The hardest thing to figure out when you start scuba diving is how much weight you need. That is the reason why our friends at 50ft Below made a quick guide to help you.
To read the original article on 50ft Below, please visit their website here.
How much weight do you need?
It all starts with how much weight you have with you while you scuba dive. When you’re overweighted it is really hard to find your neutral buoyancy. Okay, I hear you saying it… what is neutral buoyancy? When you achieve neutral buoyancy you will float around in the water. With neutral buoyancy you don’t float to the surface (positive buoyancy) or sink to the bottom (negative buoyancy).
But how can I know how much weight i need? When you don’t have any water around you can use a calculation. We have created a calculator that also takes into account your experience and equipment. You can find it here! But the best thing is to be in the water and test it.
The best thing you can do is use a scuba tank, but it needs to be almost empty, like you just ended your dive. Get to a pool or water where you easy can switch weights. Put some weights on the side of the pool and just stay on the surface. When you have weights in your BC you can deflate your BCD completely. If you inhale completely you will stay on the surface.
When you exhale completely you will descend slowly, don’t take a big breath again but just a small one so you can exhale quickly after you inhale. When you descend really fast you can get rid of a pound or two. After that you will try again until the point you descend slowly under water. If your lungs are half full of air you will be floating on the surface like the photo above.
When you don’t know how many weights you need to start off, you can use our scuba weight calculator.
