So, I did my first dive in the same gear I was wearing last weekend.
My dive buddy was an instructor with a different shop than I took my
certification with.  The only difference was that I had steel tanks
and rear weight pockets on my Zeagle.  

So, my dive buddy tells me that 30 pounds is way too much for me so I
take 4 pounds out before the first dive (I also wetted down my farmer
john) ahead of time.  Well, I was still too heavy so towards the end
of the dive, he give me the thumbs up signal, asks me how much air I
have and then tells me to take another 3 or 4 pounds off.  I did and
was still not under weighted.  We continued on for another 5 or 10
minutes and I noticed my buoyancy control was much better.

The next dive I take the other 3 pounder out of my left pocket.  So,
now I'm at 20 pounds.  Heck, I was still slightly over weighted with
the 6.5mm farmer john, booties and hood.  But, I'll probably go with
that in the future as my buoyancy control was damned near perfect.