Help scubabob!!!!! please?

Question

hi im a spearfisher and i was wodering how much weight do i need to be able to camp at the bottom and still be able to come up for air rather fast im about 180 and some times use a 3-4 mil suit?

Answer 1

scuba bob is buisy. i dont know, why dont you send him an email

Answer 2

Too many variables here. The only way to get a get grasp on the lead you need is to take some with you and experiment. You won't need more than 14 pounds no matter what, so start with much less. You see, your spear gun is likely negative, so it can be treated as lead. How much? I dunno, it depends on how negative it is. Your suit..., well you say you sometimes wear it. That makes a big difference between dives, right there.

Your actual weight of 180 means nothing. You might naturally be big boned or have large muscle mass, which makes you less buoyant or you might be chubby which makes you more buoyant.

  To find out what works for you, start with your wetsuit on and 12 pounds. Have that spear gun in hand. In a shallow area you can easily kneel in, where the water will then just slightly be over your head, get half a lungful of air in you and  kneel. If you're floating like a cork, add another chunk of lead ( preferably in only 2 pound increments). The idea is to have enough lead that your eyeballs are level with the water surface, half a lung full of air and not using any effort to stay at that level. That will give you an idea of approximately, the amount of lead you'll need. You want to be ever so slightly positive, so that there's no effort to get up from the bottom, which, with your suit on and compressed at depth, will become sort of a life jacket as you come up and the material starts to bulk back up again, yet not so buoyant as to hinder your easily dropping down with just a little effort.

When you're not using that wet suit, you'll have to simply subtract the buoyancy of the suit in your lead and then remove a smidge more. That way you'll still be just a tad positive at depth. It's just safer this way. You don't want to be negative. In a nut shell..... experiment.