Any advantage to using a dry suit other than wamth?

Many people don't like to dive in Monterey Bay (or north of it) without a dry suit. Assuming that one is not cold in a wet suit, is there any reason not to dive wet? I did one dive there last year and was not cold. I realize that doing multiple dives is where one could get much colder. And I was wearing a farmer john with a vest/hood. So I had 12 mm over my chest.

For now, I have to (want to) use rental equipment to see if I like diving locally. Most of my experience is as a dive tourist.I don't want to load up on gear and then decide the local diving is not for me.

One concern I have about diving dry is that I've never done it, and I have visions of a runaway ascent feet first!

Most of the reasons for using a drysuit extend from the added warmth the other being redundant buoyancy. Personally I don't get that cold during dives but I HATE being cold on the surface during the surface interval or breaking down gear. I also have a lot more energy throughout the rest of the day when I stay dry because I am not as effected by the cold. When doing multiple dives, wearing a wetsuit really takes it out of you and being cold can actually increase your risk of DCS as you are not off gassing as efficiently as you should be.

You could actually probably drop some lead switching to a drysuit with that much neoprene on. I would highly suggest going to a BP/W for diving dry, I'd suggest a BP/W to almost anyone but it makes a large difference when diving dry.

Get a mentor when switching to a drysuit and remember to never use your suit for buoyancy. Your drysuit was designed to keep you warm, not as a BC. Your BC was designed as a BC, not as a surface lifejacket. The reason the books say use the suit for buoyancy is to reduce task loading however too much gas gets put in the suit and it can cause a run a way faster.

Shore dive in monetary on a sunny day, wetsuit isn't necessary unbearable. On a boat far out in water, or in a cold cloudy/foggy day, surface interval will be miserable. Different people has different cold tolerance, but think "warm and comfortable" vs "cold and uncomfortable but bearable".

2nd use for drysuit is for redundant buoyancy. 7mm full suit + 5mm west can easily be 25lb positive on surface. So you carry 25lb of lead to sink it. At 100ft, the wetsuit compress and may only be 10lb positive. You are now 15lb over weight. In the unlikely even that you BC elbow fail, you will have hard time swimming up 15lb.

I think the best way to try out drysuit is to attend a DUI Demo event in Monterey every June or July. It is free, and they have instructor there to give you a quick drysuit rundown, then lead you on a dive. You can try as many drysuit as your can and make as many dive as you can.

First off, the feet first ascent thing is severely overstated ... it's a great way to sell drysuit classes to people who don't know any better. It also leads to the sale and overuse of ankle weights, which the vast majority of people who use them don't need.

If you're going to use a drysuit, a class is helpful, but not for that reason. It's helpful because it teaches you not only how to dive the drysuit, but how to avoid getting too much air in the wrong places, and what to do about it if it happens. It also ... perhaps more importantly ... helps you learn how to maintain your suit to avoid expensive repairs, particularly to the zipper. If taken prior to purchasing a suit, it helps you learn more about the different types of suits, and what advantages/disadvantages each type offers. A good class is well worth the money.

Now to your question ... other than warmth, there's a convenience factor that comes from being dry when you peel off the suit. In colder weather, this is a BIG factor because you generally won't get cold diving wet if you're wearing enough neoprene ... but you WILL get cold when you get out of the water, particularly while getting out of your suit.

And finally, there's the advantage of not having to use your BCD so much to compensate for all that neoprene compression with depth changes. Sure, the air in your suit will compress and you'll have to add more air to the suit, but after a dozen dives or so that becomes almost an automatic process.

But I think you're doing the right thing by going wet until you decide whether or not you like local diving. If you do decide you want to make local diving a part of your lifestyle, then a drysuit is a good choice to make. It makes the dive more comfortable and enjoyable ... which gives you incentive to get out more often. If you decide to go dry, do your homework before you purchase ... ask lots of questions, more so here on ScubaBoard than at your local dive shop, since we won't be in here trying to sell you something that may not be right for you. A drysuit is a big investment, and you don't want buyer's remorse because you find out later you got one that wasn't really what you wanted. There are many different configurations and materials out there to choose from, and they all come with advantages and drawbacks. Understand what those are before making a purchase. Research undergarments, and choose one that works well for local conditions. And most importantly, buy a suit that FITS ... the most important feature of any drysuit is that it allows you full range of motion without being too large. If purchasing a used suit, make sure the zipper's in good shape ... a drysuit zipper is the most expensive replacement item on the suit.

A good drysuit will cost you more than a BCD/regulator setup will, so definitely decide first whether or not you'll get your use out of it, research your options, purchase a good fit, and make sure the suit/undergarment combination works well for your local conditions. Don't worry about the feet-up thing ... after a few dives it's a complete non-issue. Take a class or find a mentor and give yourself 6 to 10 dives in the suit to become completely comfortable. After that, you'll most likely never want to dive wet again ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I have used wet suits all my diving career until last year when the cold just got too much for me. I had read all the horror stories about them and thought they were too much trouble. . After some discussion I spent about $2700 on a very good dry suit (designed for Antarctic diving), and I never looked back. On using one, I have found out there are some basic things to learn and then they are no more trouble than anything else you use. What I learned is;

Don't use it as a buoyancy device unless its all you have left, the dump valve is much slower than a BCD dump due to everything inside the suit slowing the air path down, I think this is one of the big risks that bring people unstuck. Don't forget to dump air on the way up, I tend to dump air from it first then my BCD/wing as they dump easy so simple to dump quickly if I am having any issues with dumping any air from my suit.

Only put in enough air to take out the squeeze, no more is needed and all it does is make the suit a balloon and your feet float in the boots.

Learn to roll out of a feet first ascent, its easy to learn, practice, practice. The only time I have gone feet first is when I went into the water and down the anchor line and got tangled with a fine line at about 5 m, it wrapped around my leg and fin and I realised I couldn't get it off easily without losing a fin in the trashing around, so I slowly went feet first to the surface (seeing I was only down a few min at best there was no real risk for anything as long as I didn't panic and breathed. Hit the surface, untangled and all was well.

I got silicone seals as a choice only because I do a lot of overseas diving and wanted the ability to replace them simply if torn.

You can also attend formal events right after diving!

So, I hated the thought of a drysuit. They're delicate, expensive, hard to don/doff, hard to dive, and useless for me as I'll never willingly dive water cold enough to NEED one. On one dive trip, we drove down to Vortex Springs (12 hours) for a training weekend. We dove all day Saturday (like 6 dives) spanning dawn til dusk. I was wet and cold and gross all day, but the drysuit diver was just chilling between dives. During the colder part of the day, he kept his drysuit on....during the hotter part of the day, he pulled it off and was hanging out in his "undergarments" (athletic shorts and a T-shirt). The next morning, we swung by Morrisson Springs on our way back home. As I was suffering through the process of sliding on my ice-cold wetsuit, he was casually walking into the water. At the end of the dive, we got out of the water at the same time. I immediately went to take off my wetsuit, dry off, and put some warm(ish) and dry(ish) clothes on. Bathroom was locked, so I stripped all the way down to change while hanging out in the woods. By the time I got back, he was in his "undergarments" sitting on the bed of the truck, with all of his gear packed, loaded, and ready to go. I was sticky and slimy and wet the whole drive home, and he wasn't.

I don't think that's worth the cost of a drysuit, though. Not to me, it wasn't. It was that, plus the added redundancy, plus the warmth, plus the flexibility (dive same suit everywhere) that really sold me. The owner of the LDS was bringing in 4th Element and was trying to sell me a range of their wetsuits to dive whatever water temperatures I needed to. Instead, I got a drysuit and just change out undies.

tl;dr: It's not just the warmth, it's the comfort of staying DRY.

As i remember ther movie SC crawled out dry and unwrinkled from a wet suit.

MaxBottomtime:

You can also attend formal events right after diving!

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For me it does revolve around water temps. Being wet and cold is being wet and cold, with shivering and maybe light hypothermia. If you like that, stay with a wet suit. If not, go dry.

I took the drysuit course, and I liked it a lot, but don't much like diving when its dry suit cold anyway - and I totally love being hot in my wetsuit and dropping into the water to cool off, or just lounging around in the water in my wetsuit (ie body floatation device) waiting for people to get ready. Being hot and sweaty (ie summer wx) and then diving in sweaty clothes isn't for me. I'll also add that when we teach pool work, a drysuit isn't convenient, nor what you want expose to chlorine nor is it what the students are wearing. In fact we don't do it with OW or AOW students no matter where we are really. So I just stuck with my wetsuits. A dry suit is on my list of purchases, but other wants keep it below the funded line.

I don't think either is the complete answer for every condition. If you can have both, then do so. If not, then you have to choose your poison.

Warmth and Redundant buyancy are the only two things that matter to me when it comes to drysuits. They also last significantly longer than a wetsuit, and if you have a P-valve you can do your business while wearing it as well. If only they had an S-Valve, they would be the perfect exposure protection for everything.