SCUBAzen blog
Summary
The SCUBAzen blog is written by Eric, the founder of SCUBAzen and a recreational diver certified in 2016. It contains thirteen posts. Three are first-person accounts of dive preparation problems the author encountered and then built a feature to solve: dive shop rental paperwork, pre-dive anxiety, and the limitations of a paper dive logbook. Nine are practical guides to scuba weighting and exposure suits: logbook weight tracking, saltwater versus freshwater weighting, aluminum versus steel tank buoyancy, drysuit weighting, wetsuit thickness by water temperature, 3mm versus 5mm versus 7mm wetsuits, what to wear in 60 degree water, signs of being overweighted, and how much weight to rent before arriving. One explains why to keep a dive log at all and what to record. Every SCUBAzen feature the posts describe is free. Everything in SCUBAzen is free except the travel agent, an AI travel planner, which includes one free day per email address and is then sold 30 days at a time as a one-time purchase that never renews.
All posts
Why keep a dive log (and what to write in it)
Published October 16, 2026 by Eric. A dive log records what a dive computer cannot: the suit worn, the weight carried, and how warm and how well weighted the diver felt. The post explains what a log does for a diver (planning the first dive back after a break, choosing weight and wetsuit for similar water that may be years apart, answering refresher questions, meeting liveaboard and course minimums such as PADI Divemaster's 40 and 60 logged dives) and lists six details worth recording on every dive. The SCUBAzen logbook is free.
Why your logbook should track your weight
Published August 11, 2026 by Eric. A weight calculator estimates from body weight, suit, water type, and tank; a diver's logged history is what converges on the exact personal number. The post lists the five details worth recording — lead carried and placement, suit, tank, water type, and a one-sentence verdict from the safety stop — and explains that two or three logged verdicts per gear configuration are usually enough. The SCUBAzen logbook is free and includes weight belt and weighting-felt fields.
Scuba wetsuit thickness guide by water temp
Published August 11, 2026 by Eric. A 3mm full suit suits 72–76°F (22–24°C) water, a 5mm suits 63–71°F (17–21°C), a 7mm suits 50–62°F (10–16°C), and a semi-dry or drysuit is appropriate below 50°F (10°C). These figures are deliberately thicker than surf-industry charts because a diver is fully immersed at low exertion while a surfer generates heat with their torso out of the water. Covers the five factors that move a diver off the chart, and why thicker suits need more lead.
3mm vs 5mm vs 7mm wetsuits for diving
Published August 11, 2026 by Eric. What each of the three common thicknesses costs in lead, mobility, and effort; why a well-fitted 5mm outperforms a baggy 7mm; and which suit to buy first for a warm-water traveller, a general-purpose diver, and a cold-water local.
What wetsuit for 60 degree water?
Published August 11, 2026 by Eric. Most divers want a 7mm with hood and gloves at 60°F (15.5°C); a well-fitted 5mm works for one shorter dive. Water removes heat about 25 times faster than air, which is why this temperature is the one divers most often underestimate.
Five signs you're diving overweighted
Published August 11, 2026 by Eric. Feet-down trim, constant BCD adjustment, uncontrolled descents, fighting to stay down at the safety stop with a near-empty tank, and consistently reaching turn pressure first. Each symptom with its correction, plus how to remove lead safely one or two pounds at a time.
How much weight to rent before you arrive
Published August 11, 2026 by Eric. How to answer a dive shop rental form's weight question from home using four knowable inputs, and why writing the number together with its assumptions lets the shop correct it before packing the gear.
Salt water vs fresh water scuba weighting
Published August 11, 2026 by Eric. Salt water is about 2.5 percent denser than fresh water, so most divers in full kit need about 4–7 lb (2–3 kg) less lead in lakes, quarries, and springs than in the ocean. The post covers the physics, the adjustment in each direction, the trap of the suit changing along with the water, and the four-step surface buoyancy check that verifies the new number.
Aluminum vs steel tank buoyancy, explained
Published August 11, 2026 by Eric. An aluminum 80 starts a dive about 1.5 lb negative and ends it 3–4 lb positively buoyant; a steel tank stays negative throughout. Switching from aluminum to steel typically removes 4–6 lb (2–3 kg) of lead. The post explains the roughly 6 lb of air weight breathed away during every dive, why divers should weight for the end of the dive, and what to adjust at the rental counter.
Drysuit weighting: how much lead, and where
Published August 11, 2026 by Eric. Drysuit divers typically carry 7–20 lb (3–9 kg) more lead than in a 7mm wetsuit, because the undergarment's loft and trapped air add buoyancy. The post is a five-step how-to — estimate, surface check, minimal suit air, near-empty-tank verification, and logging the suit-plus-undergarment combination — plus the overweighting spiral and weight placement for trim and ditchability.
How I outsmarted dive shop paperwork
Published September 12, 2024 by Eric. The author arrived fifteen minutes before a Hawaii day trip, could not recall his fin size, BCD size, or weight requirement, and delayed the boat while trying on gear. A year later he arrived 45 minutes early and still did not remember his sizing. This experience produced SCUBAzen paperwork, which stores equipment sizes and produces one PDF of kit, rental sizes, certifications, and insurance for a dive shop on demand.
Overcoming dive anxiety by getting organized
Published August 8, 2024 by Eric. The author describes persistent pre-dive anxiety after certification, including imposter syndrome and a fear of consuming air fastest in the group. Three practices reduced it: following a checklist, using a logbook as a reference for past conditions and settings, and calming the breath. Each maps to a SCUBAzen feature.
From soggy pages to a better dive logbook
Published July 18, 2024 by Eric. The author's paper logbook became damp, ocean-worn, and unsearchable, and the existing dive apps were clunky or missing features. Diving friends either tolerated the PADI app or had stopped logging entirely. The result is a searchable digital logbook that records whether a diver was over-weighted, rates dive sites, and notes how cold the diver felt.