abalone diving question

[diverrick]

I tried for abalone about 25 years ago, and I could not ever get any. I would find them, then I'd have to surface. When I went back down to get it, I could never find it again. That was using a wetsuit, and I was just a young kid.
Now I own a trilaminate dry suit. My nieghbor has offered to take me out and show me how it's done this season. I was wondering how one dives for abs in a DS? Is it even reasonable to attempt it? How would you get you trim right. Plus swimming in that thing is hard from what I have noticed. Do I really need to get a wetsuit, just to go get abs a couple of times a year? I have asked around at the LDS's and am getting mixed messages.

 

[Bob3]

You're going to have a rough time of it if you want to go ab diving in a bag suit.
You'd have a much easier time in either a wetsuit or, if you insist on a drysuit, a neoprene suit.
Neoprene suits, be they wet or dry, make things easier because of their ability to be compressed. For freediving you're going to want to weight yourself a tad positive while on the surface & a tad negative while on the bottom, an easy thing to do thanks to suit compression.
Having some sort of surface float is also a good thing, paddleboards were once extremely popular with both the freedivers & scubiee divers.

As far as not being able to spot the abs again, they REALLY can't run that fast, even if they can disappear like they do. You may want to use a little marker of some sort. Try something white. One guy I knew liked to use those little Nerf footballs on a chunk of nylon string w/a nut for a little anchor.
Oh yah, check the classifieds on the board here, there may be something that'll work for you. (hint hint)
Good luck & have fun~

 

[diverrick]

Sounds like I'll be needing to pick up an old neoprene, and cut it down to fit my smirf profile. I can get them pretty cheap on E-bay I guess. That should tick off the SO as here I spent all that money on the Dry suit, last year and now I'll be buying another wetsuit now,because it won't work. Your idea for a marker sounds like an excellent idea. I am going to look into that a bit more. thanks

 

[Benthos]

I ab dive in my 7mm oneil drysuit but I only need 22lbs to get down. In a bag suit it will take a ton of lead to get you down, then once down your suit compresses and you become very negative. I've done it in a shell once and never did it again. Old wetsuits full of holes work great. You tend to be warm on an ab dive because you are working and you are only in the water for 10-20min.

 

[fdog]

Although they have gotten better lately, most drysuits that I've tried can't match a well-fitting wetsuit when it comes to freediving. Drysuits are generally more restrictive to motion.

My old O'Neil nylon 1-side drysuit was pretty flexible and worked okay. The bag suits I've dove though, I did not feel like part of the water. The difference between gliding and thrashing.

It would take water with big chunks of ice in it, to get me to freedive in a drysuit again.

All the best, James

 

[Alfredo]

The last time I went ab diving was 20+ years ago. Seems like I ripped up my cheap 7mm on the rocks back then. I look forward going again this year.

 

[gj62]

I always used a wetsuit, though I had 3 drysuits back then that I used for teaching. We always went where it was the roughest, because we could find abs the shallowest. I never tried, and couldn't imagine serious ab diving in a drysuit...