The Saga Continues

So, I did my first dive in the same gear I was wearing last weekend.
My dive buddy was an instructor with a different shop than I took my
certification with. The only difference was that I had steel tanks
and rear weight pockets on my Zeagle.

So, my dive buddy tells me that 30 pounds is way too much for me so I
take 4 pounds out before the first dive (I also wetted down my farmer
john) ahead of time. Well, I was still too heavy so towards the end
of the dive, he give me the thumbs up signal, asks me how much air I
have and then tells me to take another 3 or 4 pounds off. I did and
was still not under weighted. We continued on for another 5 or 10
minutes and I noticed my buoyancy control was much better.

The next dive I take the other 3 pounder out of my left pocket. So,
now I'm at 20 pounds. Heck, I was still slightly over weighted with
the 6.5mm farmer john, booties and hood. But, I'll probably go with
that in the future as my buoyancy control was damned near perfect.

John Hanson wrote:
> So, I did my first dive in the same gear I was wearing last weekend.
> My dive buddy was an instructor with a different shop than I took my
> certification with. The only difference was that I had steel tanks
> and rear weight pockets on my Zeagle.
>
> So, my dive buddy tells me that 30 pounds is way too much for me so I
> take 4 pounds out before the first dive (I also wetted down my farmer
> john) ahead of time. Well, I was still too heavy so towards the end
> of the dive, he give me the thumbs up signal, asks me how much air I
> have and then tells me to take another 3 or 4 pounds off. I did and
> was still not under weighted. We continued on for another 5 or 10
> minutes and I noticed my buoyancy control was much better.
>
> The next dive I take the other 3 pounder out of my left pocket. So,
> now I'm at 20 pounds. Heck, I was still slightly over weighted with
> the 6.5mm farmer john, booties and hood. But, I'll probably go with
> that in the future as my buoyancy control was damned near perfect.
>

so take the time to see if your air consumption is better on the next
few dives.

It probably will be.

just one of those things folks here were trying to tell you.

--
“TANSTAAFL”

__________________________________________________ __________________________
"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them;
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." - Proverbs 22:3

“The strength of the pack is the wolf”
Rudyard Kipling

John Hanson wrote:
> So, I did my first dive in the same gear I was wearing last weekend.
> My dive buddy was an instructor with a different shop than I took my
> certification with. The only difference was that I had steel tanks
> and rear weight pockets on my Zeagle.
>
> So, my dive buddy tells me that 30 pounds is way too much for me so I
> take 4 pounds out before the first dive (I also wetted down my farmer
> john) ahead of time. Well, I was still too heavy so towards the end
> of the dive, he give me the thumbs up signal, asks me how much air I
> have and then tells me to take another 3 or 4 pounds off. I did and
> was still not under weighted. We continued on for another 5 or 10
> minutes and I noticed my buoyancy control was much better.
>
> The next dive I take the other 3 pounder out of my left pocket. So,
> now I'm at 20 pounds. Heck, I was still slightly over weighted with
> the 6.5mm farmer john, booties and hood. But, I'll probably go with
> that in the future as my buoyancy control was damned near perfect.
>

Did they not go over the process of determining proper weight in your
basic OW class? You should have been within a couple of pounds had you
followed that.

John Hanson wrote:
>But, I'll probably go with that in the future as my buoyancy control was damned near perfect.

If you learn/improve that much with just one dive, how much will you
learn/improve after 10? or even 11?!

bullshark

PS - I am just really *shocked* to learn you were 100% overweighted.
Who *knew*?

On 17 Jun 2006 16:10:59 -0700, "bullshark" <bullshark@gmail.com> wrote
in rec.scuba:

>John Hanson wrote:
>>But, I'll probably go with that in the future as my buoyancy control was damned near perfect.
>
>If you learn/improve that much with just one dive, how much will you
>learn/improve after 10? or even 11?!

Hey, I'm up to 9 dives now. I was invited to go diving Monday and
Tuesday but I can only make Tuesday evening. I train MWF.

>
>bullshark
>
>PS - I am just really *shocked* to learn you were 100% overweighted.
>Who *knew*?

Well the biggest problem is that I'm using a 6.5mm farmer john that is
a 2XL so there is a lot of surface area. The one I'm using now I've
cut the sleeves off of but I didn't with the rentals. I still need to
do it to my "pants". Anywho, with it dry, it is almost impossible to
get down with 32-36 pounds. Even though I have a lot of muscle mass
(muscle being 70% water), the dry wetsuit acts like a large pontoon
until it gets thoroughly soaked with water.


When it's completely saturated, I'm far less buoyant. I'm guessing
that if I trim the legs off the "pants", I'll need a little more
weight because I get a pool of water in the large folds around my
shins which should make me less buoyant.