Got soaked in rental drysuit

[fmerkel]

Finish the course. Learn as much as possible about what makes a 'decent' suit. The turnover/dropout in divers in cold water is huge. There are LOTS of suits for sale. To buy one you have to know how to evaluate zippers, seals, seams, and general condition, as well as fit.
You sure don't need a $4000 suit for occasional cold water use anymore than you need a top tier BMW to go to the store to get milk. Get realistic if this demands a reasonable budget. There are huge numbers of folks that get by just fine for hundreds of dives in Apollo, USIA, OS, BARE, etc.
(note - DUI stands for dry until immersed.....). Got a very very active dive buddy had a DUI. Had nothing but trouble with it. Finally got an Apollo and was shocked to be dry and comfortable at 1/3 the cost. Another buddy had to borrow my OS 2x in 2 years when his DUI needed to go back. They aren't 'magic'. IMO there are better products, but they are also costly.

DUI and Santi are 'just' shells. They are damn good ones, and expensive to boot, but the object is to dive and stay dry. If you won't pony up the cash for top end, then you won't dive, unless you rethink how this best plays out for you.

You sure as hell need to learn to close the zipper.

 

[Dogbowl]

You sure as hell need to learn to close the zipper.

Believe me, THAT lesson has been ingrained in my brain! I only left one tooth opened!

 

[fmerkel]

You can ship 1-2 cups through a pinhole that is hard to find.
My first drysuit was a gift, an old tired one. I replaced the seals but the elastic band around the waist caused myriad of pinhole leaks. I used to wear rain pants over my undergarment with a towel tucked into the waist and hanging down to absorb the leak. Worked pretty well. Later the OS rep showed me how to improve that which dropped the leak to a mere trickle. But it taught me lots about what a drysuit was all about. My next suit was an OS (simple shell, front entry, less than $1000 on sale) with the thickest undergarment they make. Big improvement but took 6# more to sink the extra warmth. Used it for 300+ dives and still is in the basement as a backup.

The average entry level suit should be good for 300-600 or more dives. Seals, and the zipper unfortunately, are 'consumables' and will need occasional replacement. Seals aren't too bad. The zipper replacement is $$$. Do not buy a suit with a zipper issue!!!!!!
Do the math - Dive 50x a year ( a LOT) and an entry level suit will last 6-12 years, plus a few seals. Zipper could well go the whole distance with good care.

 

[Dogbowl]

We're definitely re-thinking this. Different brands of drysuits are not as easily accessible where I live, although I know I have access to DUI, Santi, Bare and Aqualung. I have heard good things about the Whites Fusion, which is now the Aqualung Fusion. I wonder if they've changed. They're less money, maybe CAD$1,5000 - $2,000 range.

Realistically, I don't think we're going to do much cold water diving. Maybe several weekends a year up in Tobermory, but that's it.

 

[3D diver]

Better to flood in the pool than during a real dive. Hard lesson, but maybe for the best?

If you're patient, good deals can be had on second hand suits. I got an unused suit, third hand, for a fraction of the retail price.

 

[Dogbowl]

You're right. But now we can't get ourselves to do the open water portion of our course because we're scared it will flood again somehow. We're still thinking on it...

 

[3D diver]

Well...did you get cold? I ignored a wrist seal once at the beginning of a dive, continued the dive, and shipped enough water during the dive to complicate the surface swim. But with good undies I didn't get cold in low 50F water.

 

[fmerkel]

That would seem to be a somewhat catastrophic way to view a learning experience. You got wet...in a pool, so what.

OTOH, if you really don't want to dive cold water, then don't. Throw the $$ at travel. Some folks love the Great Lakes wreck diving. I think I'd get bored in a half dozen dives. Not much in the critter dept.

 

[Dogbowl]

Well...did you get cold? I ignored a wrist seal once at the beginning of a dive, continued the dive, and shipped enough water during the dive to complicate the surface swim. But with good undies I didn't get cold in low 50F water.

It was in a pool, so we didn't get cold until we got out of the pool and took the drysuit off. Then a cascade of water came falling off of me and then I was cold.

That would seem to be a somewhat catastrophic way to view a learning experience. You got wet...in a pool, so what.

OTOH, if you really don't want to dive cold water, then don't. Throw the $$ at travel. Some folks love the Great Lakes wreck diving. I think I'd get bored in a half dozen dives. Not much in the critter dept.

LOL yes, I tend to get a little dramatic/catastrophic sometimes...but it was overall not a pleasant experience and my hubby felt the same so I can't blame it entirely on female hormones.

The hubby thinks we should throw the $$$ at travelling down south as well. He doesn't enjoy wreck diving as much as I do. I'm not sure if I really enjoy wreck/cold water diving or whether I just like the challenge.

It's also about time...we can dive on a weekend locally if we can dive in a drysuit, but every time we go down south, it's at least a week. We don't have that many vacation days.

 

[KevinNM]

The single most useful advice I got on drysuit diving from formal courses was the GUE instructor who absolutely insisted that I look at the zipper end and ensure it is fully sealed. Don't just pull it "closed" and assume it is. Every time I've looked at it I don't get a leak. When I've not done that I get leaks about 20% of the time. (The second most useful was from him too and it was that it takes time to vent air when ascending, don't be in a hurry.)

For our pool session in the PADI dry suit course the instructor told us to plan on getting completely soaked, as there is an exercise where you open the neck seal and then the wrist seal as if you had an inflation runaway or a failed exhaust valve and that will flood your suit pretty completely. This was also useful - it isn't something I ever want to do in 62 degree water - but I know how to do it if I need to.

So it's bad that you instructor didn't take you seriously, but you got wet in a warm pool. No big deal, right? I've accidentally flooded in the pool during practice at least twice and did it in a lake a few time. It's useful to see how effective your undergarments are at keeping you warm when the suit leaks. With good undergarments you will be chilly but not freezing your butt off if you get a leak, though the colder the water the less water it takes leaking in to get you cold.

I did a multi-hour dive in a 70 degree lake and completely flooded the suit due to some idiocy I did with a wrist seal. I just felt 'unusually cool', not cold like I did when I did that same dive in a 5mm the next day. Proper selection of undergarments will keep you functional if not comfortable if the dry suit floods. And your suit will eventually flood.

Oh, and people will tell you how it takes 10 or 20 dives to get comfortable with buoyancy in the dry suit. I think that they are full of it, it took me more like 50. But it's worth it.