Relative Inherent Buoyancy

Since every pound of inherent buoyancy (IB) built into your dive gear means another pound of weight you must carry in your ballast system, we thought we’d check the relative IB of this year’s 3mm suits. A single test diver, wearing the same swimsuit and the same mask/fins/snorkel setup, donned each wetsuit, and after the same amount of time spent in the test pool, added weight to himself in pound increments until he achieved neutral buoyancy. Allowing for the differences between fresh and salt water, wetsuits fell into the following IB categories. NOTE: Since all divers are different in body density, muscle versus fat, etc. another diver trying this might very well get difference results. The point is to show the amount of IB, or lack thereof, of one suit relative to the IB of the other suits. Because, after all, when it comes to inherent buoyancy, less is always best!

|||||| |---|---|---|---|---| | None | Less than 1 lb. | 1- 2 lbs. | 2 - 3 lbs. | More than 3 lbs. | | BARE Elastek 3mm | Aqua Lung Aquaflex 3mm | Body Glove EX3 3mm | Riffe Cryptic Camo 3mm | | | BARE Velocity 3/2 | Henderson H2 Titanium | Camaro Seamless 3mm Hydrodynamic | | | | | Henderson Thermoprene 3mm | Camaro Stingray 3mm | | | | | Mares Tropic 3mm | | | | | | Neosport X-Span 3/2 | | | | | | Pinnacle Elastiprene 3mm | | | | | | SCUBAPRO Everflex 3/2 Steamer | | | | | | SCUBAPRO Form 2 3mm | | | |