AOW certified

I completed my AOW this weekend, 9 years (but only ~15 dives) after completing my OW.

I did it in a lake at 470m/1542ft of altitude, so a dry suit was required (water temperature at 25m/82ft was 5°C/41°F).
It was great fun and I had no issues with the deep dive and the navigation dive, but unfortunately I'm not experienced with dry suits and I had some issues with it that preveted me from relaxing and from fully focusing on the exercises.

We were expected to use only the drysuit for buoyancy, not a combination of BCD and drysuit. When I left the exhaust valve completely open, I dropped like a stone because all the air I let into my suit immediately went out again. Then I opened the exhaust valve 2 stops which worked well for a while, but after a few minutes going to a different depth I had buoyancy issues again. I always had either negative or positive buoyancy and just couldn't get it neutral. Every time I came to close to the ground, there was really bad sight for the whole group. This made me slightly stressed as I didn't want to be the one guy responsible for losing other divers from the group. I was breathing too fast because I didn't feel at ease, and obviously this (in combination with the constant inflating of the dry suit while attempting to get neutral buoyancy) made my air consumption very high.

I think I could do much better if I would use mainly the BCD for buoyancy (I don't have any issues getting perfect buyoancy with the BCD) and leave the exhaust valve of the drysuit open all the time and only use the inflator of the dry suit to avoid a squeeze, but not for buoyancy.

All in all, I'm happy that I completed it and I learned a lot, but my 2 main take-aways are the following:

• I'm not a dry suit person. I will stick to tropical diving for a while before I give it another try.
• I'm done with additional certifications cards and courses for a while, and will focus on doing relaxing fun dives where I can improve my current skills. I will get at least 50 more recreational dives under my belt before I even start to think about doing the Rescue Diver course.

Anyway, I'm going to Jordan in November and Vietnam in January, so plenty of opportunities for smooth fun dives

Keep trying with the dry suit! It does open up a world of spectacular diving that otherwise wouldn't be available to you.

My first dry suit dive was in a 2 degree temperature quarry when I was 11 with 3mm gloves (a very irresponsible centre). I was so miserable and useless it put me off dry suit diving for 3 years.

When I was 14 I had another go with a very responsible club. The difference was remarkable and for a long time I hated diving without it! Even using one on Easter trips to the Red Sea!

Recently I've got into cave diving in the UK which 90% of the time necessitates a wetsuit in cold water, but I'm planning a dive where I'll be able to use a drysuit, because I haven't used it in a while I'm going to the pool tonight to throw myself around in it and get used to it again.

You dictate the type of diving you want to do, not your kit. If the drysuit is putting you off cold water diving, practise a bit more with it and I reckon you'll reap the rewards.


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Vindobona:

We were expected to use only the drysuit for buoyancy, not a combination of BCD and drysuit. When I left the exhaust valve completely open, I dropped like a stone because all the air I let into my suit immediately went out again. Then I opened the exhaust valve 2 stops which worked well for a while, but after a few minutes going to a different depth I had buoyancy issues again.

Click to expand...

As I said in the other thread you posted to:

IME, there's two ways of dumping air from a drysuit:

1. Exhaust valve open, horizontal trim. When dumping is necessary, roll to your right and lift your left elbow. When you've dumped enough air, resume normal position.
2. Exhaust valve closed, any trim. When dumping is necessary, make sure exhaust valve is higher than most of the rest of you, press the exhaust valve with your right hand.

If I were a beginner, I'd choose option 2, since it gives me the best control of my suit air. Option 1 requires you to close the valve before ascending if you ascend head-first, otherwise you'll lose all your suit air. If fit hits the shan, the elevator is starting and you need to dump air quickly, you can operate your suit exhaust valve with your right hand and your BCD inflator with your left hand, simultaneously.

And "open" is anything from wide open, via a few clicks closed to just a few clicks open. Depends on your gear, so you'll have to use trial and error to find what's best for you and your gear. Some suits leak through a fully open valve, and you'll surface with a soaking wet left upper arm, others don't.

Click to expand...

Addendum:
The whole secret about diving a DS comfortably is to be correctly weighted (too much, and you'll have a big bubble to handle; not enough, and you'll be shrink-wrapped beyond comfort and have problems keeping down), and to anticipate and handle buoyancy swings early.

Whether you use the DS or the BCD for underwater buoyancy control is a matter of personal preference, but I think the reason for teaching students to use the DS is that when you're task loaded, managing two volumes of air can be a challenge.

I started my diving career with filling only my DS underwater, and filling my BCD only on the surface. These days I prefer to use my wing for primary buoyancy control also underwater, but I like to have a bit of air in my suit for comfort and insulation. So I have to fill and vent both my wing and my DS as I descend and ascend. Find what's best for you, and the only way to find that out is to dive and experiment, dive and experiment.

I remember well my first-ever drysuit dive. I hated it ... seemed like it set my buoyancy skills right back to square zero. When I mentioned it to my diving buddies they told me to give it at least six dives ... maybe as many as 10 or 12 ... to get comfortable managing the bubble in the suit. They were right. By the time I put a dozen dives on the suit I never wanted to go back to wetsuit diving.

Stick with it ... it gets better ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

See how your upcoming dives go. You may want to consider Rescue before getting 50 more dives in.

I understand your pain. Almost all my dives were done using a 7mm wetsuit in 38F water here in Canada. August this year me and my wife made the switch and ordered drysuits, it took us probably 4 or 5 dives before we felt comfortable. Personally I never dive with my valve closed, it's always fully open and I only use the drysuit for inflation.

To the OP...

I teach DS a lot, and I am very passionate about giving proper instruction. I personally would never have instructed you to just use your suit for buoyancy. In a nutshell (for my teaching):

- Proper weighting is everything. Sort out what you need to remain comfortably neutral with minimal gas in your tank(s) at 15 ft. So, say, with 300psi in an AL80. That's your target weighting for that setup (suit, undergarment, kit, salinity, ...)

- Understand how your buoyancy changes during dive. Compression and gas consumption. If you maintain just enough gas in suit for mobility (kill the squeeze) and to allow the insulation to work (kill the squeeze), then depth plays a minimal part in buoyancy change, unlike with a highly compressible wetsuit. Therefore you primarily are just dealing with gas consumption and gas add/loss in the suit / wing as you move up and down in water column.

- Dive with DS dump valve all the way open. Only click it down if suit vents before you can kill the squeeze. Typically though you can keep it open.

- Use wing for any buoyancy changes during dive. If you've weighted yourself properly then you should only have minimal changes.

- Understand that with depth the gas density increases and therefore you'll have to hold the inflate button longer to achieve same volume change as compared to the surface.

- Always always continue to verify your weighting. It's a iterative process over many dives, but the most important thing.

Sorry for being a bit off topic but I personally feel you were given a bit of bad advice.

Best,
John

John Hanzl
Author, Out of Hell's Kitchen
www.johnhanzl.com

I think I can comment pretty well on this, having bought my drysuit last week, then doing drysuit cert last Friday, then AOW on Sat and Sun.

Buoyancy control is what its all about. My instructor on the drysuit course shaved some weight off me (2lbs), and I found it hard to stay down. We were operating under the inflate drysuit only (no BCD use underwater) philosophy. He helped me to calm down, and control my breathing to stay down.

Then I went in the next day for my AOW. The first dive was navigation, we got a chance to practice buoyancy while the other team was doing their square. The second dive was peak performance buoyancy. I was now having trouble with my feet dropping. So my (new) instructor popped off my ankle weights. I was now 8lbs lighter than I originally thought I had to be, and my trim was excellent.

Then the nest day we did our wreck dive. I sailed through the wreck with perfect trim, only having buoyancy issues when I was preoccupied with fishies. What an experience. Drysuit is the only way to go. Especially up here in the North Atlantic.

I have to say, get a good instructor, and trust them. I was outside my comfort zone at first because I thought I was underweighted. But my instructor kept telling me I could do it. And I did. Now I'm more comfortable underwater than ever, and even at the surface because I have 8 less pounds to lug around.

Personally... Ill repeat what Storker said. Keep valves open, and HORISONTAL trim.
The fact that all the air kept escaping your suit immideately tells me that you probably werent.

Just keep at it. It opens up a whol new world!

My experience is in line with most of the comments here. I did my AOW in a drysuit with rented jacket BCD, shortly after getting certified in tropical waters. My buoyancy was a bit of a mess. Not out of control, but nothing to be. Proud of. Then, another 40 or so wet dives, now with my own BP&W, working on buoyancy and trim, and getting very comfortable in a lot of different conditions. Now that it's getting cold outside, I finally got my own drysuit. Very different this time around, bouncy and trim, after playing with weighting a bit, now a piece of cake. I leave the valve open, horizontal trim pretty much all the time, and use the BCD for buoyancy control. Air in the drysuit only for insulation and to prevent squeeze. One thing I still need to work out, though, is how to get tight control of the fins. I have the DUI turbo boots, and it feels like I'm slipping inside those boots whenever I try to turn the fins. Thicker booties, maybe. Otherwise, I'm happy with switching to a drysuit for diving when it's cold.