A Weighty Question. . .

[Freedive WI]

Don't be affraid to wear extra layers of rubber to stay warm.

On trips to the Bahamas I've worn a full 6.5 mm suit with an attached hood and never got too warm. After my last trip to Cabo San Lucas I swore that I'd wear a drysuit the next time I came back. As it was I wore a 7mm suit, with a hood, and the dive guide ran out of air before my buddy and I had even broken 1800 psi. keeping warm is half the battle in air consumption.

Another thing to keep in mind is that a wet wetsuit will freeze you out pretty darn quick once you are out of the water.

When working on a charter boat on Lake Michigan, we tell everyone to peel off their wetsuits in between dives to warm up. The people that listen to us make long second dives, those that wear their wetsuits throughout their surface intervals are lucky to make a 15 minute dive on their second time around. The same holds true for tropical diving. It might take longer in 80 degree water, but you'll still freeze out eventually.

You'll drop at least 5 pounds off of your weight belt if you keep diving. 12 pounds for a warm water dive is a lot of weight, but it just takes time in the water to bring it down.

The next time your on a trip try and do a shore dive at the begining of your week so that you can really dial in how much weight you need. At the end of your first dive wait until you drop down to 500 psi and play around in 10' of water, with an empty BC, to see how much weight you can really get rid of. It works best to do this at the end of a nice long dive because all of the air bubbles are worked out of your BC and wetsuit- which can't be said at the begining of the dive.

Jon