Controlling ascent rates and weighting

[beester]

Some remarks:
- A new neoprene 7 (or double 7)mm suit is very buoyant. After a while it gets a bit less so re-evaluate your weight after a dive or 20
- If you would keep diving locally (ie cold) a drysuit is the way to go.
- When descending beginning divers will do 2 things which might impact your descend:
- Without knowing they kick their fins, which causes upwards motion... duh
- They deflate their bcd and exhale at the same time. however it takes a good 10-15 seconds for a bcd to fully deflate and have you start going down... at the same time you are already inhaling again, which could be an easy 3L / kg of volume. So what you should do is deflate the bcd and inhale slowly. When your lungs are full your bcd is empty and you just exhale. There you go... descend

 

[tlehman]

Lots of really good advice here. And greatly appreciated. I've always found people on this site to be supportive and willing to share their insight and experience.

One conclusion I've come to is that I was underweighted for the 7mm suit. Perhaps it was a newer suit (I rented it) but it was really buoyant. And the fact that if I got down 10-15' I was fine suggests just a little compression made a big difference. The next time I go out, I'm going to ask to borrow a depleted tank with say 500-700 psi to do a surface weighting check before I get a full tank for the dive.

I was planning to wait to get a 7mm suit after I decided whether local diving is interesting enough for me. However, I've been thinking that getting a 5mm would be useful in moderate conditions and could then be coupled with a vest or jacket for the occasional colder dives. I don't think cold arms or legs will be an issue and I'm not planning long and deep dives. As others have noted, if I decide I like cold water dives, a drysuit is the way to go anyway (a local dive shop guy said the same thing).

I'll search threads for what I assume are lots of discussions about the relative merits of full, farmer john, vests and other combinations.

Thanks again.

Tom

 

[Neilwood]

Lots of really good advice here. And greatly appreciated. I've always found people on this site to be supportive and willing to share their insight and experience.

One conclusion I've come to is that I was underweighted for the 7mm suit. Perhaps it was a newer suit (I rented it) but it was really buoyant. And the fact that if I got down 10-15' I was fine suggests just a little compression made a big difference. The next time I go out, I'm going to ask to borrow a depleted tank with say 500-700 psi to do a surface weighting check before I get a full tank for the dive.

I was planning to wait to get a 7mm suit after I decided whether local diving is interesting enough for me. However, I've been thinking that getting a 5mm would be useful in moderate conditions and could then be coupled with a vest or jacket for the occasional colder dives. I don't think cold arms or legs will be an issue and I'm not planning long and deep dives. As others have noted, if I decide I like cold water dives, a drysuit is the way to go anyway (a local dive shop guy said the same thing).

I'll search threads for what I assume are lots of discussions about the relative merits of full, farmer john, vests and other combinations.

Thanks again.

Tom

One thing to watch if you go for the 5mm+vest route is that your legs will probably be more susceptible to cramp if cool. I pretty much dive 7mm all over (suit, hood, boots). The only area where I might be tempted to go with slightly thinner neoprene is my hands to allow a bit more dexterity but so long as the rest of my suit is adequate, I find my hands don't get too cold. My suit has been fine for diving from 8C (46F) to about 15C (60F) which pretty much covers me from March/April to September/October here so far although I am looking at a drysuit to extend the season.

Another thing to note is that not all wetsuits are made the same. My 7mm SP has a 2 cuff system at the ankles and wrists so the suit goes on, the glove/boot slips over the "undercuff" and then do the zip on the "overcuff". That, the fleece lining and flaps at the rear zip minimise the amount of flushing which means I am not continually heating water and then losing it.That may go some way to explaining why I am pretty comfortable diving wet @ 8C where a number of others dive dry until the temps get up a bit.

 

[tlehman]

Good input, Neilwood. Thanks. That's certainly something to consider. For now, I can't imagine diving colder than 60's, but perhaps even at that level, my legs might be cold in a 5mm.