Had a supervisor yell at me for using too much weight on my harness setup

Guy told me I looked like a deep sea Santa Claus with all that extra gear and said I was just burning energy fighting the buoyancy. Loosened up the configuration after that day and my air consumption dropped by about 20 percent on a 90 foot dive. Anyone else get called out for over-rigging and actually saw better numbers after trimming down?

3 comments

3 Comments

smith.anna22d ago

Didn't you read somewhere that most divers carry way more lead than they actually need? I swear I heard a guy at the dive shop say a proper weight check should have you floating at eye level with an empty tank... I dropped four pounds after really testing it and my whole dive profile felt smoother.

xenaf5122d ago

That eye level check only works if your tank is truly empty, not at 500 psi.

the_xena22d agoProlific Poster

Anna's got it right. That eye level thing with an empty tank is the gold standard. Most people at the shop are just guessing or copying what their instructor did in class, not actually checking. Dropping those extra pounds is a game changer. You use less air, you're not fighting to stay off the bottom, and your trim just works. I dropped six pounds after a proper check and my whole dive felt effortless.