Drysuit Squeeze?? Or is this normal?

[jbichsel]

Way back in '92-'93, I borrowed a friends water ski dry suit, no valves, for a January class at Lake Travis near Austin, TX.

You want to know squeeze?! I managed to get down to 45' in 48 degree water. It felt horrible. That is some serious discomfort since I started out wearing only sweats underneath. Second dive I put on a thin wetsuit then the dry. Still sqeezed plus I needed 50 lbs of lead to get down!

 

[dazedone]

Well did the first ocean dive with the new drysuit and I was a mess on this dive. The viz was incredible but I was to busy fiddling with the drysuit to be able to enjoy it. Glad there was some kelp there for me to grab on to before I ended up in a runaway ascent! Guess I was putting too much air in the suit and it was not able to vent fast enough. Those who say use your suit for warmth and your BC for buoyancy have it right. Drysuits dump air alot slower than a BC does. Went back down to 65 to try and to a slow, controlled ascent and was able to properly vent the suit and ascend without Mr. Suunto Cobra beeping at me.

Lesson learned: put as little air as possible in the suit and make sure the darn exhaust vent is open all the way when you ascend.

I did three more dives and got more acclimated to the suit. After the 3rd dive, I felt alot more comfortable and was starting to get the hang of it. After several attempts at shifting lead around, my trim was decent and with some fine tunihg, should get better.

I think I'm going to like the drysuit thing. Easier to take off than my wetsuit and much warmer. The only downside is surface swims are ALOT harder and 10 more lbs of lead, which hopefully I can get rid of some of it with some more experience.

I'm actually glad I tried diving the suit before doing the sessions with the instructor, now I have a ton of quesitions for him and we can work on my trim, etc.

 

[rds4640]

I think I'm going to like the drysuit thing. Easier to take off than my wetsuit and much warmer. The only downside is surface swims are ALOT harder and 10 more lbs of lead, which hopefully I can get rid of some of it with some more experience.

I see you are wearing more lead than in a wetsuit. One thing I've figured out the expensive way that I rarely see mentioned is to have the APPROPRIATE undergarment for the water temp you are in. I started off in a 400g Thinsulate jumpsuit and boy was I nice and warm but..... I had to wear far too much weight and it was fairly restrictive for the water I was in (SoCal rec diving). I then switched to single layer fleece (150g) for the summer and double layer (300g) for the winter. I wear much less weight and it is very comfortable.

 

[RichLockyer]

I use the Bare CT200, which is a 200g Thinsulate with 200g PolarFleece... nice and warm in the 50-degree Catalina 100-foot level, and using the wing for buoyancy, I am carrying the same amount of lead that I did for my wetsuit, which was a 5mm fullsuit plus a 5mm hooded vest.

10 pounds is a LOT to have to add, but it will come down.

 

[Mako Mark]

It took me a fistful of dives to get the hang of the drysuit, it is not so much the bouyancy control, as the different feeling, having the air move inside the suit, the feeling of non stretch material, you get used to it pretty quick though.