After debating for several months I finally ordered a Bare Nex-Gen from Divetank.com 11 days ago - it arrived yesterday (not bad considering it was coming from Canada - which usually takes 30 days) Today I took it for my first dive after Church service. My one (and only) local dive buddy with any drysuit experience gave me some pointers and came along to laugh at my insanity and see if I came to the same conclusion as him that I had completely lost my mind for wanting to dive dry in 81* water.
For undergarments I used a 10oz poly fleece union suit from my camping supplies. With no boots to wear over the socks (yet - they are in the mail) I put a pair of old tennis shoes on instead. Air temp was a warm 87* when we got to old airport beach in Kaanapali - I parked in the last shady spot at the far end of the parking lot and after reminding myself that I needed to adjust the harness on my backplate (I let it out 2") began suiting up. Didn't seem to take much longer suiting up than normal with my 3mil full wetsuit, and I even ended getting done before my buddy by about 5 minutes. I was feeling the extra 10 pounds on my back and wondering if it really was necessary (it was I later found out)
Standing around in the parking lot was getting quite warm, so I headed over to the shower to cool off - which was the last time I felt hot all day - I was quite surprised that the mist of water was enough to cool me off as I was planning on overheating all day. My buddy got done and we kicked off from shore... actually we stepped off as I was having trouble getting my fins on. On land I could touch my toes, reach my valves and had little trouble with flexibility... in water was another story, my reach was shortened by about 3 inches making it near impossible to get my fins on, and the street shoes barely fit even in my XXL Jet fins. After a 2 minute struggle I had bested those inanimate objects at the ends of my feet and we began our dive.
For the next 71 minutes we cruised the reef at an average of 20 ft. Not real deep, but it was a nice dive with a consistent 1/2kt current which we swam into for the first 50 minutes before riding it back to the entry point and hanging around there for another 10 minutes or so, quite strong for this site. A couple of times I forced myself into an inverted feet up position to see how difficult it would be to recover from, while it made me focus a bit, several good kicks uprighted my position and put me back in proper trim. My air consumption did go up a bit more than usual, going from .45 to .56 and costing me about 400psi over the course of the dive. Hopefully I will be able to recover the lost air time as I get used to this new suit.
After approximately 30 minutes I noticed my right hand was tingling, and realized the seal was a bit tight, by the end of the dive I have very little feeling in my right hand, so stretching it is definitely in order before tomorrow's dive. The only thing which caused me concern was how difficult it was to vent air from the exhaust valve on my left shoulder - I could not seem to make that the "high point" of my body without going nearly vertical, it sits near the top front of my bicept - I'm definitely considering moving it to my forearm.
As the dive ended I realized that with no air in my wing and 500psi I could hold a 10ft stop - surprisingly my weighting was correct (as my buddy had guessed for me) and I had made several observations... which will most likely change since this was my first dry dive.
Cons:
1. I did not like the reduced flexibilty, probably my biggest "gripe"
2. Venting did not seem very intuitive, though I'm sure it's something I'll get used to with experience.
3. Extra weight is never fun, though not near as bad as I first guessed.
4. Tight wrist seal (which can be easily resolved)
5. Increased air consumption (hopefully this will go away with experience)
6. Feeling of "suit squeeze"
Pros:
1. Of course I did not get cold... at all - it was the most comfortable dive temperature wise I have had yet. I was not cold and I was not hot, just perfect while in the water.
2. Not dripping wet after a dive (though damp from sweat)
3. Less need to add or remove air from my wing (which I found quite surprising)
Of course my favorite part was when we were swimming back to shore and my buddy looks over at me and says "I got really cold on that dive... maybe you're not as crazy as I was thinking"
Aloha, Tim
P.S. In case you are wondering, I did get a few stares and questions on the way to the water - I figure they just thought I looked really cool ... or crazy
For undergarments I used a 10oz poly fleece union suit from my camping supplies. With no boots to wear over the socks (yet - they are in the mail) I put a pair of old tennis shoes on instead. Air temp was a warm 87* when we got to old airport beach in Kaanapali - I parked in the last shady spot at the far end of the parking lot and after reminding myself that I needed to adjust the harness on my backplate (I let it out 2") began suiting up. Didn't seem to take much longer suiting up than normal with my 3mil full wetsuit, and I even ended getting done before my buddy by about 5 minutes. I was feeling the extra 10 pounds on my back and wondering if it really was necessary (it was I later found out)
Standing around in the parking lot was getting quite warm, so I headed over to the shower to cool off - which was the last time I felt hot all day - I was quite surprised that the mist of water was enough to cool me off as I was planning on overheating all day. My buddy got done and we kicked off from shore... actually we stepped off as I was having trouble getting my fins on. On land I could touch my toes, reach my valves and had little trouble with flexibility... in water was another story, my reach was shortened by about 3 inches making it near impossible to get my fins on, and the street shoes barely fit even in my XXL Jet fins. After a 2 minute struggle I had bested those inanimate objects at the ends of my feet and we began our dive.
For the next 71 minutes we cruised the reef at an average of 20 ft. Not real deep, but it was a nice dive with a consistent 1/2kt current which we swam into for the first 50 minutes before riding it back to the entry point and hanging around there for another 10 minutes or so, quite strong for this site. A couple of times I forced myself into an inverted feet up position to see how difficult it would be to recover from, while it made me focus a bit, several good kicks uprighted my position and put me back in proper trim. My air consumption did go up a bit more than usual, going from .45 to .56 and costing me about 400psi over the course of the dive. Hopefully I will be able to recover the lost air time as I get used to this new suit.
After approximately 30 minutes I noticed my right hand was tingling, and realized the seal was a bit tight, by the end of the dive I have very little feeling in my right hand, so stretching it is definitely in order before tomorrow's dive. The only thing which caused me concern was how difficult it was to vent air from the exhaust valve on my left shoulder - I could not seem to make that the "high point" of my body without going nearly vertical, it sits near the top front of my bicept - I'm definitely considering moving it to my forearm.
As the dive ended I realized that with no air in my wing and 500psi I could hold a 10ft stop - surprisingly my weighting was correct (as my buddy had guessed for me) and I had made several observations... which will most likely change since this was my first dry dive.
Cons:
1. I did not like the reduced flexibilty, probably my biggest "gripe"
2. Venting did not seem very intuitive, though I'm sure it's something I'll get used to with experience.
3. Extra weight is never fun, though not near as bad as I first guessed.
4. Tight wrist seal (which can be easily resolved)
5. Increased air consumption (hopefully this will go away with experience)
6. Feeling of "suit squeeze"
Pros:
1. Of course I did not get cold... at all - it was the most comfortable dive temperature wise I have had yet. I was not cold and I was not hot, just perfect while in the water.
2. Not dripping wet after a dive (though damp from sweat)
3. Less need to add or remove air from my wing (which I found quite surprising)
Of course my favorite part was when we were swimming back to shore and my buddy looks over at me and says "I got really cold on that dive... maybe you're not as crazy as I was thinking"
Aloha, Tim
P.S. In case you are wondering, I did get a few stares and questions on the way to the water - I figure they just thought I looked really cool ... or crazy
