What is covered in a PADI drysuit diver course?

[drk5036]

Another random drysuit question, while I have everyone’s attention. Usually I descend when wearing my semidry by swimming down the first couple of meters. For some reason in the feet first position I don’t sink well, but my weighting is pretty close to perfect, I can maintain a stop at 3 meters with an empty tank and BCD. Is there anything about using a drysuit the requires a feet-first descent? I feel like if I had enough weight to descend feet first I would be overweight at my safety stop...

 

[Storker]

Briefs, not boxers.

No, boxer briefs. When you strip down, you really don't want to be seen wearing a banana hammock.

And on the drysuit-for-buoyancy-control thing: IMNSHO, if you learn to dive dry early in your diving career, there are advantages to using the suit for buoyancy control. At that stage, most of us are so task loaded that having one fewer bubble to manage can be a definitive advantage. Me, I prefer the suit-for-squeeze-and-warmth, wing-for-buoyancy-control approach. But that preference grew on me as I got more comfortable under water. I'm not quite sure I'd be equally comfortable managing two bubbles when I had fewer than ten dives under my weight belt.

 

[lexvil]

Another random drysuit question, while I have everyone’s attention. Usually I descend when wearing my semidry by swimming down the first couple of meters. For some reason in the feet first position I don’t sink well, but my weighting is pretty close to perfect, I can maintain a stop at 3 meters with an empty tank and BCD. Is there anything about using a drysuit the requires a feet-first descent? I feel like if I had enough weight to descend feet first I would be overweight at my safety stop...

Try it in a pool, so long as you have the vent open on a swim out there is not going to be enough air in the suit to cause a problem but until you experience the squeeze you won’t really know, I drop feet first and flatten out to a sky diving profile on the way down, an almost immediate change of position and have my finger on the inflate button adding little bursts of air to slow and control my descent.

 

[SpeedyBob27]

Hey guys,

So I ordered my Seaskin Ultra drysuit and am looking to get it some use. Based off of recommendations of a few people, I've signed up for the PADI drysuit diver course. The trick to this, and the reason I'm posting this thread, is that I live in northern Japan, and the dive shops here don't speak English. I've lived in Japan for 5 years now and can speak some Japanese, but I'm honestly not sure how it's going to go (I'm more than a little apprehensive about the language barrier). When I signed up I let the instructor know there could be language issues, but he basically said if there were problems he would demonstrate and I could follow him. No one can speak underwater, anyway (additionally, one of my friends trained with him before and said he was really nice, and that I shouldn't be worried).

So, regarding the course, from what I've seen online it generally covers donning and doffing the suit, general instruction on how to dive with it, and emergency procedures (for example, how to recover if you end up in a leg-up position). Are there other things I should expect?

Luckily, the "theory" on drysuit diving I'm completely good with, so I think that shouldn't be an issue.

Also, I was looking to get some advice on weighting. I've been doing a fair amount of diving here using my stainless freedom plate, really heavy steel 10 L cylinders, and my Hollis neotek semi-dry suit. I dive with 4 kg of lead, which is basically perfect. Any ideas on a ballpark estimate for what I should dive with my first time out in the drysuit? 6 or 8 kg?

Thanks for any feedback.

Well, the course covers a lot of emergency drills, suit types, accessory types, the science behind it, as well as the benefits. Can't really give much advice on weighting, as it varies a lot between people, I would just do a couple of weight checks until you get it right.

 

[Storker]

Another random drysuit question, while I have everyone’s attention. Usually I descend when wearing my semidry by swimming down the first couple of meters. For some reason in the feet first position I don’t sink well, but my weighting is pretty close to perfect, I can maintain a stop at 3 meters with an empty tank and BCD. Is there anything about using a drysuit the requires a feet-first descent? I feel like if I had enough weight to descend feet first I would be overweight at my safety stop...

With a standard single tank, you should be some 2-3 kg "overweighted" at the start of your dive to be comfortably neutral at the end, with some 30-50 bar left in the tank.

If you're 2-3 kg negative, a feet-first descent shouldn't be a problem if you make sure to vent your suit properly.

 

[Edward3c]

Using the buoyancy device requires managing two bubbles (high task loading), hence why we teach suit only. On more advanced dives >30m using both is acceptable.

A graphic to give you an idea of the Task Loading:

 

[Bierstadt]

Another random drysuit question, while I have everyone’s attention. Usually I descend when wearing my semidry by swimming down the first couple of meters. For some reason in the feet first position I don’t sink well, but my weighting is pretty close to perfect, I can maintain a stop at 3 meters with an empty tank and BCD. Is there anything about using a drysuit the requires a feet-first descent? I feel like if I had enough weight to descend feet first I would be overweight at my safety stop...

I also dive a neotek semi-dry, and do the exact same thing. It's crazy how much extra buoyancy you have before the suit fully saturates. However, a drysuit isn't going to absorb water like the semi-dry does. So approach your weighting accordingly, it's a whole different kettle of fish.

 

[HKGuns]

I don't know squat about dry suit diving yet. But dang those Neotek semi-dry's are the bomb for cold water!

 

[boulderjohn]

The drysuit only for buoyancy issue rears its ugly head on ScubaBoard frequently. As Tursiops noted, the PADI course says there are different approaches, with the choice of suit or suit + BCD depending upon a lot of factors.

One of the factors is the degree to which you are negatively buoyant without any inflation. Tech divers carry a lot of gas, and often use heavy steel tanks. With my tech setup, there is no way on God's green Earth I could even think of using the suit only. In contrast, if I were diving a recreational single tank setup and if I were properly weighted, if I put enough air in the suit to be comfortable, I wouldn't need anything in the BCD to maintain buoyancy. Many single tank recreational drysuit divers need to use both because they are grossly overweighted.

The DUI owners put out a book years ago on drysuit diving. That book recommended that new drysuit divers try to use the suit only for buoyancy.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I just shared this in a PM on a discussion about dry suit training.

I'd also recommend (this I got from Ryan Custureri when he was still a UTD instructor) practicing the difference in trim when you add gas to your dry suit and remove from your BCD and vice versa.