Neck Weights

[penguinator]

I'm just going to fire off a quick question here, then I will shut up for a while

I'm starting to get more into DYN training, and have seen a lot of people wear neck-weights. These are just bicycle tubes filled with shot-weight, correct?

Also, at what point would someone be using neck weights? Only when using a wet suit in the pool? I have seen all combinations... no wet suit, wet suit + waist weights, wet suit + waist weights + neck weights. Its a little confusing

[DeepThought]

The goal is to place yourself horizontally in the water (less resistance, less energy lost for correcting vertical position), you will need to experiment to find the best combination for you, and it will likely change with your lung capacity/packing, type of suit and fins....
You will probably need a spotter or a video to check how balanced you are. Most common test in DNF is bouncing of the wall and gliding till full stop.
If you're just starting with it and not on the verge of your maximum performance/competition maybe it's not too important to get it as accurate as possible as you might need to change your setup anyway after some time.

[trux]

There are some very nice documents on websites showing the construction of diverse neck-weights here: http://apnea.cz/?documents+neckweight

[Evita]

Here we use neckweights with just our bathing suits. It's easy to make one just stuffing lead into a tube by hand, but if you can get your hands on a compressor to really blow the lead into place in the tube, then that would be better. Try to get a mountainbike tube.

I tried to make my first one myself, having just a racerbike tube, no compressor, and ended up with two thin ones of 650-700 g each, which just isn't enough. But some people make long, slim tubes and just double them around the neck, so that's an option too.

Of course it depends on your build etc, but as a rule of thumb here we start with 2-2,5 kg for the women and 2,5-3 kg for the guys. Remember to make it, so one end of the tube can be reopened and you can adjust the weight. 100 grams do matter, you can feel the difference in the glide.