First drysuit (pool) class today

Kinda weird to go into the pool in sweats (and a drysuit), come out of the pool totally dry, and then walk home in the same sweats.

I think I got lucky. At least half the class had leakage problems, either due to bad seals, or other leaks. I had no leaks.

Also managed to not do a feet first ascent, although I need more work on my buoyancy.

Is it typical for the bottom half of the drysuit to be rather tight (not quite painful, but close), no matter how much air is put into the suit? (I kept putting air in the suit to try and counter the squeeze, then my chest/shoulder area would get puffy, and I'd have to dump air from the suit, which didn't do anything to help the squeeze in the legs)

Just a simple question, do you need to do a class to use a dry suit? Not that I have any plans to buy one this year or next year but I like learning more so the day I want to go buy a dry suit I can find out about classes if needed.

welcome to the wonderful world of drysuit diving.

diving dry is important not just for comfort but also safety, to avoid shunting of fluids away from the extremities and so reduce the risk of DCS.

I don't know what conditions are like near you but in Britain it can get mighty cold and whilst a 7 mm semi might keep you as warm up to a point underwater it's pretty horrible when you get out and between dives.

I think your right to take a course cos the buoyancy control issues are slightly different from wet suit diving and you need to know how to deal with them.

black Ice

I would sugest that you take a class simply because of the difference of the BC and the dry suit. A big problem that people have when they don't take a class but just go out a buy a dry suit is that they use both there BC and dry suit at the same time witch is a big no no. If you us both you have to doump both surficing. I have been teaching dry suits for 6 years and have seen some domb stuff.

Scubaree

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black Ice

I would sugest that you take a class simply because of the difference of the BC and the dry suit. A big problem that people have when they don't take a class but just go out a buy a dry suit is that they use both there BC and dry suit at the same time witch is a big no no. If you us both you have to doump both surficing. I have been teaching dry suits for 6 years and have seen some domb stuff.

Scubaree

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I guess if you're using your BC for buoyancy control and just letting enough air into your dry suit to stop squeeze then you would have to dump both on surfacing ?????
(Dry suit coming Friday :banana: )

i know this has been discussed on different threads before but as far as i'm concerned dry suit diving means using BC inflation only at the surface and dry suit for buoyancy whilst diving.

the key is to get your weight correct so that you only need the minimum of suit inflation to keep off the squeeze and maintain neutral buoyancy.