Hi, this is Bruce from SEASOFT SCUBA. When I bought my first drysuit there were no classes available. You just got the suit and went out and learned to dive it. Now after teaching hundreds of people to dive drysuits and having over 4,000 drysuit dives I TOTALLY recommend taking a class. Here is why:
1. Can a 16 year old learn to drive with good old dad teaching them? Sure, but they are probably going to learn a lot more with a professional driving instructor. Are some dads great instructors? Yes, I am sure they are but again, some are probably....not so good at teaching.
2. Having someone show you the right way can save you having to relearn the wrong way later.
3. A simple reminder, we are on life support and mistakes are magnified underwater, having someone demonstrate the safe way to descend, ascend, when to use the buoyancy of the BC or the drysuit... There are a lot of very good, safe reasons to have a pro show you.
Just as important as having a pro teach you to dive is finding the right pro. ALL drysuits dive differently, a bag suit dives differently than a traditional neoprene suit, a traditional drysuit dives differently than a crushed or compressed neoprene drysuit or a vulcanized rubber suit.
Find someone with experience in a lot of suits, who can show you how to dive YOUR suit! A lot of instructors have experience in only their suit and it may be different than yours.
You should be diving your suit in a pool or shallow water location first, a place free of currents, tides, boat traffic etc. You want to be able to concentrate on how your drysuit interacts with you in this kind of situation first. Your instructor, of course, will teach you that someday you will be diving these other situations and conditions and will teach you how they will effect your safety, comfort, speed, buoyancy etc.
The pool is the right place to find out how much weight you need (or don't need).
I have been diving a long time and my memory is full of stories about divers who ignored the rules and paid a price or even the ultimate price for ignoring the experience, knowledge and skills they could have learned from a professional. Good luck, drysuit diving rocks.
Bruce