By Mario Medarevic
Published on DiveWorld.ca
There’s a quiet tragedy playing out every weekend at your local dive site.
Some poor bastard waddles to the edge of the dock, teetering under more lead than a Cold War submarine, takes a breath, rolls off backwards, and sinks like an anchor.
Not in the cool, Jacques Cousteau way—more like a bloated appliance being dumped into the abyss.
The culprit?
Overweighting. The most common, most critical, and most ignored mistake in scuba diving.
Why are new divers loaded down with more lead than logic?
Simple. Convenience. Laziness. Shortcuts.
Many instructors find it easier to overweight their students. It guarantees a fast descent, fewer buoyancy issues during the training, and less risk of a student bobbing at the surface like a confused duck.
But that ease comes at a cost.
Your safety, your air, and your love of diving.
Neutral buoyancy isn’t some mystical Zen state—it’s just Archimedes’ Principle applied correctly.
You float when you displace your weight in water.
That’s it. That’s the whole secret.
If you’re wearing too much lead, you’re compensating with more gas in your BCD. That makes buoyancy shifts more extreme and your control more erratic. Every inhale and exhale becomes a battle against gravity.
Spoiler: You lose.
Overweighting doesn’t just make you clumsy. It wrecks your entire dive:
Excess BCD inflation = unstable buoyancy
Increased drag = higher gas consumption
Less control = higher risk of uncontrolled ascents or descents
More effort = quicker fatigue and CO₂ buildup
It’s like running a marathon in ankle weights, uphill, while breathing through a straw.
Think you’re good just because you could descend at the start of the dive? Think again.
The real test comes at your safety stop.
At the end of the dive, your tank is light, your wetsuit is re-expanded, and your BCD is almost empty. If you can hold your depth there—calm, neutral, weightless—you nailed it.
If not? You’re still diving overweighed.
Time to ditch a pound or two.
Let’s be real: part of this mess is on the industry.
Some instructors just want to tick boxes. Get students certified. Keep the conveyor belt moving.
But that’s how you create divers who flail instead of float.
Divers who burn through air. Divers who panic. Divers who quit.
We need to do better. Prioritize skill. Prioritize safety. Teach the why—not just the how.
Scuba is meant to be effortless. Graceful. Peaceful.
But none of that happens when you’re dragging a lead belt that could anchor a battleship.
So here’s the challenge:
Do your end-of-dive weight check.
Drop the unnecessary lead.
Fine-tune your buoyancy with lung control—not your inflator.
Find an instructor who gives a damn about making you better.
Because when you finally nail that perfect hover, still as a ghost, weightless and free…
That’s when the magic really starts.
Most new divers are grossly overweighed—and don’t even know it.
Overweighting leads to poor buoyancy, higher gas consumption, and fatigue.
Archimedes’ Principle is your best friend—learn it, use it.
The end-of-dive safety stop is the best time to check your true buoyancy.
Demand better instruction. Don’t settle for shortcuts.
Proper weighting = longer dives, less stress, more joy.
Mario Medarevic is a dive instructor, wreck rat, and shameless gear snob. He writes about diving with the same honesty he teaches it—with grit, humor, and a healthy dose of tough love.
Questions? Call us at 416-503-3483 and speak to an experienced professional.