On Sun, 5 Sep 2004 23:28:23 +0100, Doug Taylor <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 02:12:33 -0400, Reef Fish >> <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >[snip] >> 3. The AIR temp will be between 60F and 70F, and the water temp >> will be such that a FULL 6-mil wetsuit with farmer john will >> be needed, according to Trixie who had dived there before. But that had been revised down to a 3-mil or 1/4-inch wetsuit because the water temp was said by the dive shop to be 20-21C. >Well, a Bob-sized wetsuit ought to have a surface area of around 2 square >metres. I may find a wetsuit when I get home to cut and spread it into a measrable area to see how far you erred in your 2 square meters! :-) <Actually you may come close to it; but in your subsequent guestimation, you may have grossly mis-estimated the specific gravity of da Feeesh, as in a wooden-block-head floats like a cork and a bone-head sinks like a rock.) :-)) > >That equates to a volume of roughly 2 litres per extra mm of suit. > >Say, around 4 pounds of lead per extra mm of suit. That would translate to 12 EXTRA lbs of lead (over my lycra skin) for the 3-mil suit itself? No way, Jose! I withdraw my comment about your 2 sq meters. :-) You sounded like our old pal Nick who did your kind of arithmetic and concluded that he needed 45 lbs of lead to dive in Cozumel in his 1/4" suit. I expected to need no more than 8 EXTRA lbs. If that turned out to be insufficient, I can always end the dive sooner, which wouldn't be a bad idea because of the cold water anyway. :-) >That's usually a fair starting point for estimating how much extra lead the >average feeesh-sized diver might want to try when going to a thicker suit. That's also why there are so many over-weighted (over-weighted by LEAD that is) cold-water divers. That's how the ice-diving instructor misestimated the lead I needed to dive in a drysuit, by overestimating by at least 15 lbs when he handed me a 30-lb belt. Since we were only practice diving with the drysuit in a pool, I prompted took off 15 of his lbs and still sank like a rock! :-) > >One's Milage May Vary ! That should cover your ass on your misestimation. :-) >Doug >NED Comptroller of Metric Conversions Da Feeesh NED Inspector in Overweighting WARM or COLD water divers.