My First Drysuit

Hello,

I'm just getting into SCUBA diving in my area (Vancouver, Canada) and am now building up my own equipment. Right now I have a mask, snorkel, and brand new Tusa xpert zoom fins (along with deep sea boots). My friend and I are about to take our PADI open water certification, and have recently been snorkeling at one of the dive spots we hope we will go to. Right now we only have shorty wetsuits, which are fine on the surface, but if you dive down 10-20 feet, it’s a different story. The water temperature drops and it is only possible to stay down for 10 seconds. As this is as warm as the Vancouver water will get, I would like to look into a dry suit of my own. I will be taking the dry suit certification with my PADI. What I'm getting at is I want to ask a few questions about fry suits. My first is, could I free dive with a dry suit, as in just go snorkeling. If I had the money, I would look into a wetsuit for snorkeling, and a dry suit for diving but I don’t at the moment. My dive shop has a special for a Tusa Titanium dry suit for $600 CAN I think. Would free diving with a dry suit be very hard, or should I really consider getting both a dry and wet suit?

Thanks for your help,
Jeff

yes, you can freedive with a drysuit. of course you will need some weight to get down and you will experience some squeeze which could get quite uncomfortable if you go deep.

Jeffman once bubbled...
Hello,

I'm just getting into SCUBA diving in my area (Vancouver, Canada) and am now building up my own equipment. Right now I have a mask, snorkel, and brand new Tusa xpert zoom fins (along with deep sea boots). My friend and I are about to take our PADI open water certification, and have recently been snorkeling at one of the dive spots we hope we will go to. Right now we only have shorty wetsuits, which are fine on the surface, but if you dive down 10-20 feet, it’s a different story. The water temperature drops and it is only possible to stay down for 10 seconds. As this is as warm as the Vancouver water will get, I would like to look into a dry suit of my own. I will be taking the dry suit certification with my PADI. What I'm getting at is I want to ask a few questions about fry suits. My first is, could I free dive with a dry suit, as in just go snorkeling. If I had the money, I would look into a wetsuit for snorkeling, and a dry suit for diving but I don’t at the moment. My dive shop has a special for a Tusa Titanium dry suit for $600 CAN I think. Would free diving with a dry suit be very hard, or should I really consider getting both a dry and wet suit?

Thanks for your help,
Jeff

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That's extremely inexpensive for a drysuit. Is it neoprene?

jonnythan once bubbled...


That's extremely inexpensive for a drysuit. Is it neoprene?

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Those were 600 Canadian dollars. In American that's $400 or so.

Jeffman, do you snorkel a lot? If it's a few times a year you can rent a wetsuit on the days you go snorkelling. Personally, since I learned to dive I never snorkel locally anymore. For me snorkelling became a vacation activity for days that I couldn't go diving....

R..

I have never thought of renting...

I have been going quite often because of summer. But when school starts, my schedule will probably not allow alot of it.

The dry suit they are selling is made of neorene.

FWIW, until you get certified and do some diving you may want to hold off on a drysuit. They're certainly nice, but I wouldn't put it on the top of my list of gear. I moved to Seattle earlier this year and while I have since bought a drysuit I made about 50 dives in a full 7mm suit with hood and gloves. Then I dove 3 different drysuits, a few times each, looking for the "one". In SCUBA, like many things in life, the cheapest route may not be the most preferred.

Get certified, get a feel for how much time you're going to have to devote to diving, how much time you want to devote, etc. and then decide whether a drysuit is warranted. I know lots of folks who dive once a month (more or less) that don't feel it's a justified expense, there's tons of ways to spend money on diving so unless it's falling out of your pockets consider waiting and buying/renting a wetsuit to learn in.

And in answer to your question, below 15-20 fsw in a drysuit is the point the squeeze starts to get uncomfortable.

C

Thank you for the suggestion. I will wait until around New Year to see if a drysuit would be practical.

JM,

If you're willing to wait, most Vancouver dive shops slash prices on drysuits on Boxing Day to clear out old inventory. Besides, this time of year, a wetsuit is perfectly comfortable, especially since you won't be freezing your ass off during the surface interval. Until then, get a good reg and BCD, instead of having to rent out all the time.

log

lawofgravity once bubbled...
JM,

If you're willing to wait, most Vancouver dive shops slash prices on drysuits on Boxing Day to clear out old inventory. Besides, this time of year, a wetsuit is perfectly comfortable, especially since you won't be freezing your ass off during the surface interval. Until then, get a good reg and BCD, instead of having to rent out all the time.

log

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I have not started SCUBA diving a lot, as I am just taking the PADI OW course next week (for the second time) along with drysuit training. I'm sure having my own reg and BCD would be nice, but until I start diving more often, I will rent.

When the time comes and I start getting into diving a lot more, would you reccomend getting a reg and BCD before a drysuit?

Thanks,
Jeff

Jeffman once bubbled...


When the time comes and I start getting into diving a lot more, would you reccomend getting a reg and BCD before a drysuit?

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I would primarily for a couple reasons:

1. knowledge of and comfort with the gear - the bcd and especially the reg are your life support. knowing how they work, trusting that they will work, and being familiar with the way they work will make your diving more comfortable.

2. the bc/reg is an expense for a required piece of equipment, usable in all environments. A drysuit is a luxury item, imho.

I didn't realize you'd taken the ow class before, maybe if you're certain that you'll get your monies worth from a drysuit or you're terribly uncomfortable in a wetsuit it's the right choice for you. I've seen people spend oodles of money on gear early on and then not get "hooked" on diving, you'll never get the money back out of your gear selling it used.

I know the PNW water is cold and dark, my first priority when I got here was an HID.

C