is to carry an extra weight part of the way down (it is probably important that it is less that half way down if the line is also attached to the diver ... think about it) then release it, as you won't need it lower down. The extra weight is attached by a line (e.g. float line?) to a float/boat at the surface. Note that it is important that the weight does not impede or become a hazard to the diver during their return to the surface.

 

[Izzoriffe]

Sounds like you need a bit more weight - "suck it and see". In the interests of safety, it is best to start light and gradually increase the amount of weight.

You might also want to look into the "pendulum weight" technique [described in Len Jones's rather excellent introduction to spear fishing booklet - often available from South African suppliers like Rob Allen/Rabitech/(Orcas/Freedivers/...?).]. Omer (and others) sell weights designed specifically for this. I believe the idea is to carry an extra weight part of the way down (it is probably important that it is less that half way down if the line is also attached to the diver ... think about it) then release it, as you won't need it lower down. The extra weight is attached by a line (e.g. float line?) to a float/boat at the surface. Note that it is important that the weight does not impede or become a hazard to the diver during their return to the surface.

Thanks for the advice. I will look into this "pendulum weight" that you are talking about. But I was hoping I could some how use the weight I already bought. The weights I bought were expensive imo.

 

[dom12]

A good way to see if your are weighted perfectly, is to while on the surface make yourself upright so your body is vertical facing up towards the surface.
And have only your eyes and top half of your head peak out the surface.
Do that while holding a normal breath, not a deep but normal breath, if you float with only a normal breath being held and only the top half of your face peaking the surface and sink as soon as you let that breath out, you are well weighted.

Dom.

 

[Izzoriffe]

A good way to see if your are weighted perfectly, is to while on the surface make yourself upright so your body is vertical facing up towards the surface.
And have only your eyes and top half of your head peak out the surface.
Do that while holding a normal breath, not a deep but normal breath, if you float with only a normal breath being held and only the top half of your face peaking the surface and sink as soon as you let that breath out, you are well weighted.

Dom.

Ok so would this be for shallow water <33 feet though? In F.I.I. class I remember them teaching that you take a deep full breath in the water. The goal was to add or drop weight till you had your body floating around your collar bone. This would indicate that you should be neutrally buoyant at thirty three feet. So what you said sounds like it would make sense for shallow water. I just want to verify if you mean that for shallow water. Thanks for the advice.

 

[dom12]

Yes it is mostly done in shallow water, but i use it for deeper dives as well.
Such as around 80 ft, i become more negatively bouyant as i go down but not a huge amount that would make effort to surface, i can still hover around and gently fin over the reef.

I weigh 175lbs and very low percent body fat, i use 6lbs of weight.

Dom.

 

[Izzoriffe]

Yes it is mostly done in shallow water, but i use it for deeper dives as well.
Such as around 80 ft, i become more negatively bouyant as i go down but not a huge amount that would make effort to surface, i can still hover around and gently fin over the reef.

I weigh 175lbs and very low percent body fat, i use 6lbs of weight.

Dom.

Does this make you positively buoyant at or around fifteen feet? More so in case of emergency would you float to the surface at or around fifteen feet? I used my 3mm suit with six pounds of weights and fighting to go down I did. But with just a shirt and some shorts I sank nicely with the six pounds.

 

[Izzoriffe]

And thanks for the advice.

 

[dom12]

(forgot to say) i use 6lbs with a 3mm suit aswell.
And no, i am only positively buoyant at the surface with abit of air in my lungs.
Alot people say you should be weighted so that you do float up for safety at a certain depth.
I just have a realy good buddy that spots me from above and if anything goes wrong he knows to drop my weights and carry me up.

With your 3mm, try 8lbs.

Dom.

 

[Simos]

One thing they usually teach is that you are positive on the surface and dont sink when you do a passive exhale - this ensures you are not carrying too much weight... Obviously you might pass the surface test carrying to little weight, so the next step is to make sure you are neutral at the depth you want. If unsure, being neutral around 30-35ft should be ok....
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[Izzoriffe]

(forgot to say) i use 6lbs with a 3mm suit aswell.
And no, i am only positively buoyant at the surface with abit of air in my lungs.
Alot people say you should be weighted so that you do float up for safety at a certain depth.
I just have a realy good buddy that spots me from above and if anything goes wrong he knows to drop my weights and carry me up.

With your 3mm, try 8lbs.

Dom.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Izzoriffe]

One thing they usually teach is that you are positive on the surface and dont sink when you do a passive exhale - this ensures you are not carrying too much weight... Obviously you might pass the surface test carrying to little weight, so the next step is to make sure you are neutral at the depth you want. If unsure, being neutral around 30-35ft should be ok....
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Thanks for the advice will try. :martial

 

[Simos]

Make sure you have a buddy when trying... obviously it's safer to start light and add weight than the other way round. I've read that some people take some weights they can just leave on the line down to be able to figure out the right weight, but I think if you just start light and increase gradually by say 0.5kg each time you won't go very wrong - if unsure, it's always safer to be a bit lighter...