How To Weight Yourself For Freediving

Learning how to weight yourself for freediving correctly is crucial. Using too much or too little weight can make your dive not only uncomfortable but, in the worst cases, dangerous. This freedive weighting guide explains to you the essential rules and techniques on how much weight you need for freediving and how to be neutrally buoyant!

Factors That Determine How to Weight Yourself for Freediving

Freedivers have several weighting methods to choose from, depending on personal preference and the freediving discipline. Options range from wearing no weights at all to using weight vests, neck weights, or a combination of these. However, the classic and most popular method is using a freediving weight belt with the correct amount of weights.

After choosing the right weight belt (learn why to choose rubber freediving belt) you need to understand how to weight yourself for freediving in the right way to make your dive easy and safe.

How to Calculate the Amount of Weight for Freediving

However the correct weighting is unique for everybody and it is important to test out yourself how to weight yourself for freediving in different conditions, this rough guideline might help you:

Calculate with 1 kg (2.2 pounds) / every millimeter of your suit thickness plus add 2kg (4.4 pounds) extra. Based on 80 kg (176 lbs) of body weight and 3 mm wetsuit this means 5 kg/11 pounds weights. If you have slim body shape, add only 1.5kg/3.3 pounds. If you are larger, add on 2.5kg/5.5 pounds.

To weight yourself for freediving correctly requires regular testing that you need to do for your own safety. If you have different types of freedive wetsuits, calculate and test the amount of weights for each of them, and always check your buoyancy at the beginning of your training/freediving session.

Never take granted that your weight setup that worked one time will be good forever. Your body/conditions are always changing, take your time to find the right setup. Use more small weights rather than big ones. Small weights put less stress on your body, on your lower back, and you can distribute them better around the belt as well as allow you to make fine adjustments.

Weighting Tips for Beginner Freedivers

Beginners can test their weighting using two main techniques:

• Surface buoyancy test
• Neutral buoyancy at 33 ft (10 m)

Both methods work well, but always practice with a buddy – never alone.

Neutral Buoyancy at 33ft/10 meters

Neutrally buoyant means you not sink and not float. To check your buoyancy, set up a line which is marked at 10 meters or use a freediving computer.

Why is neutral buoyancy at 10 m important?

The greatest change in buoyancy occurs in the first 33ft/10 m where the atmospheric pressure doubles comparing to the surface pressure. This means that the buoyancy of your wetsuit and the volume of air in your lungs halves. You are less buoyant than on the surface, but your weights are just as heavy.

If you reach the point where your suit is no longer buoyant, you can’t rely on your suit’s buoyancy to help you to float up, so you need to swim the weight of your weight belt until you reach the point where you are positively buoyant again and start to float.

Another reason why being neutrally buoyant at 10 m/33 feet is because this is the shallow water blackout danger zone. From this depth, you need to float up to the surface in case of an emergency.

Surface Buoyancy Test

Of course, if you just started freediving, nobody is expecting you to dive to 10 m/33 feet deep and be neutrally buoyant there. There is another strategy to set up your buoyancy at the surface.

How to do it? Float in an upright position in the water with your fins straight down, hands by your sides. Stay relaxed without finning. You should be able to take a complete exhale and the water level should be between your chin and lower lip. If it is above your mouth, you have too much weight. If it does not reach your chin, you are too buoyant with too little weight.

Advanced freedivers who dive deeper follow a different rule; they fix their neutral buoyant point at one-third of the planned depth. But at the beginning of your freedive training, use the above-mentioned technics!

Hazards of Incorrect Weighting in Freediving

Learning how to weigh yourself for freediving is important in order to have safe, comfortable, and enjoyable dives. What can you experience if your weighting is not correct?

Too Little Weight

Using not enough weight leads to a difficult dive. You will struggle to swim down, descending will be hard and requires too much energy and oxygen. You will get easily exhausted.

Too Much Weight

Putting too much weight on is clearly a safety violation. It will too make you descend smoothly, but ascending will be painful and dangerous. Also, it increases the chance of having a blackout. If this happens, you will sink down because you are overweight and it will be very difficult/impossible to rescue you.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to weight yourself for freediving is essential for safe, enjoyable, and efficient dives. Regular testing, proper calculation, and understanding your unique requirements will ensure you’re prepared for any dive conditions.

Pro Tip: Always test your setup at the start of each session, and never dive alone. Freediving is all about harmony with the water – and with the right weighting, you’ll feel it too!

Want to skip the guesswork? Use our Freediving Weight Calculator to quickly estimate your ideal weight setup based on your body weight, wetsuit thickness, and more. It’s fast, easy, and beginner-friendly!

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