What is the weight restriction for scuba diving?
There is no legal weight restriction for SCUBA diving. You do
however have to be in shape enough to pass the physical parts of
the exam, which typically include a 200m swim in roughly 10
minutes, and a much longer swim over a longer period of time. Also,
if you wear a wetsuit or a drysuit, you'll need more weight to
achieve neutral bouyancy, which in turn wears you down some.
Finally, fat absorbs more nitrogen than most other tissues, so
deeper dives need to be approached more conservatively. Physical
problems that do preclude diving are serious cardiovascular
ailments (see your cardiologist about these), respiratory
obstructions (COPD and the like), extreme clostrophobia (you can
get over this but it's hard), badly damamged eustacian tubes or
eardrums, any ailment that causes you to lose consciousness, and a
few others. After all this grim stuff, I want to say don't lose
heart -- I worked with an instructor who weighed about 400lbs and,
while at the high end of the scale, performed excellently.
[[User:Cjonb|Cjonb]] 22:35, 2 Jun 2008 (UTC)
