I have just had 3 uncomfortable safety stops while diving in Roatan in the south west corner of the Caribbean. I have a new suit (3mm full length) and refuse to believe the extra weight I put on over christmas now needs extra weight to pull me down- but it's true! Starting at 6 pounds I couldn't break the surface tension in the water despite emptying my lungs and being very still. As a beginner and even intermediate you will be amazed how much excess weight you will be carrying and it is part of the reason you will use more of your tank over a dive. So try and get your weight just right for your experience level. The buoyancy check is just the start.
How to do a buoyancy check
As an experienced divemaster that would be ok on the first dive and it was quite shallow and I accepted that I would need to keep swimming in a corkscrew around and with a negative attitude to maintain the safety stop depth of 5m for 3 minutes. What you might call an uncomfortable safety stop. A standard safety precaution of sport divers. If I had dived with tables I should be able to in fact not have to do this safety stop (I strictly didn't) but I wanted to do it and we always encourage it and I advise you to never miss them too.
So each dive I have added 2 pounds and was perfect today except for the tank getting lighter and almost it was just enough at 10 pounds on the third dive !
So it will be 12lbs probably that works here in Roatan with my new full length 3m suit.
The dives have been a lot of fun and its real cheap here and a great vacation.
Visit https://roatan-diving.com to learn more about roatan and scuba diving in roatan.