I wager most instructors know. But when they’re on their 4000th open water class they’re just ready to move to the skills. One person with a problem can derail an entire class and some of these classes are big. That’s a whole other topic. Burnout is real, patience gets short when it’s the umpteenth time they’ve seen somebody who never swam with a mask on now have a fit because they’re swimming with a mask off. Not saying overweighting is right, just that knowledge of how to fix the problem isn’t the problem.
Hahaha... the rant about everything going wrong in life if diving overweighted is hilarious! Great video and presentation as always. The biggest tip that I would suggest for new divers is to get in the habit of writing down your weight in your dive logs and every bit of pertinent information for your exposure suit and paying attention to salt/fresh water differences. When you're starting out it is confusing, but when you record your details and review them before your next dive it is a huge help.
I did buoyancy as part of my AOW, and while the theory and e-learning were good, the instruction was sub-par. The instructor commented several times that I was struggling, but also ticked the boxes each time I MINIMALLY did the skill. At the end of the dive, I “passed” the course, but I was no more confident or skilled. It has taken me several dives since then to improve, and I know I will continue to get better at it. Therefore, I will definitely agree with your advice that the class is crap, find a knowledgeable buddy who can and will help you, not an instructor trained to click boxes and sign off on skills not taught. Thanks for doing these videos, they really do help us become better divers.
The weight difference of air is more like 5 lbs when you use Aluminum 80 from 3000 psi down to 500 psi. On high pressure 100 cft (12 Liter steel) the difference can be 6.5 lbs and 7.5 lbs on HP120 (15 Liter). That's why not enough weight can also turn into a struggle at the end of the dive. On the other hand, your suit will be less buoyant at the end of the dive when all pockets of air have been squeezed out, so to account for 3-4 lbs weight of air may not be a bad rule of thumb for AL80. But checking again at the end of the dive will be most accurate and is great advice. Unfortunately, I have never seen it done in any of the classes that I took.
Well needed. One thing I learned about gaining good buoyancy is you actually have more fun. I recently had a discussion with a instructor who had so much weight that he was rolling around in the Surf trying to stand up. There is no way you could be safe with that mindset. Thanks again James.
I'm an instructor and always overweight myself, for a couple of reasons. Some divers struggle to stay down, normally due to poor technique,sometimes down to being underweighted ,so carrying a few spare kilos is handy. Furthermore if you have someone bolt to the surface and you need to stop or slow them it is preferable to have extra weight
This is spot on advice! As a dive instructor I do this exact thing with my students during our first dives. I also offer to stay after the class and help the work on their buoyancy. Keep the good videos coming.
Over the last year I have reduced my weights substantially, I put a big proportion to controlling breathing, I have checked my weights at the end of dives along the way. The push to get my breathing to adjust buoyancy was during safety stops, the better I felt, I would reduce my weights a little for the next dive. A Dutch dive master I met on a weeks dives had actually reduced his weights from 6kg to 0.5kg over the previous 6 months. With good buoyancy my enjoyment has increased 10 fold, it’s definitely worth spending time to get it really dialled in 😊
I had amazing teachers in my open water diver course in the UK. We dived in a lake and we practised buoyancy with minimum weight. I ended up with only 4 kg of lead on the belt and my floating in water was fantastic! Thanks so much to my amazing teachers! ❤
I'm a newbie so I might be wrong but I believe it's because our lungs expand as we get higher up and so our lungs as like a balloon. I have this problem too
@@kimberleyp7999pressure doesn't change when holding the safety stop (or holding any otherdepth), so air doesn't expand. When you're BCD is really empty (!) , you're breathing calmly, are in a horizontal position and still cannot remain at 5m or less, then you might have too little weight. A weight check makes sure you have the RIGHT amound of weight. That goes both ways.
All of this is true now I want to make sure that it is made clear that this is a hard skill and it takes time and practice but keep trying it’s worth it, it feels amazing so don’t give yourself a hard time if you don’t get it at first be patient and keep working. Great vid James keep it up
Great Vid as per usual. I need a lot of weight: I’m always too bouyant at the end of a dive and risk not being able to stay down for the safety stop if I use less weight.
James, you are right on. Keep pressing the issue of correct (ideal) buoyancy to everyone. It takes a little time to learn how to be a better diver with the ideal weight, but once they get it, they will say in the sport longer and may take a few more classes. -- Love your comments
Excellent video, James. However, you can do proper weight check using full tank, too. First you have to find the minimum amount of lead required to get below surface. Then you estimate the amount of gas you'll consume during the dive. Multiply this with the density of the gas (1.3 kg/ m3 for air and nitrox, leave up to you to convert it to imperial units). This is the amount of lead you need to add extra to the one found in the first step. That's it! One good sign of overweighting is swimming poisture. If it is "seahorse" style you are overweighted. Try to remove weights one at a time every now an then. When skills gets better less weights normally are needed.
True, but assuming you are on a boat dive it can be a little impractical to go back to the boat to ask crew for more weight and then have to adjust that in the water.
Thank you James, I’ve been starting my students with 2-4 pounds and go from there. Once they can breathe under water, I start with a fin pivot before the other skills.
Thank you so much. Your tipps are sooo helpful!! I have 70kg and went diving with 5kg. I have always little problems with my bouyancy and I think I'm over weighted... But nobody tought me what you said what to do during the safety stop...
Excellent instructional video as always. I feel like (for me anyway), it takes multiple dives in the beginning of diving instruction to figure that out. Once the jitters are gone, and you feel more comfortable is when you can really dial in on buoyancy. I still remember you having to go up towards the surface to pull me back down during certification dives. 🤦🏻♀️ I have figured it out, but it took some time.
Nice video, again! This is also a very good reason for keeping a log. I regularly check my log for weight since I am diving in very different areas and conditions with different suits. No way I could remember the best weight for that setup in that suit (and undergarment) in that part of the ocean or a lake. So I recommend to write that down in the log. And then ask the lokal. If the guy is your size and shape has a similar equipment but is wearing only half the weight, you are probably to heavy ;)
I am a former instructor that actually took the necessary time to teach proper weighting. Will absolutely confirm from times guiding certified divers, as well as what I witnessed on boats; a most divers ask for an obscene amount of weight for their size and body composition. When I was a new diver, I was told that I needed 14 lbs. The reality was I needed about 4 and could dive with none if I had to. I absolutely agree with doing a weight check at the end of your dive when you are the lightest. When I taught I would do one at the beginning and one at the end. In addition to kicking to stay up, sometimes divers will inhale too quickly after exhaling and thus, will not be negatively buoyant enough to descend. If they were taught to be over weighted, they may have never had to learn to take full advantage of that exhale.
I went straight from OW/AOW into sidemount and one thing I noticed is that doing a horizontal descent using the rear dump valve completely eliminates the subconscious kicking that keeps people at the surface and over-weighting themselves to get down. It's very hard to tread water when you are horizontal, not to mention that learning to dump air in trim is always a good skill to practice. Oh and the "perfect buoyancy" courses provided in advanced open water courses are less than useless unless you get an instructor / mentor who can take the time to teach proper fining techniques, weighting, breathing and buoyancy control. None of these things are achievable through an online course + 45-90 minutes of diving. Time in the water and diligence are the only way.
i went diving with seals where you had to stay stationary for most of the dive as opposed to diving around reefs. i felt i had the perfect weight while diving around the reefs however i felt i should have added 2 extra lbs for the dive where i was planning to be mostly stationary. my point is to also know the type of diving you plan to do.
Thanks James another great video I know your thoughts on peak performance bouyancy certificates but given how important buoyancy skills are what be your opinion of making it an assessed course with clear standards which is essentiol for progression to other courses. For example say it is expected to get OW you need to remain stationary in the water with your depth not varying by more than 6ft. Fail to reach this standard in peak buoyancy is a fail with advice (necessity) to only dive under instruction until you reach minimum standard. Maintain your position within 3ft and you have poved enough control for courses like AOW (e.g. after diving at 30m as your nitrogen loading is higher it is more important not to move up and down too much on your safety stop), drysuit, etc. 18 inches might be required for DMs and 1ft for penetration diving. A lot of places use AOW as a requirement for dives less than 60ft because the dive requires a reasonable amount of contol in the water, they will take someone with 9 dives having taken AOW specialisms in things like boat diver and underwater photography but turn away someone with 100 dives who just doesn't want to go deep or pay PADI for a course they don't really need. A graded peak performance buoyancy cert would then be proof of your level of competance underwater. BSAC go partially on this route, their peak performance is graded with bronze being the minimum standard expected of a new diver, sports divers (equivalent of rescue) are expected to be of silver standard while dive leaders and and tech divers are expected to be at least gold though the certification is only required for a few specialisms such as ADP requiring gold standard. (0.5m)
Excellent video - for wetsuit diving. For drysuits it is a bit more complicated. You might add weights to be able to have more air in your suit when the water is very cold. And you definately want to avoid squeeze
If I need warmth I step up my undergarment. I use a mid weight undergarment normally, two LP85 no weight and I’m comfortable in 55F/12C water for a good while. If I have an AL40 deco cylinder I have to add 2# to trim my head up. Granted I am skinny as a rail. I prefer a little squeeze over fighting buoyancy especially in caves with constant depth changes. I still adjust my weight with different undergarments for neutral buoyancy. It looks like you’re diving way colder water than me though. I’ll need to figure out dry gloves to get in what you’re diving. 🤙🏻🥶
@@Chogogo717 I do most of my drusuit diving in Sweden or Norway. In the Baltic Sea temp at depth is 2-6 C (35-42F) In Norway slighly warmer during summer 8-10C (46-50F) . The best way to keep warm is electric heated underwear, but your fingers usually get very cold. So adding a kilo or two allows for som extra air in the suit
@@divingsanta I will keep that in mind. I’ve got some future dives I’d love to do in the Great Lakes some day and it can get that chilly. With some of the guys I dive with that do colder stuff they’ve had issues with electrically heated vests not always working right, so I’ll probably aim for relying on undergarments for warmth, and electric for added safety margin if jt works. Do you use it the entire dive or on ascent and deco?
@@Chogogo717 I have a rather cheap vest that cannot be controlled underwater so I have to start it before the dive and hope that it will last the dive. More expensive garments (vests, gloves etc) with external battery is much better but of course rather expensive. My buddies that have those use them as needed. Most of the time I don't use the vest.
When I change gear and or exposure protection, I do two different weight checks. First, is I dive in the LDS pool when they're not otherwise using it. If I'm working on my warm water travel gear, I ask to borrow an AL80 used for a class before they refill it. I go down to the bottom of the pool, about ten feet, and purge a reg until I get the tank down to about 500 psi. Then, I empty my wing, hover horizontally just above the bottom and take out lead and place it on the bottom until I'm too light and can't hold my hover. I add back a pound or tow and nail my fresh water weighting. From there, it's a simple matter of weighing myself with that amount of lead and my gear and adding the weight of an AL80 and multiplying by 2.5% to get the extra amount I need for saltwater. Second, I do a shore dive where I can hang at 15' over a sandy bottom at the end of my dive. I again purge the tank down to 500 psi, hover and remove weight until I can't hold the hover. Add back enough weight to again hold the hover and that's my ideal weighting for that configuration. Yes, I'm a fanatic about this. I also have long, comfortable dives, even though I'm overweight myself and way out of shape.
I started also with around 8 Kg in a 5 mil... it was eye opening after learning that I could the same with just 3 kg... Since then diving is much more fun!
James absolutely! Took me ages to convince my daughter to weigh when aluminum 12lt tank go to 50 bar That the way to do it. And then it becomes a totally different dive skill
I take only 2 kg of lead on my dives, and I don't add air in my bcd. My body weight is 47 kg, my steel tank has 12 liters, and my suit is 5 mm. Sometimes I'm having trouble with positive buoyancy on safety stops (my legs/fins), but I think I'm getting better at controlling that.
Here, in the north country, where the pines are tall, and the waters are cold, perfect weighing can be a challenge. Everyone is in 7 mm wetsuits, and drysuits with hoods and thick undergarments. It's not uncommon for divers to wear 20 lbs of lead, or more. Because suit crush at depth, a divers buoyancy needs can swing greatly, depending on the depth of the dive.
New-ish 6'6" 230 lb diver here. Without a wetsuit, I dive with 12 lbs. Any less and I have to actively swim to descend. I add a *tiny* bit of air after descending so I don't need to have fuller lungs, and by the time I'm ready to surface, I've dumped it all and have a harder time staying down. To go up, I switch from 60/40 breathing to 70/50, and I slowly ascend. Seems right on. This winter, I'll need to recalibrate with a new wetsuit...
Yes, I remember a small teenage girl requesting 13kg (28 lbs), divemaster said that crazy, here's 10kg, its already too much. She got into water, complained she cant sink and was like "see?? I told you so! I KNOW I need 13kg at least!". They overstripped her in lead and the whole dive I could see how much of a struggle she had swimming.
Hi James, great great video as always About the cert: If they ask me to help with the buoyancy, i help and then i issue a cert..... if you're saying that they shouldn't come with these lack of skills i agree, but i don't see an issue on certifiing that
I remember being on my 4th or 5th dive and it was in deep water - i watched my guide hanging 5m without any problem, I was amazed how he do it. And now it's like - don't even think about it.
weights weights, sometimes I don't have it, my steel tank is enough 🙂. To be serious since I use no or minimal weights my consumption became very low. So all you explain is 100% true.
I find the one issue for instructors and divemasters when it comes to teaching this to students is time. I was recently working in an area where OW courses are taught over 2 days-theory and all. We simply didn't have enough time to go through weighting a buoyancy drills with each student unless we wanted to get chewed out by the management. The same goes for the boat I'm currently working on. Diving is set to specific time parameters and if you stray over you're in trouble. Either you have to cut time out of the dive (unhappy customers) or take longer than prescribed (unhappy boss). Then again the one thing I've learnt over a year working as a dive pro is that the only things that seem to matter and speed and cheapness...
I know several instructors that became independent instructors for that reason. They were passionate about making safe quality divers. There are enough people that are willing to spend a little extra money on quality training for a sport we all enjoy that can put our lives at risk. THOSE are the customers you want.
I do have a question regarding the footage you shown in the video. A few weeks ago I saw a video about the balanced rig. As far as I understood this video diving a double cylinder with a wetsuit can be a problem when the bcd fails. Did I get this correct? How do you teach your students to handle a bcd fail in this case? Thank you!
You can get a redundant wing or use a lift bag. Depending on who you ask some people will start an argument, but some agencies will also teach using a drysuit as a redundant lift source. I always run my drysuit pretty tight, but have also practiced using it for redundant lift. It does take practice like all skills.
Video Idea: Something I would love to see a video on is the entry to dual tank diving. I have always done diving on a single cylinder and I would love to see the steps to dive on a dual cylinder setup PS: really enjoyed this video as always, so much good information you are providing! THANK YOU!
My OW Instructor loaded me with 12kilos during the course... sucked a 15l Tank in 20 minutes and stuff... then i took the bespoken buoyancy class where we spent nearly the whole second dive looking for my fins because i had to take them off and yea, they float- After all this nonsense, i took a private lesson from another instructor from a different diveshop and ooooohh, i ended up with 6 kilos. 60 Dives later i just took 1kg for comfort at the safety stop. Since i will become an Instructor myself, my future student's will not experience that mess i did :D
Please keep that attitude. Beware that there are shops that push their instructors to certify students in a time which is too quick to adequately train a competent diver.
@@andrewbaker730 will do :) yea sure this was 100% the case since i cancelled my first openwater dice because of panic… so regarding course standards i should have failed. but i didn‘t. but that‘s alsy why i did the personal session, i wasn‘t ready for nothing. but to be faur, i haven‘t seen that worse of a student like me during my DM 😂 but worse instructors…
i did my advanced open water this weekened and i was wearing a neoprene dry suit in fresh water and at the start i couldn't go below the surface with less than 10kg(1kg on each foot, then 4kg each in the two quick release weight pouches). then at the end i couldnt physically keep myself down at the end of a dive. so i have decided to add 2 trim pouches to my tank band and place 2kg in each. how does that sound?
@@harambeexpress as I said I couldn’t physically get under without it. And when my air was at 70 bar or lower once I got to 4 meters deep I would not be able to keep myself under the water.
The thing is that with the different wetsuits, equipment in general - divers need to measure their weight again and again. And at some point - it just become naturally understandable. The same, like, if we need to jump over a 1 meter hole on the road. We just intuitively know, how fast we should run and how hard we should kick.
One thing that should be mentioned is that you need to do weight checks periodically, particularly for new divers. Your lungs can contribute at least 6 to 10lbs of buoyancy. When you start reflexes result in many divers being at the upper end of the range. But as you get comfortable in the water, you can be more in the middle of the range.
This is great information, but doesn’t work for me because I dive with a steel tank and no weights. I’m petite and so I am negatively buoyant with my tank. My BC isn’t horribly overinflated at depth, but I do have to have some air in it.
Another thing to keep in mind, especially if you don’t dive much in a certain environment, changes in your weight and/or body composition will affect how much lead you need. Learned that firsthand when I lost weight and mistakingly took the same amount of lead on a dive. Talk about freefall to the bottom🫣
I was in Egypt a few days ago, was snorkelling after completing my Advanced Cert a couple of days before and saw an instructor from a different school putting rocks from the sea floor into his student’s BCD while on a dive!! Have you ever seen this happen? What are your thoughts?
Idk it’s super easy u load up so u can sink at beginning of dive aka dive check at a little more if using aluminum tank breathe ur tank down to 500psi then weight check again ur not going to ever breath more unless emergency that’s ur weight write it down and ur wetsuit type ur gear config that’s it if u use a 7mm winter and 5mm in summer do it twice done I don’t get why people make a big deal out of this .any time I change my gear config significantly I do a wieght check at beginning and end cause I don’t want to be over wieght and use more gas
It's such a difficult thing when you don't dive frequently and always in different environments, with different gear. You're sort of forced to take the guides advice on weighting. But generally I can always drop at least a kg from their recommendation. Too often there is guilt tripping into taking more weight
I found the opposite actually. They keep telling me I don't need as much weight - and then by the end, I just end up having uncontrolled ascends despite dumping all my air and breathing out as much as I can. Mind you, I have only done about 25 dives, so I'm sure it would get better with practice, but it's so frustrating and even dangerous.
How much weight do you use? I'm quite a big guy 187cm 115kg I use 12kg, I listened to you putting air on BCD at depth, how much weight would you say I need in salt water no wetsuit
End Dive with 500psi oh my... I wish... Sadly always my groups to up while I still have 1500 to 1100 psi after 45 to 1 hour dices 😢... Remember one the guide said when u guys get to 1500 let me know.... I said. Do I need to tell u even if it is when I get back on the boat? She never asked for my gas after that 😂
Zeagel ranger ltd bcd f8 1st and and 2nd stage with atomic aquatics M1 Global depth and pressure Gauge and mares puck 4 DC bare wetsuit Please do a review on my setup This is my first setup saved up and bought did my research thanks safe diving
On my last diving vacation we were in Egypt. I was told at the check dive I had to use 8kg. Since I would have the feeling that it is too much. I reduced every dive until I arrived at 5kg.
3 kilos is no big deal, I worked in Egypt for 6 years, a large % of visiting divers were very inexperienced. If you didnt overweight them a bit they'd spend half the entire dive on the surface which is a waste of time and money for them and very inconvenient for everyone else.
Lots of excluded information to really know. I lived in Egypt and I'm almost 200 lbs and used 8kg wearing a 1.5 mil shorty. The Red Sea has high salinity therefore more weight is required.
This is absolutely true and since the Linnea Mills incident every instructor should have taken a closer look at teaching proper weighting. I cringe every time I see a 100lb person walk up with 16lbs of lead.
You can't look at someone and be accurate about how much weight they need all the time. Maybe that person uses a CPAP and suffers from aerophagia , which has huge buoyancy implications.
@@sandwichasylum Tri-lam, good undergarments, and steel tanks my friend. It's the 21st century, time to hang up the neoprene suit. My, admittedly heavy, sidemount hp100 faber tanks don't need any weight if I get to my safety stop before 100-70 bar each. I use 5 pounds mainly as a trimming weight and for 2nd or 3rd dives where they get a bit too buoyant for the stop. Diving Canadian lakes btw. Too much weight is a safety hazard and dumping weights in emergency is asking to get bent. Stay safe, and dry out there.
Took me some trial and error to know the amount of lead i need . I always dive with 4 std weight leads on steel cylinders, I deflate start to sink then I flip and off I go. One day a buddy I was diving with who was sinking down like a rock comes to me at the end at the dive to give me an unsolicited advice that I'm under weihted 😂 that after a dive of ~20m max depth in which I didn't struggle a bit to maintain my buoyancy underwater. I was like thanks but no thanks .. 😎
Yes, James, you are correct. There is nothing more infuriating than seeing guests requesting egregious amounts of weight. I refuse to give these divers that weight. I take the time to discuss why.
Zeagel ranger ltd bcd f8 1st and and 2nd stage with atomic aquatics M1 Global depth and pressure Gauge and mares puck 4 DC bare wetsuit Please do a review on my setup This is my first setup saved up and bought did my research thanks safe diving
This video should be mandatory material shown to every aspiring instructor. Absolute gold.
I wager most instructors know. But when they’re on their 4000th open water class they’re just ready to move to the skills.
One person with a problem can derail an entire class and some of these classes are big. That’s a whole other topic. Burnout is real, patience gets short when it’s the umpteenth time they’ve seen somebody who never swam with a mask on now have a fit because they’re swimming with a mask off. Not saying overweighting is right, just that knowledge of how to fix the problem isn’t the problem.
Hahaha... the rant about everything going wrong in life if diving overweighted is hilarious! Great video and presentation as always. The biggest tip that I would suggest for new divers is to get in the habit of writing down your weight in your dive logs and every bit of pertinent information for your exposure suit and paying attention to salt/fresh water differences. When you're starting out it is confusing, but when you record your details and review them before your next dive it is a huge help.
I did buoyancy as part of my AOW, and while the theory and e-learning were good, the instruction was sub-par. The instructor commented several times that I was struggling, but also ticked the boxes each time I MINIMALLY did the skill. At the end of the dive, I “passed” the course, but I was no more confident or skilled. It has taken me several dives since then to improve, and I know I will continue to get better at it. Therefore, I will definitely agree with your advice that the class is crap, find a knowledgeable buddy who can and will help you, not an instructor trained to click boxes and sign off on skills not taught.
Thanks for doing these videos, they really do help us become better divers.
The weight difference of air is more like 5 lbs when you use Aluminum 80 from 3000 psi down to 500 psi. On high pressure 100 cft (12 Liter steel) the difference can be 6.5 lbs and 7.5 lbs on HP120 (15 Liter). That's why not enough weight can also turn into a struggle at the end of the dive.
On the other hand, your suit will be less buoyant at the end of the dive when all pockets of air have been squeezed out, so to account for 3-4 lbs weight of air may not be a bad rule of thumb for AL80. But checking again at the end of the dive will be most accurate and is great advice. Unfortunately, I have never seen it done in any of the classes that I took.
As a “old” diver who is getting back to it after 30 years, I’m enjoying and am appreciative of your videos. Well done and thank you.
Well needed. One thing I learned about gaining good buoyancy is you actually have more fun. I recently had a discussion with a instructor who had so much weight that he was rolling around in the Surf trying to stand up. There is no way you could be safe with that mindset. Thanks again James.
I'm an instructor and always overweight myself, for a couple of reasons. Some divers struggle to stay down, normally due to poor technique,sometimes down to being underweighted ,so carrying a few spare kilos is handy. Furthermore if you have someone bolt to the surface and you need to stop or slow them it is preferable to have extra weight
This is spot on advice! As a dive instructor I do this exact thing with my students during our first dives. I also offer to stay after the class and help the work on their buoyancy. Keep the good videos coming.
Over the last year I have reduced my weights substantially, I put a big proportion to controlling breathing, I have checked my weights at the end of dives along the way. The push to get my breathing to adjust buoyancy was during safety stops, the better I felt, I would reduce my weights a little for the next dive. A Dutch dive master I met on a weeks dives had actually reduced his weights from 6kg to 0.5kg over the previous 6 months. With good buoyancy my enjoyment has increased 10 fold, it’s definitely worth spending time to get it really dialled in 😊
Divers are ready! With the help of James! Brother James, best dive channel in town. Greetings from Germany.
I had amazing teachers in my open water diver course in the UK. We dived in a lake and we practised buoyancy with minimum weight. I ended up with only 4 kg of lead on the belt and my floating in water was fantastic! Thanks so much to my amazing teachers! ❤
I have opposite problem. Sometimes difficult to stay on safty stop. I have empty jacket and going up.
I'm a newbie so I might be wrong but I believe it's because our lungs expand as we get higher up and so our lungs as like a balloon. I have this problem too
@@kimberleyp7999pressure doesn't change when holding the safety stop (or holding any otherdepth), so air doesn't expand. When you're BCD is really empty (!) , you're breathing calmly, are in a horizontal position and still cannot remain at 5m or less, then you might have too little weight. A weight check makes sure you have the RIGHT amound of weight. That goes both ways.
All of this is true now I want to make sure that it is made clear that this is a hard skill and it takes time and practice but keep trying it’s worth it, it feels amazing so don’t give yourself a hard time if you don’t get it at first be patient and keep working. Great vid James keep it up
Great Vid as per usual. I need a lot of weight: I’m always too bouyant at the end of a dive and risk not being able to stay down for the safety stop if I use less weight.
James, you are right on. Keep pressing the issue of correct (ideal) buoyancy to everyone. It takes a little time to learn how to be a better diver with the ideal weight, but once they get it, they will say in the sport longer and may take a few more classes. -- Love your comments
Bravo! Have these conversations with guests ALL the time…
Excellent video, James. However, you can do proper weight check using full tank, too. First you have to find the minimum amount of lead required to get below surface. Then you estimate the amount of gas you'll consume during the dive. Multiply this with the density of the gas (1.3 kg/ m3 for air and nitrox, leave up to you to convert it to imperial units). This is the amount of lead you need to add extra to the one found in the first step. That's it!
One good sign of overweighting is swimming poisture. If it is "seahorse" style you are overweighted. Try to remove weights one at a time every now an then. When skills gets better less weights normally are needed.
True, but assuming you are on a boat dive it can be a little impractical to go back to the boat to ask crew for more weight and then have to adjust that in the water.
Thank you James, I’ve been starting my students with 2-4 pounds and go from there. Once they can breathe under water, I start with a fin pivot before the other skills.
This video was very informative.
Thanks for that last tip for weight check at the end of the dive.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much. Your tipps are sooo helpful!!
I have 70kg and went diving with 5kg. I have always little problems with my bouyancy and I think I'm over weighted...
But nobody tought me what you said what to do during the safety stop...
Excellent instructional video as always. I feel like (for me anyway), it takes multiple dives in the beginning of diving instruction to figure that out. Once the jitters are gone, and you feel more comfortable is when you can really dial in on buoyancy. I still remember you having to go up towards the surface to pull me back down during certification dives. 🤦🏻♀️ I have figured it out, but it took some time.
Nice video, again! This is also a very good reason for keeping a log. I regularly check my log for weight since I am diving in very different areas and conditions with different suits. No way I could remember the best weight for that setup in that suit (and undergarment) in that part of the ocean or a lake. So I recommend to write that down in the log. And then ask the lokal. If the guy is your size and shape has a similar equipment but is wearing only half the weight, you are probably to heavy ;)
Thank you James. As with everything, the basics are key.
Awesome vid! Always learning more as a novice diver
I am a former instructor that actually took the necessary time to teach proper weighting. Will absolutely confirm from times guiding certified divers, as well as what I witnessed on boats; a most divers ask for an obscene amount of weight for their size and body composition. When I was a new diver, I was told that I needed 14 lbs. The reality was I needed about 4 and could dive with none if I had to.
I absolutely agree with doing a weight check at the end of your dive when you are the lightest. When I taught I would do one at the beginning and one at the end.
In addition to kicking to stay up, sometimes divers will inhale too quickly after exhaling and thus, will not be negatively buoyant enough to descend. If they were taught to be over weighted, they may have never had to learn to take full advantage of that exhale.
I went straight from OW/AOW into sidemount and one thing I noticed is that doing a horizontal descent using the rear dump valve completely eliminates the subconscious kicking that keeps people at the surface and over-weighting themselves to get down. It's very hard to tread water when you are horizontal, not to mention that learning to dump air in trim is always a good skill to practice.
Oh and the "perfect buoyancy" courses provided in advanced open water courses are less than useless unless you get an instructor / mentor who can take the time to teach proper fining techniques, weighting, breathing and buoyancy control. None of these things are achievable through an online course + 45-90 minutes of diving. Time in the water and diligence are the only way.
i went diving with seals where you had to stay stationary for most of the dive as opposed to diving around reefs. i felt i had the perfect weight while diving around the reefs however i felt i should have added 2 extra lbs for the dive where i was planning to be mostly stationary.
my point is to also know the type of diving you plan to do.
The recent Flow State Divers video on buoyancy is second to none. I've never seen any other resource that is as correct, succinct or as well produced.
Thanks James another great video
I know your thoughts on peak performance bouyancy certificates but given how important buoyancy skills are what be your opinion of making it an assessed course with clear standards which is essentiol for progression to other courses. For example say it is expected to get OW you need to remain stationary in the water with your depth not varying by more than 6ft. Fail to reach this standard in peak buoyancy is a fail with advice (necessity) to only dive under instruction until you reach minimum standard. Maintain your position within 3ft and you have poved enough control for courses like AOW (e.g. after diving at 30m as your nitrogen loading is higher it is more important not to move up and down too much on your safety stop), drysuit, etc. 18 inches might be required for DMs and 1ft for penetration diving. A lot of places use AOW as a requirement for dives less than 60ft because the dive requires a reasonable amount of contol in the water, they will take someone with 9 dives having taken AOW specialisms in things like boat diver and underwater photography but turn away someone with 100 dives who just doesn't want to go deep or pay PADI for a course they don't really need. A graded peak performance buoyancy cert would then be proof of your level of competance underwater.
BSAC go partially on this route, their peak performance is graded with bronze being the minimum standard expected of a new diver, sports divers (equivalent of rescue) are expected to be of silver standard while dive leaders and and tech divers are expected to be at least gold though the certification is only required for a few specialisms such as ADP requiring gold standard. (0.5m)
Excellent video - for wetsuit diving. For drysuits it is a bit more complicated. You might add weights to be able to have more air in your suit when the water is very cold. And you definately want to avoid squeeze
IMO you do the weight check with your undies properly lofted. Though I am also of the school that if you want it warmer you put on more undies.
If I need warmth I step up my undergarment. I use a mid weight undergarment normally, two LP85 no weight and I’m comfortable in 55F/12C water for a good while. If I have an AL40 deco cylinder I have to add 2# to trim my head up. Granted I am skinny as a rail. I prefer a little squeeze over fighting buoyancy especially in caves with constant depth changes. I still adjust my weight with different undergarments for neutral buoyancy. It looks like you’re diving way colder water than me though. I’ll need to figure out dry gloves to get in what you’re diving. 🤙🏻🥶
@@Chogogo717 I do most of my drusuit diving in Sweden or Norway. In the Baltic Sea temp at depth is 2-6 C (35-42F) In Norway slighly warmer during summer 8-10C (46-50F) . The best way to keep warm is electric heated underwear, but your fingers usually get very cold. So adding a kilo or two allows for som extra air in the suit
@@divingsanta I will keep that in mind. I’ve got some future dives I’d love to do in the Great Lakes some day and it can get that chilly. With some of the guys I dive with that do colder stuff they’ve had issues with electrically heated vests not always working right, so I’ll probably aim for relying on undergarments for warmth, and electric for added safety margin if jt works. Do you use it the entire dive or on ascent and deco?
@@Chogogo717 I have a rather cheap vest that cannot be controlled underwater so I have to start it before the dive and hope that it will last the dive. More expensive garments (vests, gloves etc) with external battery is much better but of course rather expensive. My buddies that have those use them as needed. Most of the time I don't use the vest.
Good video bud 👍
Great video James!
And let’s not forget to mention how awesome it feels to be weightless when you are properly weighted.
When I change gear and or exposure protection, I do two different weight checks.
First, is I dive in the LDS pool when they're not otherwise using it. If I'm working on my warm water travel gear, I ask to borrow an AL80 used for a class before they refill it. I go down to the bottom of the pool, about ten feet, and purge a reg until I get the tank down to about 500 psi. Then, I empty my wing, hover horizontally just above the bottom and take out lead and place it on the bottom until I'm too light and can't hold my hover. I add back a pound or tow and nail my fresh water weighting. From there, it's a simple matter of weighing myself with that amount of lead and my gear and adding the weight of an AL80 and multiplying by 2.5% to get the extra amount I need for saltwater.
Second, I do a shore dive where I can hang at 15' over a sandy bottom at the end of my dive. I again purge the tank down to 500 psi, hover and remove weight until I can't hold the hover. Add back enough weight to again hold the hover and that's my ideal weighting for that configuration.
Yes, I'm a fanatic about this. I also have long, comfortable dives, even though I'm overweight myself and way out of shape.
Really good points! I wish we all took more time with students to teach what a proper weight check looks and feels like.
I started also with around 8 Kg in a 5 mil... it was eye opening after learning that I could the same with just 3 kg... Since then diving is much more fun!
James absolutely!
Took me ages to convince my daughter to weigh when aluminum 12lt tank go to 50 bar
That the way to do it. And then it becomes a totally different dive skill
110 lb person with no wetsuit - “I need 18lbs of lead.”
Me - “Let’s try that again.”
I take only 2 kg of lead on my dives, and I don't add air in my bcd. My body weight is 47 kg, my steel tank has 12 liters, and my suit is 5 mm. Sometimes I'm having trouble with positive buoyancy on safety stops (my legs/fins), but I think I'm getting better at controlling that.
4lbs of lead for me in the summer in the Caribbean. 6-8lbs with 5/3mm suit in winter. It's all about learning to breathe correctly and relaxing.
Here, in the north country, where the pines are tall, and the waters are cold, perfect weighing can be a challenge. Everyone is in 7 mm wetsuits, and drysuits with hoods and thick undergarments. It's not uncommon for divers to wear 20 lbs of lead, or more. Because suit crush at depth, a divers buoyancy needs can swing greatly, depending on the depth of the dive.
New-ish 6'6" 230 lb diver here. Without a wetsuit, I dive with 12 lbs. Any less and I have to actively swim to descend. I add a *tiny* bit of air after descending so I don't need to have fuller lungs, and by the time I'm ready to surface, I've dumped it all and have a harder time staying down. To go up, I switch from 60/40 breathing to 70/50, and I slowly ascend. Seems right on. This winter, I'll need to recalibrate with a new wetsuit...
Yes, I remember a small teenage girl requesting 13kg (28 lbs), divemaster said that crazy, here's 10kg, its already too much. She got into water, complained she cant sink and was like "see?? I told you so! I KNOW I need 13kg at least!".
They overstripped her in lead and the whole dive I could see how much of a struggle she had swimming.
Hi James, great great video as always
About the cert: If they ask me to help with the buoyancy, i help and then i issue a cert..... if you're saying that they shouldn't come with these lack of skills i agree, but i don't see an issue on certifiing that
I remember being on my 4th or 5th dive and it was in deep water - i watched my guide hanging 5m without any problem, I was amazed how he do it.
And now it's like - don't even think about it.
Good video James. I would recommend anyone having buoyancy / weighting concerns to have a look at our videos covering the topic.
weights weights, sometimes I don't have it, my steel tank is enough 🙂. To be serious since I use no or minimal weights my consumption became very low. So all you explain is 100% true.
What do you think of the OMS slipstream? Please make a review of the fins cuz I saw in your instagram you have a pair of them. Thanks
Thanks for sharing.
I find the one issue for instructors and divemasters when it comes to teaching this to students is time. I was recently working in an area where OW courses are taught over 2 days-theory and all. We simply didn't have enough time to go through weighting a buoyancy drills with each student unless we wanted to get chewed out by the management. The same goes for the boat I'm currently working on. Diving is set to specific time parameters and if you stray over you're in trouble. Either you have to cut time out of the dive (unhappy customers) or take longer than prescribed (unhappy boss). Then again the one thing I've learnt over a year working as a dive pro is that the only things that seem to matter and speed and cheapness...
I know several instructors that became independent instructors for that reason. They were passionate about making safe quality divers. There are enough people that are willing to spend a little extra money on quality training for a sport we all enjoy that can put our lives at risk. THOSE are the customers you want.
I do have a question regarding the footage you shown in the video. A few weeks ago I saw a video about the balanced rig. As far as I understood this video diving a double cylinder with a wetsuit can be a problem when the bcd fails.
Did I get this correct? How do you teach your students to handle a bcd fail in this case?
Thank you!
You can get a redundant wing or use a lift bag. Depending on who you ask some people will start an argument, but some agencies will also teach using a drysuit as a redundant lift source. I always run my drysuit pretty tight, but have also practiced using it for redundant lift. It does take practice like all skills.
Video Idea:
Something I would love to see a video on is the entry to dual tank diving. I have always done diving on a single cylinder and I would love to see the steps to dive on a dual cylinder setup
PS: really enjoyed this video as always, so much good information you are providing! THANK YOU!
I second this!
and/or advancing to drysuit diving as well...
I second that !
My OW Instructor loaded me with 12kilos during the course... sucked a 15l Tank in 20 minutes and stuff... then i took the bespoken buoyancy class where we spent nearly the whole second dive looking for my fins because i had to take them off and yea, they float-
After all this nonsense, i took a private lesson from another instructor from a different diveshop and ooooohh, i ended up with 6 kilos.
60 Dives later i just took 1kg for comfort at the safety stop.
Since i will become an Instructor myself, my future student's will not experience that mess i did :D
Please keep that attitude. Beware that there are shops that push their instructors to certify students in a time which is too quick to adequately train a competent diver.
@@andrewbaker730 will do :)
yea sure this was 100% the case since i cancelled my first openwater dice because of panic… so regarding course standards i should have failed. but i didn‘t. but that‘s alsy why i did the personal session, i wasn‘t ready for nothing. but to be faur, i haven‘t seen that worse of a student like me during my DM 😂 but worse instructors…
i did my advanced open water this weekened and i was wearing a neoprene dry suit in fresh water and at the start i couldn't go below the surface with less than 10kg(1kg on each foot, then 4kg each in the two quick release weight pouches). then at the end i couldnt physically keep myself down at the end of a dive. so i have decided to add 2 trim pouches to my tank band and place 2kg in each. how does that sound?
Were you wearing a 10mm wetsuit? 10kg is too much.
@@harambeexpress as I said I couldn’t physically get under without it. And when my air was at 70 bar or lower once I got to 4 meters deep I would not be able to keep myself under the water.
The thing is that with the different wetsuits, equipment in general - divers need to measure their weight again and again. And at some point - it just become naturally understandable. The same, like, if we need to jump over a 1 meter hole on the road. We just intuitively know, how fast we should run and how hard we should kick.
Hey James great video. Could you please tell me what fins you’re wife is diving with thanks so much..
One thing that should be mentioned is that you need to do weight checks periodically, particularly for new divers. Your lungs can contribute at least 6 to 10lbs of buoyancy. When you start reflexes result in many divers being at the upper end of the range. But as you get comfortable in the water, you can be more in the middle of the range.
This is great information, but doesn’t work for me because I dive with a steel tank and no weights. I’m petite and so I am negatively buoyant with my tank. My BC isn’t horribly overinflated at depth, but I do have to have some air in it.
You should make bumper stickers "are you overweighted" with a dive flag next to the quote. Lol
Spot on!
Great video, this is exactly what we need in scuba diving, not Avelo ;-)
Another thing to keep in mind, especially if you don’t dive much in a certain environment, changes in your weight and/or body composition will affect how much lead you need. Learned that firsthand when I lost weight and mistakingly took the same amount of lead on a dive. Talk about freefall to the bottom🫣
I was in Egypt a few days ago, was snorkelling after completing my Advanced Cert a couple of days before and saw an instructor from a different school putting rocks from the sea floor into his student’s BCD while on a dive!!
Have you ever seen this happen? What are your thoughts?
Hi we are almost the exact same size , I use 28 lbs weight, what do u think ?
Idk it’s super easy u load up so u can sink at beginning of dive aka dive check at a little more if using aluminum tank breathe ur tank down to 500psi then weight check again ur not going to ever breath more unless emergency that’s ur weight write it down and ur wetsuit type ur gear config that’s it if u use a 7mm winter and 5mm in summer do it twice done I don’t get why people make a big deal out of this .any time I change my gear config significantly I do a wieght check at beginning and end cause I don’t want to be over wieght and use more gas
Would like to see the same video but on dry suits especially ref buoyancy drysuit or to use your BCD for buoyancy. I know it’s a controversial topic.
I use 4kg when diving a wetsuit, I don't add air to my bc, I just breath in when I reach my desired depth. I use 12 kg with my drysuit.
It's such a difficult thing when you don't dive frequently and always in different environments, with different gear. You're sort of forced to take the guides advice on weighting. But generally I can always drop at least a kg from their recommendation. Too often there is guilt tripping into taking more weight
I found the opposite actually. They keep telling me I don't need as much weight - and then by the end, I just end up having uncontrolled ascends despite dumping all my air and breathing out as much as I can. Mind you, I have only done about 25 dives, so I'm sure it would get better with practice, but it's so frustrating and even dangerous.
I'm not a small guy 181cm, 95kg, but usually I have the a less weight on the dive boat....
How much weight do you use? I'm quite a big guy 187cm 115kg I use 12kg, I listened to you putting air on BCD at depth, how much weight would you say I need in salt water no wetsuit
@@yourbossWA salt water with 5mm wetsuit steel tank 12L or 15L i would use 4-5 kg
How do I dive with you
End Dive with 500psi oh my... I wish... Sadly always my groups to up while I still have 1500 to 1100 psi after 45 to 1 hour dices 😢...
Remember one the guide said when u guys get to 1500 let me know.... I said. Do I need to tell u even if it is when I get back on the boat? She never asked for my gas after that 😂
Zeagel ranger ltd bcd f8 1st and and 2nd stage with atomic aquatics M1
Global depth and pressure Gauge and mares puck 4 DC bare wetsuit
Please do a review on my setup
This is my first setup saved up and bought did my research thanks safe diving
On my last diving vacation we were in Egypt. I was told at the check dive I had to use 8kg. Since I would have the feeling that it is too much. I reduced every dive until I arrived at 5kg.
3 kilos is no big deal, I worked in Egypt for 6 years, a large % of visiting divers were very inexperienced. If you didnt overweight them a bit they'd spend half the entire dive on the surface which is a waste of time and money for them and very inconvenient for everyone else.
Lots of excluded information to really know. I lived in Egypt and I'm almost 200 lbs and used 8kg wearing a 1.5 mil shorty.
The Red Sea has high salinity therefore more weight is required.
Lawn dart!! Haha only a few of us older people know the death dart.. 🤣
This is absolutely true and since the Linnea Mills incident every instructor should have taken a closer look at teaching proper weighting. I cringe every time I see a 100lb person walk up with 16lbs of lead.
I am 250 lb using 36 lbs of weight 🤷♂️
You can't look at someone and be accurate about how much weight they need all the time. Maybe that person uses a CPAP and suffers from aerophagia , which has huge buoyancy implications.
I’m like a 125 and use 0 weights, still too negative though.. maybe if I switch to AL 80?
Meanwhile us cold water divers are over here strapping boat anchors to our backs to sink in all that neoprene😂
@@sandwichasylum Tri-lam, good undergarments, and steel tanks my friend. It's the 21st century, time to hang up the neoprene suit. My, admittedly heavy, sidemount hp100 faber tanks don't need any weight if I get to my safety stop before 100-70 bar each. I use 5 pounds mainly as a trimming weight and for 2nd or 3rd dives where they get a bit too buoyant for the stop. Diving Canadian lakes btw. Too much weight is a safety hazard and dumping weights in emergency is asking to get bent. Stay safe, and dry out there.
Like 90% of most divers trained in the last 3 years I was way overweighted. The more I dive the less weight I require when I dive…
You talk about sac rate, gas usage and propelling.what about back pain?
I mean why is it still teaches that way?
And yes. You want to get 14l.h sac rate, you first and foremost do you weighing for good
Took me some trial and error to know the amount of lead i need . I always dive with 4 std weight leads on steel cylinders, I deflate start to sink then I flip and off I go. One day a buddy I was diving with who was sinking down like a rock comes to me at the end at the dive to give me an unsolicited advice that I'm under weihted 😂 that after a dive of ~20m max depth in which I didn't struggle a bit to maintain my buoyancy underwater. I was like thanks but no thanks .. 😎
If I dive in warmer waters where I dive in just shorts and T-shirt I don’t have any weight on me at all
Yes, James, you are correct. There is nothing more infuriating than seeing guests requesting egregious amounts of weight. I refuse to give these divers that weight. I take the time to discuss why.
super nice
May I have another sir. 😂
True words….
The point withe the weight isn’t that easy for me , I dive d12 steel , dry withe Santi BZ 400 undersuit without any weight . Still I’m overweight …
"Be water my friend!"
DM here. Dry suit diver. 35 lbs….my guy you are not gonna be linnea on my watch, let’s figure that out right now
But how in the name of all that's holy, do I not get 4 liters shoved into my respiratory system?
👍
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Zeagel ranger ltd bcd f8 1st and and 2nd stage with atomic aquatics M1
Global depth and pressure Gauge and mares puck 4 DC bare wetsuit
Please do a review on my setup
This is my first setup saved up and bought did my research thanks safe diving