Dry suit weighting

[beeger]

The worst case scenario is that you have a BC and drysuit failure at the beginning of the dive (when your tanks are heaviest) and at max depth (when your exposure suit has compressed the most). Dropping the ditchable weight will reestablish your neutral buoyancy. It is the *shift* in buoyancy during the dive that you need to be worried about when it comes to ditchable weight.

jdavis - let me know if I'm not answering your question. Weighting is important so I want to make sure you feel like you are getting the information you need, if not from me then from someone else.

The single most important thing, however, is to make sure you are carrying the minimum amount of weight needed. This will obviously vary by person, exposure protection, etc.. But pay careful attention to the weight you are carrying. The beginning of the dive tends to be the toughest for the average diver. When you begin your descent concentrate on a slow, full exhale. Also, just as a test, try crossing you ankles. This will prevent any kicking that sometimes happened without people knowing it ... this is especially true with new divers. People get nervous on the surface, start breathing rapidly, and start treading water with their fins. Then, when they are not able to get down, they slap on more weight, or get more weight slapped on them by some instructor/dive master who is more concerned with getting all the students underwater and getting the dive going. Even comfortable divers will sometimes subconsciously tread water with their fins. This is yet another reason why starting an immediate horizontal descent is a good idea - it makes you much more aware of your body position and activity.