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Weights and Weightbelts
When scuba diving or freediving, you'll generally be wearing a neoprene wetsuit, or some other garment which will add some buoyancy to you. Or maybe you're a little on the buoyant side by yourself. That's where dive weights come in. There are several options to choose from, soft dive weight, uncoated dive weights, and coated dive weights. Also, if you're only scuba diving, you'll need to decide whether you're using a weight belt or if you'll be using a weight-integrated BCD.
For proper weighting, the amount will depend greatly on the thickness of your wetsuit. In colder waters, a 7mm wetsuit can add 20 pounds of buoyancy! The recommended way to adjust for proper weighting is this: grab your gear, grab a buddy and head out to the water. Fill your lungs about half way with air. Have your buddy hand you weight until you are floating with the water at eye level (make sure the scuba regulator is in your mouth!) Then, when you exhale the rest of the air from your lungs, you'll start descending, your wetsuit will compress, making you less buoyant, you'll descend some more, and off you go.
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