Although the scuba weights calculator is an essential first step in achieving neutral buoyancy, as you dive more, you discover that there’s a little more to mastering buoyancy than just having the right amounts of weights on a belt.
You see, most beginner divers are overweighted! Being over-weighted makes achieving neutral buoyancy more difficult, because every extra pound of led has to be balanced with a pound of extra buoyancy.
Ultimately, this leads to fiddling with the bcd controls more throughout the dive as well as being over reliant on bc adjustment as a form of movement, i.e. to get close to things or ascend away from them.
But with more experience, you may eventually even stop using a weight belt altogether! When I trained to become a dive master in the Philippines, I went from always having several pounds on my weight belt – to just a couple – to none at all! To this day, I still don’t dive with any weights.
Another advantage of diving with less weights is that you don’t have to inflate your bcd so much, which reduces drag underwater and allows you to move about more freely, whilst exerting less effort and therefore saving air.
Of course, some people are naturally more floaty whereas others tend to be more “sinky” (like me!) which means you might always need a weight belt.
However, chances are that with improved technique you can use less weights on your belt and by doing so achieve better neutral buoyancy by not being overweighted.
Many scuba diving instructors admit to over-weighting students for the same reason your dad put training wheels on your bike – to make things way easier for someone only just learning to get the hang of things (they dont’ want you get an air embolism!).
The thing is, after training you through your open and advanced open water course, an instructor usually moves straight onto the next student and doesn’t stick with you long enough to explain to you the need to remove some weights from your belt, now you’ve got the hang of things.
But like training wheels, those extra weights have to come off as your experience level progresses! Go on, give it a go – take two pounds off before your next dive.
If you find it hard to sink below the surface, remember to keep your body still and roll back slightly to let the bubble of air that often gets trapped between the back of your head and the bcd, to escape. Also, exhale fully!
Remember, buoyancy changes fastest in the first few feet below the surface – three times as fast at one foot as at sixty feet. So, even if it feels hard to get submerged – once your down five or six feet, you seem to get heavier and sink a lot easier!
Be sure to have less air in your bcd as well to counter having less weights! Once you get the hang of this, you’ll quickly notice how much more easy it is to achieve and maintain neutral buoyancy throughout a dive; all whilst saving more air!