dend76 said:
I am 6' 4" and weigh about 220lbs. I wear a 3/2mm suit, and dive usually no deeper than 15 meters. I know with scuba the goal is to be neutrally bouyant, but this is freediving. Should I aim to be negatively bouyant? What weight do you reccommend I use?
You buoyancy very much depends on the volume of your rib cage (which you did not give !) and this volume can be increased through training....
An example : last year I went swimming to a swimming pool with maximum depth 4.60 m ;
at that time wearing a simple swimming suit I could lie in the bottom with full lungs...
Some months ago, I went to the same place and tried to go to the bottom with full lungs... but then my buoyancy was positive !
What did it mean ? I came to the conclusion that I had expanded my rib cage...
Then the parameters you gave are too sporadic to give you a precise answer...
It depends on many things and in particular of your "programme" underwater... how deep you want to go, how long...
Generally all beginners ar tempted to be overweighted because it is then very easy to descend... but the most important is to be able to come back to fresh air again...
You should let your weighting be controlled by a competent person each time you dive (never dive alone...)
Last summer I spent 2 weeks diving in Nice ;
In the morning I was accompanying children snorkeling ; i was diving about 5 m deep ; I then had 4 kg on my belt with a 5 mm wet suit...
In the afternoon I trained for myself in CW... (25 m) ; I then had 2 kg on my belt ; at the beginning I wanted to be more weighted and my supervisor had to persuade me to take some weight off...
The priority for you should be not to remain in the bottom of the sea... which might be the case if you are too heavily weighted which is the temptation of most beginners...