Dry suit dive traing?

[NEWreckDiver]

Wow thanks for all the replies. I got out of work early today and stopped at a new dive shop. I told them i had a used ds and id like to take a dry suit class. First thing they said was that they where having a sale on drysuit and if i bought one they would give me a free dry suit class. I took a quick look at what they had and said that the suit i had would be fine. The guy who happend to be and instructor said no problem bring down your suit and I'll test the suit for leaks, check the valuves and seals. He said iF the suit needs any work it could repaired right there and if i sighed up for the class he wouldnt charge me for the test. I thought that was pretty fair and i wanted the suit tested any way. I have three other dive shops with in 20 minute from where i live i'll check another shop tomorrow. Oh by the way in the replies it was asked if the person that i spoke with at my dive shop in the first post was the owner of the shop. Yes he was.

Sounds like you found a good shop, I would stay with him. Now you can get on with diving.

[jvisser]

I taught myself to use mask/fins/snorkel when I was about 11 or 12, after having read every book on diving I could get my hands on. I learned the right way, and I practiced.

Now, years later, I have just acquired a new drysuit, and I'm struggling with whether to take a course or self-teach.

What specific set of skills are needed, and what drills should I practice? For example, years ago I learned several mask clearing techniques, and practiced U/W mask doff/don/clear drills.

Are there any consequences or limitations in not having a DS certification?

Is there a "list" of things, a universally known set of skills one must know, learn, and practice?

Can someone recommend a text? Is there a "book" on-line?

Thanks,

jv

[a203diver]

I ended up taking the ssi dry suit diving class. I found it very easy to get use to. I found the skills very easy to master. The first skill was venting the suit to get the air out before entering the water. Next was a weight check. After getting your weight right they had us desend in the shallow end of a pool and put air in the suit and vent the suit by raising your arm or sholder. Next we did the same in the deep end of the pool. The trick was to have the vent open enough to let the air out by rasing your sholder as soon as you started to asend or just before you started to asend. I found it very easy but most of the people in the class had a hard time at first. We also had to disconect are dry suit hoses and reconect them.
Next the instructor told us to put are feet up and fill the dry suit with air. To get the air out of the suit we had to either push of the bottom or tuck are knees to are chest and roll back into a vertical position and vent the suit. By the end of the night in the pool every on had got it down pretty good.
we also had to vent are suit using the neck seal and are rist seals. After teaching the skill we had a couple of hours to pratice in the pool. We where told to put only enough air in the suit while diving to take off the squeeze. The last thing we did in the pool was to flood are suit in the deep end.
For the open water check out dive i had to do all the same skills except flooding the suit. I still had to vent the suit using my wrist seals and neck seal at the end of my dive and only got a little wet, not enough to get cold. Over all i found the class very good. I could have learn all the skill myself but most of the people would have had a hard time if the instructor wasnt helping. The other good thing about taking any class is meeting new people.

[Genesis]

A203s pretty much got the short list

I just taught myself in my pool. It was pretty funny the first time I did the feet-up thing

BTW, while its not so bad venting through your neck or arm seal in the pool, if you actually have to do it in open water for real it won't be because you want to go up a bit - its a catastrophic situation (e.g. exhaust stuck closed!)

You WILL get a LOT of water in the suit. It beats the alternative though.

BTW, one thing you should practice (which requires a deep pool or a shallow OW location, 15' deep or so) is righting from a feet-up ASCENT and stopping yourself. You want to be able to do that from 15' without breaking the surface. You have to be both quick and good, but if you ever get in that situation "for real", that'll be the skill that will save your bacon.

I don't know if anyone checks drysuit certs unless you want to rent one - if you bought one, then you probably don't need it for that purpose. I've never been "carded", and I use mine all the time, including at commercial sites.