Unraveling the Mystery of Weighting - Impress your Instructor!

[@jarosawjurgielewicz8292]

A very good lecture explaining in an easily accessible way the problems of ballast in diving, even for amateurs of this beautiful hobby. Respect DoktorBEN.

[@DoktorBEN]

Thank you very much!

[@mikesbigadventures194]

Thanks for this advice. Doing fundies in January and getting ready and this is helpful.

[@DoktorBEN]

Very good! Have fun!

[@EEEZSolutionS]

Just came across your channel - EXCELLENT presentation with real world example! I had exactly the same thing happen to me. Just bought a new HydrosPro BCD and spent lots of time getting the proper weighting. First salt water dive two weeks ago (Casino Point, Avalon CA) - last dive of the day and for some reason the spring on my shoulder dump valve got off kilter and the BCD would not hold air. The dive to 30' went well although it made me wonder why I had to use breath control a bit more than I'd have expected at depth. I did not realized it the BC was not holding air until reaching the 15' safety stop - I had to kick a little harder than the norm to maintain 15' and when I tried to inflate, nothing happened!! I surfaced and was able to easily swim on (or a foot below) the surface to the exit point. Had I been over weighted I may been in a situation of dumping weight to ascend or working really hard to ascend. Great lesson learned and proud of myself for being diligent in getting myself properly weighted.

[@DoktorBEN]

Yes…a balanced rig helps a lot!

[@couganaval3833]

I asked myself the question of overload when I realized that I was wasting a lot of air, and it was hard to carry extra weight on the ground, especially when diving from the shore. Thanks for the detailed explanation

[@DoktorBEN]

Well…hard to tell without being in the water with you. But it is possible! Try a weight check with empty tanks around 20bar). If you’re literally bailed on the ground then, reduce the weight.

[@couganaval3833]

@@DoktorBEN I will definitely do it, thanks for the advice!🤝

[@JeremyUSA]

Great video! Here's a big problem though. The biggest variable in your calculation is the exposure suit. You have a pretty good idea that your dry suit has a positive buoyancy of +15 but how do you know that? Is it listed somewhere? What about wet suits and their various thickness. I love the idea of being able to calculate a balanced rig but how do I know the positive characteristic of the aforementioned items, not to mention the buoyancy characteristics of our individual bodies. Some of us are much denser than others. The only solution is to just test it in the water, one would think?

[@DoktorBEN]

Yes absolutely! If you want to have the numbers precisely, you need to test it for real. Otherwise it’s just a rough estimation. Sure, the undergarment has a large impact. If I wear my Xerotherm wear and trousers, it’s at least 2kg more. You just have to try this out!

[@timreynolds9430]

Thanks Ben, logging weights with changes in the season helps me to dial in the weight/change BPs as I change suits.

[@DoktorBEN]

Yes that’s another good tip!

[@toeticket]

Great advice as usual. Thanks for the video. I see too many people overloaded on dives. It's a common problem. It's even worse for the vacation divers that aren't in shape and have to work hard at the surface and on ascents to lift all that weight. It really becomes a safety issue.

[@DoktorBEN]

Yeah it does. Additionally, many people even can’t drop a weight belt properly in case of emergency!

[@jamesbooth2361]

Was Drysuit +15kg reference for a trilam suit? What would it be for neoprene?

[@DoktorBEN]

8 - 15kg for trilaminate. Hard to say for neoprene. It depends on the thickness and the type of neoprene

[@albertc5813]

Thank you! Very informational!

[@DoktorBEN]

You’re welcome!

[@bombousboy]

Great video. Well done and thank you.

[@DoktorBEN]

Thanks! Very much appreciated!

[@chew70y]

Great video. I'm about to dive my doubles rig for the first time and I think we're very close in configuration and weighting. (Hp100s, stainless bp, santi elite+)

[@DoktorBEN]

Yeah I think most people, at least from colder countries, have almost the same configuration

[@djstixtrix]

And what about on CCR ?

[@PatrickB-zb5dw]

Hi Ben, great video, thanks! The 15 kg positive buoyancy you estimate for your drysuit is with what kind of undersuit? 200g or 400g type?

[@DoktorBEN]

400g plus 😃

[@PatrickB-zb5dw]

I was afraid you would say that. 😂 I use 2kg v-weights with my 200g (rest of configuration just as in your example), but 6kg with my 400g. And that’s despite a lot of testing in the pool with 30 bars in the tanks and really trying to squeeze the last bit of air out of the drysuit and wing. It’s a mystery… Anyways, thanks!

[@DoktorBEN]

So 6kg with 400g is too less?

[@kokyuan9739]

Hi , with GUE setup , where does the weight normally put at ? Using a weight belt ? Use weight pocket which attached to the hardness ? or ?

[@DoktorBEN]

Usually v-weight or p-weight and/or weight belt.

[@markhuckerby-vz4gy]

Brilliant video, in respect to the dry suit are you stating that the +15kg of buoyancy is a dry suit that has been fully inflated to aid with surface buoyancy in the event of a failed BCD or is that the pure collective positive buoyancy of average undercut and trilaminate empty with no air????

[@DoktorBEN]

All the undergarment and enough air to feel comfortable but not fully inflated (which is in most cases a bad idea anyway)

[@celine8811]

How do you get to the buoyancy of the drysuit? Is this for trilam? What kind of undergarment? I'm trying to figure out my correct weighting in a drysuit. In a wetsuit I got it through weight check at the end of the dive. Just getting started with drysuit though. For a single 12l and alu bp I get to roughly 9kg of weight needed. Seems about right as my first pool dives were with 12kg for comfort but my guess was that 10kg would probably be sufficient. That's with a light fleece undergarment and gator boots. A warm undergarment would demand for more weight (+2kg?)

[@DoktorBEN]

Do a proper weight check with full and empty tanks. It’s the easiest way

[@celine8811]

@@DoktorBEN haha, ok, so the calculations go out the window? ;)

[@DoktorBEN]

@@celine8811 well…the calculations are very useful if you come to another place with rental tanks and you know the weight of the tanks and bone and the rental tanks. However, measuring the dry suit exactly is quite complicated, so when it comes to that, it’s just a rough estimation

[@dre64]

Just found your channel and I like it! Very nice explained but... double 12 nitrox 32 (04:50) pretty basic, pretty standard??? Not very much for the rec divers if you ask me🙂

[@DoktorBEN]

Why not…it gives you many advantages even as a Rec diver. Not to forget that Rec3 is also a recreational class!

[@meandtina]

Doktor Ben, do you need to account for the weight of the fins and say, the accessories like backup lights?

[@DoktorBEN]

The backup lights are included in „lights“. If you dive extremely lightweight or heavy fins, yes it may make a difference

[@dre64]

ok, so I was calculating for my "basic" setup. Reg -2.8kg Single steel 12 -6.4kg (just took a half of your tanks) BCD (semi-wing) -4kg Lights -1kg 7 mm wet suit ??? So, all except the wet suit gives me -14.2kg (12kg at the end of the dive) Any idea how positive buoyant this 7 mm suit can be? (or double 7 if I still want to dive after September) Would be nice to hear something from you greetz from Holland (not far from your place 🙂)

[@DoktorBEN]

Well…depends…you could measure it in a pool. Where exactly are you based?

[@dre64]

@@DoktorBEN deep south of Holland...(the smallest part of it when you look at the map) Most of the time when I dive in Boschmolenplas (lots of German ppl come there as well) I use my 7 mil suit and need then 8-10kg weight. Taking into account that a dry suit is maybe twice as buoyant as my wet suit (just an estimation) my 8-10kg is not that strange...am I right?

[@DoktorBEN]

Yeah I’m going there as well. I just thought we could meet and measure the buoyancy. But yeah…your guess is realistic

[@dre64]

@@DoktorBEN great, maybe I'll meet you at BMP some day...I will be pretty often there when the weather gets better. Anyway, thanks for a nice chat. Safe diving.

[@LarsDennert]

Ditchable weights aren't much use on a balanced rig when diving and can be a liability such as cave or deco, but super useful at the surface. Here in California the surface swim to outer reefs can be 15-30 minutes. A BCD issue would be a horrible swim back if it had to be on the surface. Better than ditching a whole rig if you are diving a wetsuit that day. Well I guess that would be a single unless diving two AL. Certainly the drysuit or SMB is a good option to stay afloat but if you are carrying lead on the hips, make it ditchable as another option. Last week two divers I was with had BCD failures. One caught it on the predive check and aborted. The other continued with my group but hadn't done an Equipment check with the buddy that now wasn't going diving and didn't have a new buddy assigned. My mistake there and sure enough his BCD didn't hold air. He could barely stay up. I rushed over and filled his wing wondering why he jumped in empty. It went empty quick and before we got him out. Turned out the inflator was loose but he was spent. Problem is I didn't know if he had ditchable weight and there wasn't much time as he was in a bad way. My kids aren't GUE so to speak but we always run through things in a DIR way and we are a triple team. Shocking how much safer GUE procedures are. I need to EDGE with everyone I dive with even more completely.

[@DoktorBEN]

Yeah I do GUEEDGE all the time as well with non-GUE divers. You can always do it in a way they don’t even recognize that they’re doing it 😄

[@souswes]

Pretty thorough but I can’t help feel like this is a bit advanced for beginners. Maybe this is standard in GUE though for fundies. If you’re going to go through the trouble of weighing things down to an exact measurement in a pool you also need to know that salt water is going to add about 1.6 lbs of lift compared to your pool. More if you dive near the tropics. The weight you have diving in Ireland probably won’t sink you at the Red Sea. Much easier to just do a buoyancy check pre dive and at the stop. Is it typical for GUE students to have all of their gear purchased for the basics?

[@DoktorBEN]

Yes you’re absolutely right. Salt water is more dense and hence the displaced volume weighs more. But leave me something to do for upcoming videos 🤣🤣. Most of the people already have everything on their own. But it’s not always the case.

[@souswes]

@@DoktorBEN 🤣 looking forward to more. Always great content

[@DoktorBEN]

Thank you so much!

[@SuperScubaTim]

That’s the problem with most training agencies, that this comes across as being too advanced. This is one of the first lessons that all beginners should learn and master.

[@DoktorBEN]

Well yeah…I think „Why you learned diving with 18kg“ is worth another video 😄

[@manuelperez4417]

Hello, ben I think you have a mistake when you say that the bottle weighs 12.7 kg into the water, the bottle weighs only 3.4 kg. by the principle of arquimedesr and when it is empty positive 1 kg. Just like your body Arquimedes's principle indicates us that " any body plunged inside a fluid experiences an ascending force called push, equivalent to the weight of the fluid removed by the body ". Check this and edit.

[@DoktorBEN]

No I think it’s correct. Each tank in this example weighs around 15kg, so 30kg for two tanks in a D12 plus a bit for the bands and manifold, so I counted 15.35kg. Gas weighs around 6kg in a D12. The upward lift is equivalent to 24kg. Maybe a bit more, depending on the outer dimensions of the tanks. So the weight under water equals 15.35kg*2*6kg-24kg

[@dmitrylakiychuk919]

It's class for owd

[@ahmedsamy8406]

My height 180 and weight 125 kg I use 16 KG of weight 10 on the belt & 6 on the BCD 😂

[@DoktorBEN]

Depends on the setup, but sound really much