Weighting to be neutral at 10 m

[blueface]

On a full breath I use 9 lbs. and a 3mm suit. At 10 m I let go of the line and move up slowly.

A guy on another website says propper weighting is to go to 10 m and exhale completely and if you sink you are too heavy. (1st time I've heard this)

Am I over weighted? I am diving between 15 and 30 m.

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[Erik]

Your weighting sounds good to me.
At 10 metres on exhale, almost no matter what you're wearing, you would sink!

 

[blueface]

Your weighting sounds good to me.
At 10 metres on exhale, almost no matter what you're wearing, you would sink!

Thanks Erik, I wouldn't be able to fish unless I was doing exhales.

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[Erik]

I know the usual rule is "float up at 5 metres if unconscious", but even that's not always realistic. I do some very shallow diving at times and like to be able to lie on the bottom and wait. So I'm definitely overweight at that point.

 

[cdavis]

Weight for what you are doing. Generally, its good to be positive far enough below the surface that you are likely to float if something bad happens. What both of those mean depends on what you are doing. The "neutral at 10 meters" rule was designed for efficient diving in roughly 30 meters. Mostly that's considered with full lungs. If you are diving 60 meters, lighter is much better, you might want to be neutral at 13 or 14 meters. Efficient shallower diving works better with more weight.

Connor

 

[Bill]

I think you are very close. If you never dive shallower than 15, neutral at that depth makes sense too. Another measurement that makes sense is doing a relaxed exhalation at the surface and see if you float. When you dive shallower, just don't take a full breath. With a little practice you'll be comfortable at dive times about 3/4 of what you can do with full lungs. There'll be some gain by reduced interval and better rest on the surface.

 

[blueface]

The guy appears to have taken the course offered by Kirk Krack and says that you should be neutral on full exhale at 10m for the reason if you surface blackout and exhale blah blah..........

I'v never heard that before. I must come to terms that I am over weighted according to that standard. If I did a full exhale at 10 m and found I was neutral, on a full breath I would have to hold on to rocks at 20+m on a full breath. Thanks for all the help.

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[blueface]

As you all know there is a huge difference between being neutral at 10m on a full breath as opposed to empty lungs.

I'm curious to see how many of you guys are weighting yourselves on empty lungs?

Without a wetsuit, I would sink if I exhaled at 10m. Does that mean I should not use weight? I'm only diving to 15 to 30 m.

 

[cdavis]

If he thinks he learned that in a PFI course, he got it mixed up.

I'm diving frc, 3 mil suit + 3 mil vest, neutral about 15 ft with 5 lbs. That's roughly 2 liters (4.4 LBS) less air than full lung. With the same suit, no vest, full lung, 4lbs, I'm neutral about 30 ft.

Connor

 

[blueface]

If he thinks he learned that in a PFI course, he got it mixed up.

I'm diving frc, 3 mil suit + 3 mil vest, neutral about 15 ft with 5 lbs. That's roughly 2 liters (4.4 LBS) less air than full lung. With the same suit, no vest, full lung, 4lbs, I'm neutral about 30 ft.

Connor

Thank You Connor!

That's what I expectedThanks connor!

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[monkeyhatfork]

yeah, I took the PFI course and don't remember any such thing, there is also a big difference line diving in a course or comp and shallower recreational diving I think durring the course I was weighted around 4 lbs with a 3mil, salty Kona water you are crazy bouyant toward the surface so wouldn't work so good for shallow stuff

 

[blueface]

Yes, it's an ongoing "debate" although the man who mentioned this style of weighting seems to know what he is talking about. He explained that you should be neutral at 10 m with Frc volume. This only leads to more questions.

If you weighted yourself to be neutral with frc volume at 10m, at what depth would you be neutral on full lungs?

I would imagine that you would be neutral at 15+ meters or deeper (on full lungs) depending on your inspiratory capacity. This would be impractical for spearfishing at shallower depths on full lungs.

Is this a standard for competitive freediving or spearfishing to a depth of 20+ meters? Should we be neutral at 10m on full lungs and quit worrying?:blackeye

Any thoughts?

 

[sgnips]

Is this a standard for competitive freediving or spearfishing to a depth of 20+ meters? Should we be neutral at 10m on full lungs and quit worrying?:blackeye

Any thoughts?

i guess it might be a sort of standard for competitions, as, like Connor previously outlined, if you're planning to dive 60+m you won't like to be much heavy on the bottom

i don't think people like Herbert, William, Dave, etc wear more than 1.5kg or 2kg at least
i don't even mind how my legs would feel coming up from such a deep dive with my usual belt (3kg):blackeye

 

[cdavis]

I think there may be some misscommunication going on here. Is your friend talking about descending to 10 m, then exhaling to frc, then weighting to be neutral in that condition?
If so, that should come reasonably close to working for 30 m or, more likely, deeper dives. If a divers frc volume is half of full lung, it would be exactly the same as weighting neutral a 10 m with a full breath at the surface. A bit complicated, but possible. One major complication to that approach is the difference in frc volume between divers. My frc volume in the water is considerably less than 1 liter above a full forced exhale, about 1/5 of full lung. His system would have me diving much too light for 30-35 meters. I gather that frc volume for most divers is more than that.

Connor

 

[blueface]

I think there may be some misscommunication going on here. Is your friend talking about descending to 10 m, then exhaling to frc, then weighting to be neutral in that condition?

Yes Connor that's the way I understood it. There is a huge difference between my frc volume and a full breath. As far as weighting, I'll have to drop quite a bit.

It might be a good standard for 30m dives as you've mentioned but 30m would be the maximum for me. We dive between 15 and 28m mostly. If I must dive shallower than 15m I will take partial breaths.

Thanks for the response!

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