Wayne when you first bought your mask did you tooth paste it ? get some plane blue tooth paste and use it like a polish on the inside of your mask lense smear it on all over then when it dries get a paper towel and rub the dry paste off this will help greatly i also use drops before each dive wich you can buy from most dive shops 3 drops per side and rub them in. I also dive with a weight intergrated bcd and dive with 6lb in each front pocket and 3 lb in each rear trim total 18 lb and that is slightly heavy im about 90kgs try diving with less but start your dive off at 5m and see if you can get neutaraly boint first at 5m if you can do a 5m stop with less weight this should be good  I dive heavy when hunting crays as it helps stay still on the ledge or bottom and not rolling in the surge so much

What can I say?  Thats exactly what I would have said Graham.  You will work out how much weight you need after a while wayne.  Trail and error.  I always dive with heaps to much weight so I can hold the bottom better when getting the crays, then just fill and dump my BC as i go.  Theres nothing worse in the surge than being to light when chasing crays.

cheers fellas.  Graham - yeah I smeared the lense of the mask with "white" toothpaste though i didn't let it dry.  I just rubbed it into the mask with with water dripping on to the mask, then washed it off.  Perhaps this is my mistake - i probably need to repeat this though let the toothpaste dry like you said.  

In regards to your tank - are you using a steel tank?  I think i'll try my next dive with just the two 9lb weights in the front of the BCD - this will give me a total of 18lb like yourself.  

Is it correct to say the heavier you weigh, the more weights you require - eg, as your body should have more bouyancy?  If this is the case then 18lb for an 80kg diver should be ample....well in theory - though i guess this is something i'll need to test:)

When I use to dive many years ago we didn’t have any fancy stuff to use on the mask.

What we did is spit on to the glass and swirl it around with our fingers,then a quick dip into the seawater and presto no fogging

Yeah, spit will work as good if not better than anything else.  With your weight, you are meant to float at eye level holding an normal breath and an empty BCD.  Better to be over weighted than under, prettty hard to do a safty stop under weighted.  There is actually a formula to calculate your weight but it is pretty complicated (I can dig it out and email it to you if you like).

Colgate on a new mask lens and then spit before every dive...but the mask must be dry and once you have rubbed ya spit (your your buddies) into your lens, a quick wash in the water and then leave water in the mask til the last moment before you dive.

In regards to weight.  Most is required to counter your wetsuit thickness/type.

Cheers Pete

I found you really have to scrub the toothpaste in on the new mask - boy do I want a new cressi big eyes evo =0



After that just spit does the job, or I periodically let a bit of water in to wash around.



I'm diving with a 12l faber and 24lb right now and I'm a bit over weighted but its pretty good for the crays, I don't wash around so much.

I rekon the least amount of weight you can get away with the better. I dive with a faber steel tank with boardies with no weight. you will be surprised how little you can get away with.

And bro dives with 5lb with a thin wetty.

Just feels alot easier when down for a big dive.

scottie

I use Seadrops and swear by that. I've used spit and it works for a short time for me  only. I use the drops inside & out, the "standard" drops are better than the Gold version which is more of a paste!

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i always just spit in my mask and gave it a good clean up with colgate wen i got it.

wayne i'd probably take out the trim weights and if u still need them stick the in your pockets, the trim pockets are mainly used for alli tank set ups. As they are longer there is more of a percentage of weight towards your but making u ass end heavy and ali tanks being more bouyant in the last 100bar. Wat did u dive with on your course? was it 24lbs? and did u use an ali tank? if so i'd say you could drop 6lbs using a steel and still be fine but keep them on the back of your boat incase u end up needing them. best thing is to expiriment with ur weight theres many ways to drop the weight u carry i started with 24 dropped to 18 now i just dive with 12 mainly due to altering my set up but it all comes with trial and error, before u descend spend some time on the surface with your head in the water looking at the bottom relax and controll your breathing and so on, u usually find people need the weight to descend but can drop it on the bottom from being puffed from putting all the s*&t on and eagerness on the surface, thats wat the girlfriend does works for her she started diving with 30lbs now dives with 12 too

Wayne - book a dive with MDA and tell Mike to have extra weights on stand by.  Jump in and check buoyancy.  If too light get him to hand you 3lb weights till you have the right amount of weights on you.  Just slip hem into the pocket of the BCD first.  Once you have the right amount of weights, then set up you weight belt accordingly.  If you dive with a Ally tank you will need more weights.

18 Outrage, Johnson 140hp 4stroke and 190 Outrage, 150 Mercury Verado

One of the problems of being too light is that if you have only abit of air left and need to go down again, you might not be able to as the tanks get lighter as they empty.  I would go neutral buoyancy with empty tanks.

I use 18lbs as well.

18 Outrage, Johnson 140hp 4stroke and 190 Outrage, 150 Mercury Verado