1st time in a drysuit

[boogeywoogey]

I don't seem to see what type of dry bag you have in your posts above.

That makes a big difference. Also you need to think about your undersuit, which I am sure you have as you've bobbed around already.

Advice about using the suit for buoyancy compensation, rather than your wing, is like teaching the old bird to suck eggs...you have to otherwise you get squeezed. The first funny bit is dumping air from your bag.

Good luck.

boogey

 

[jeckyll]

I've got a Bare Nexgen with the T200 underwear

Obviously I did not wear the undersuit in the pool, just some thin yogapants & shirt. Tomorrow morning it's off to the ocean to dive it 'for real'



Bjorn

 

[vkalia]

Vandit: I used the drysuit exclusively. Unless we were doing surface skills (weight removal, etc) where I would use the BCD.
<snip>
I've read about the different techniques people use (just suit / suit & bcd / suit just to get ride of the squeeze and then bcd ... etc). I think for now I will try to use just the suit. Once I'm comfortable with it, I _may_ try just using the suit to eliminate squeeze and then use the wing for 'finetuning' to see if I like it.

Find whatever technique suits your needs - the main thing is .

Personally, I dive pretty much the same way as TS&M: squeeze just enough air in my drysuit to prevent permanent damage to the family jewels, and then use the BCD/wings for buoyancy. I usually leave my dump valve pretty much wide open, so I can purge out air if I have to - but since I dont have too much air in their, I dont really need to.

I too have heard the theory about it being harder to manage 2 things at once - but since I dont keep too much air in my drysuit, it doesnt really need management per se (nothing that I cannot compensate for with my lungs, even if I am upside down).

The Trident Triangles are indeed Y shaped - think of 3 horse-shoe shaped pieces of rubber joined together at the open end. One end goes around your instep, one goes at the back of your foot (around the Achilles) and one goes around the bottom.

If you dont get the Triangles, you can just buy some velcro straps and use them to tighten your boot against your foot.

Barry - my SAC is around 15-18l/min with a drysuit (lower end with single tank, higher end with twins and stages), and around 8-10l/min with a wetsuit. Of course, this is also tempered by the fact that my drysuit generally gets dragged out in cold water - and of late, I've been in the Andamans where the coldest it gets is 27C. I have no shame, and am going to dive dry even here - am waiting to have my suit shipped back to me with new seals

Vandit

 

[jeckyll]

So I did my first two ocean dives in my drysuit. I definately need to ensure that I dump air from the suit earlier. I took 3 unscheduled rides to the surface, not rocketing exactly, but once I started I just wasn't able to get air out of the suit fast enough.

I'm thinking of moving my computer to my wrist (I was going to wait a bit) so that it's easier for me to check my depth. On shore dives when we are swimming back towards shore along the bottom, I don't always realize the depth change.

All in all though, not horrible, just alot more to watch now

Bjorn

P.S.: I did get to find out that I can hear my computer as it's beeping at me and flashing "SLOW" for the ascend speed warning. I didn't make it very happy

 

[Scuba Stu]

If you learn through PADI, they recommend that you use your drysuit for bouyancy control and that you only use your BCD at the surface, under 60ft or in emergency situations. This appears in the Drysuit Speciality manual and the Advanced O/W manual.

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Just yesterday I did my first post Dry Suit instruction dive.

I was using a nearly new DUI TLS350 with the 300g powerstretch Polartec undies. The suit did not have "turbo soles". I wore my wetsuit booties instead of the rock boots so I could use my regular fins. The suit did have zipseals on both the wrists and neck.

I managed my bouyancy with my wing, and only kept enough air in the suit to keep off a squeeze. On descent I had the exhaust valve about 5 or 6 clicks in from full open, and once at depth adjusted the exhaust valve to full open. Since I was experimenting and learning I would intentionally add a little too much air to the suit and then let the air vent on its own to find the "right" feeling. Once I had tried this little experiment a few times I got a feel on my own about just how much air to add to take off a squeeze.

I have been diving wet for years and I like my wetsuit very snug, my wetsuit seals so well that often on the first dive of the day my crotch area experiences a slight squeeze and water does not migrate through the suit. Because of this I am quite accustomed to a tight fitting suit while in the water, so the snug feeling of the dry suit was not new.

All in all, I must admit that I found the experience entirely positive. In the water I was not warmer or colder than I would have been in my high quality wetsuit. I did not find the additional task loading of managing the air in the dry suit to be much of a bother. My wetsuit booties kept the feet from turning into air bags, and the suit fit perfectly over my calves so there was not much of a potential air space there. The only place in my lower legs that would gather air was just above my ankles. This was easy to recognize and easy to solve. Out of the water I was toasty warm while some of the other divers were shivering, here is where the real happiness lies.

My only complaint is that since I have been working to get my trim horizontal and I frog kick, my ankles were constantly filling up since my feet are the highest point.

I plan on continuing to rent for a while. I want to try different models and brands before I spend any real money, and even then I am certain that my first suit will be a used one, probably from eBay. It is pretty easy for me since I am almost a perfect fit for a DUI Extra Large. If I was only able to fit in a custom suit the entire experience would be both riskier and more expensive.

Mark Vlahos

 

[jeckyll]

I'm going to be taking my advanced at the end of the month, but I'm hoping to get a good head start on the drysuit diving before then

 

[Daryl Morse]

All of my cold water diving has been in a drysuit. I currently use a rental Whites Nexus shell drysuit which is rear entry and has a shoulder dump. Since the water in Vancouver is very cold, I wear a lot of fleece to keep warm. I use my bp for buoyancy and put only enough air in the drysuit to eliminate squeeze. Based on that, I have a few comments on some of the previous posts:

When you're ascending, dump air from your drysuit before you dump air from your BCD. Air migrates much more slowly in a drysuit so if you need to dump air quickly, the more air you leave in your BCD, the easier it is to dump air quickly should the need arise and it will help you to avoid uncontrolled ascents.

The more air you put in your drysuit, the more air there is to move around, particularly to your extremities. I let some air move into my arms and legs to adjust my trim, but since I don't put much air in the drysuit in the first place, I don't have a problem with excessive trim changes caused by lots of air migrating to my feet. There simply isn't enough air in my drysuit to drastically alter my trim.

I use external boots which fit tightly so I don't need boot keepers. Some of my buddies who have built-in boots use boot keepers and like them. They work well, particularly for people with small feet. I have small feet so when I purchase my own drysuit, it will have custom boots.

I calculate my SAC rate for every dive. There's a bit of difference in SAC rate when diving dry or wet, but I wouldn't call it significant. Fleece compresses, but so does neoprene. Obviously the less neoprene you're wearing, the bigger the difference.

 

[String]

Also, 1 tip: if you are diving a trilam or similar membrane suit - get these thingummies called Trident Triangles and put them over your boot. That keeps the boot pressed in snugly against your foot and minimizes the floaty-foot effect.

Or just get boots that fit ?

The only downside to diving with a drysuit is greater air consumption. And you are right - it isnt really rocket science or even all that hard!
Vandit

Eh? How do you get that? Drysuit with proper weighting means youre warmer on a dive and burn less gas than a wetsuit in cold waters.

 

[jeckyll]

vkalia / String: I actually don't have very floaty feet. The boots that come with the nexgen seem to do a decent job keeping the air out.

No ankle weights either.

Bjorn