pastorjared
Registered
Just throwing out a question.
Is drysuit training necessary or is it $150 i can spend on something else?
Is drysuit training necessary or is it $150 i can spend on something else?
Drysuit training necessary?
- Thread starter pastorjared
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GrumpyOldGuy
Contributor
If your profile is accurate (0-24 dives) its probably a good idea as it will shorten the learning curve considerably and add a margin of safety, but not absolutely required.
I skipped d/s training, but I had years and years of experience. Even so I felt totally ill at ease and my buoyancy and trim really took 3 giant steps back. It required at least a dozen dives devoted to learning my dry suit in a benign, controlled environment to regain comfort and competency. It not that its all that hard, but you need a place and time to work through all the drills like recovering from being inverted and buoyant. And the first few times you do this its real nice to be next to an up line you can grab on to should you run out of control. With a d/s class, you would have the assurance of an instructor watching you to insure you remain under control and giving advice on trim issue. A solo diver or a diver with an inexperienced buddy is not going to have the same assistance.
I skipped d/s training, but I had years and years of experience. Even so I felt totally ill at ease and my buoyancy and trim really took 3 giant steps back. It required at least a dozen dives devoted to learning my dry suit in a benign, controlled environment to regain comfort and competency. It not that its all that hard, but you need a place and time to work through all the drills like recovering from being inverted and buoyant. And the first few times you do this its real nice to be next to an up line you can grab on to should you run out of control. With a d/s class, you would have the assurance of an instructor watching you to insure you remain under control and giving advice on trim issue. A solo diver or a diver with an inexperienced buddy is not going to have the same assistance.
OP
pastorjared
Registered
Copy that!
With your experience a true course is highly advised. Do the book work/study portions BEFORE you buy since much of the course is about selection.
Pete
Pete
I wouldn't want to jump in without some training. IF there is someone who can teach you what you need to know for free, that would work. The question is the quality of training. Unless I was extremely confident of the training capability of the other person, I'd spend the money. Good training is worth the cost.
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I found the class very helpful. I took the class with 250+ dives.
There were times when I was ready to quit and throw the suit away. Times when I was not happy with my husband/instructor. That has never happened in the many other classes he's taught me. I found the drysuit had a pretty steep learning curve. But, once I got to about dive 10 I was really happy.
There were times when I was ready to quit and throw the suit away. Times when I was not happy with my husband/instructor. That has never happened in the many other classes he's taught me. I found the drysuit had a pretty steep learning curve. But, once I got to about dive 10 I was really happy.
IMHO, it varies a lot. Some new divers intuitively understand buoyancy while most are still over-weighted and think those valves on their BC are elevator buttons. In any case, you could get the suit and play with it in a swimming pool. It would be even better if you can enlist a mentor. That experience will answer your question. Just a hint… take the class if you find yourself floating half out of the water and head-down.
If you decide that a class is appropriate you will have had the time to analyze your pool experience and will absorb the training much more effectively. Dysuits are all about buoyancy control and staying warmer is a nice by-product.
If you decide that a class is appropriate you will have had the time to analyze your pool experience and will absorb the training much more effectively. Dysuits are all about buoyancy control and staying warmer is a nice by-product.
I would not do it on my own. When I got mine I was diving with an instructor. Did a quick on shore drill and talked about the how's and why's. Got in the water and did the water drills before doing our dive. Total time about 20 min. I took to it real naturally since I have sinky feet so drysuit was awesome for me. GF basically did the same thing for "training" but took her a few dives to get comfortable.
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Do make sure the instructor actually dives a drysuit. Some instructors just get the specialty so that they can teach the specialty but are actually warm water divers themselves.
I know some shops throw in a free dry suit class with purchase so that's a nice deal, although if you're looking used, you may still save more money than what you save on a free class.
Will you be buying used, off the shelf or custom? Off the shelf, you may get a good deal on a sale and/or a free class. Depends on if you have a " normal" size.
I know some shops throw in a free dry suit class with purchase so that's a nice deal, although if you're looking used, you may still save more money than what you save on a free class.
Will you be buying used, off the shelf or custom? Off the shelf, you may get a good deal on a sale and/or a free class. Depends on if you have a " normal" size.
KD8NPB
Contributor
This thread is interesting, considering that I did a solo drysuit dive for my first time today.
I had zero problems with it! It was interesting to be warm at 48 ft with a bottom temperature of 45F. The suit was a Poseidon Unisuit, which is a 7mm neoprene drysuit with an integrated hood. I did not like the valve, as it required you manually push in a button to purge. I was wearing wool socks, sweatpants, and a wool sweater underneath. I had a little bit of leakage up my arms, but I don't think I had the sleeve seals done properly. It also didn't help that the drysuit was about two sizes too big for me. It was a medium-large and I wear a size small wetsuit. My feet were swimming inside the boots. It was not too hard to recover from a feet up position. I had to add 6 lbs of lead to my setup to achieve neutral buoyancy again. I did not like the huge negative swing of the suit and will definitely be investing in a shell drysuit instead.
I tried both techniques for trim & buoyancy : suit inflation only, and combined suit/wing inflation. I did not like running the suit only for buoyancy control. I preferred to have the suit about 3-4 quick shots of air just above "the squeeze". On my ascent, I was very cautious. I stopped every 2 ft to burp a little bit of air out of both my wing and the suit.
All-in-all, it was a good dive though! There wasn't a lot to see, but the added thermal protection was splendid.
I had zero problems with it! It was interesting to be warm at 48 ft with a bottom temperature of 45F. The suit was a Poseidon Unisuit, which is a 7mm neoprene drysuit with an integrated hood. I did not like the valve, as it required you manually push in a button to purge. I was wearing wool socks, sweatpants, and a wool sweater underneath. I had a little bit of leakage up my arms, but I don't think I had the sleeve seals done properly. It also didn't help that the drysuit was about two sizes too big for me. It was a medium-large and I wear a size small wetsuit. My feet were swimming inside the boots. It was not too hard to recover from a feet up position. I had to add 6 lbs of lead to my setup to achieve neutral buoyancy again. I did not like the huge negative swing of the suit and will definitely be investing in a shell drysuit instead.
I tried both techniques for trim & buoyancy : suit inflation only, and combined suit/wing inflation. I did not like running the suit only for buoyancy control. I preferred to have the suit about 3-4 quick shots of air just above "the squeeze". On my ascent, I was very cautious. I stopped every 2 ft to burp a little bit of air out of both my wing and the suit.
All-in-all, it was a good dive though! There wasn't a lot to see, but the added thermal protection was splendid.
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