A note to all the newbies, just dive!

[mogwai]

I don't think I know any experienced dry suit divers who would suggest using the suit for buoyancy? :11: Do I...?

No, I think you're right, in that you want just enough air to prevent a squeeze - especially for guys, and use the BCD for buoyancy adjustments.




Actually from this ol' cowboy, anyway, if you get bucked off, you get back on. If you fall off, get training wheels.

Ok, at the risk of ****ing off all you guys with 200 dives, i have done 70 but don't consider myself a newbie. Doesn't mean i still have a lot to learn, but means i have had good education, and good educational dives. Am confident and learning all the time. Not overstepping my limitations. All the dives i have had are in drysuit in pretty harsh conditions (compared to warm water diving) so the learning and development has been brought home quickly. Am moving onto finishing my rescue and onto divemaster soon. Would agree with one thing though. The more you dive the better it is. Fortunately my dive buddy is also my instructor who has thousands of dives so i suppose i am a bit spoiled.

 

[Curt Bowen]

Ok, at the risk of ****ing off all you guys with 200 dives, i have done 70 but don't consider myself a newbie. Doesn't mean i still have a lot to learn, but means i have had good education, and good educational dives. Am confident and learning all the time. Not overstepping my limitations. All the dives i have had are in drysuit in pretty harsh conditions (compared to warm water diving) so the learning and development has been brought home quickly. Am moving onto finishing my rescue and onto divemaster soon. Would agree with one thing though. The more you dive the better it is. Fortunately my dive buddy is also my instructor who has thousands of dives so i suppose i am a bit spoiled.

You always have more to learn!

Unlike most here, I live, eat and drink diving every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I have been diving for 21 years and have over 4000 dives.

BUT, I am always learning more, going more places and diving new equipment.

Never think for one minute you know everything about this sport, its not possible.

 

[mogwai]

You always have more to learn!

Unlike most here, I live, eat and drink diving every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I have been diving for 21 years and have over 4000 dives.

BUT, I am always learning more, going more places and diving new equipment.

Never think for one minute you know everything about this sport, its not possible.

Sorry wasn't trying to suggest i knew everything. Just that i feel i am past the newbie stage and taking things onto the next stage. I actually said in my post that i am still learning all the time.

 

[Jetwrench]

Sorry wasn't trying to suggest i knew everything. Just that i feel i am past the newbie stage and taking things onto the next stage. I actually said in my post that i am still learning all the time.

When you talk to the ones who really know diving, and I mean "really" know diving, it is a humbling experience. I thought as you did after 60-70 dives, then I met a diver with such depth of experience and knowledge that I had to rethink where I "really" stood in the ranks of the diving world. Compare how much I know as apposed to how much I DON'T know, and back to newbie status I go. There are DM's out there with fewer dives than I have(sad) who would not consider themselves newbies, but I have met at least one who should. I guess it's a matter of perception and self evaluation. So much to learn, so where do you perceive yourself on the learning curve? I'm above many, but well below so many more. Dive Safe! Dive Often!

 

[mogwai]

When you talk to the ones who really know diving, and I mean "really" know diving, it is a humbling experience. I thought as you did after 60-70 dives, then I met a diver with such depth of experience and knowledge that I had to rethink where I "really" stood in the ranks of the diving world. Compare how much I know as apposed to how much I DON'T know, and back to newbie status I go. There are DM's out there with fewer dives than I have(sad) who would not consider themselves newbies, but I have met at least one who should. I guess it's a matter of perception and self evaluation. So much to learn, so where do you perceive yourself on the learning curve? I'm above many, but well below so many more. Dive Safe! Dive Often!

Gotta agree with you.

 

[Halthron]

I think that diving can be measured like a lot of other experiences. Some people have 20 years of experience in their job while others have a single year, they just did it 20 times. If someone has made 500 dives but 400 of them were to the same cove, do they really have more experience than someone who has made 200 dives all over the world with a variety of equipment?

Having a whopping four dives under my belt, I can only nod and absorb what someone is saying. I hope at some point that I'll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

 

[Web Monkey]

The trick to drysuit diving is to use only as much weight as necessary, and control your buoyancy with your BC, instead of the drysuit.

If you have just enough weight to get you under after venting the air from your suit, you can control your bouyancy with your BC. It's frustrating trying to control your buoyancy with the drysuit, since it has an auto-dump valve that may vent the air you just added dpending on your orientation.

If you've got enough air in the suit to have it rush to your feet, you're using too much weight. When properly weighted, the suit will hold just enough air to keep it from uncomfortably squeezing you. (note this doesn't mean a big comfy bubble, just that you're not being squashed). When properly weighted, you'll only need to add air to the suit as you descent and the suit squeeze becomes uncomfortable.

Don't feel bad. It took me more than 20 dives and a good bit of advice to get comfortable in my drysuit.

Terry

As the visibility was bad and I was diving dry, following the instructor diving under a bridge head first made the air rush to my feet and that totally upset the buoyancy I had achieved so my next dive I am diving wet.

 

[Far_X]

There are quite a few responses on here which advise using the BCD for buoyancy. Ever since I got it, people have told me to use the suit for buoyancy. For some of the dives around here, it is all up and down and when you go up, the valve bleeds which means you need more air when you descend again. I wonder why they are not telling me to use the BCD for buoyancy then? Any ideas? I wish I had asked the dive masters that were working on the boat yesterday.

 

[Web Monkey]

They're worried about task overload. They don't want to give you something else to remember.

The first problem is that using your suit for buoyancy means that you're now effectively carrying around a bag of air with a hole that changes size without your direct knowlege.

The second problem is that most new (and a lot of old) divers are overweighted, so you not only have a variable bag of air, you have a big variable bag of air, which is almost impossible to control.

If you dive with the exhaust valve all the way open and don't bother adding air to the suit unless the squeeze is bothering you, you can manage your bouyancy with your BC, which is much easier, since whatever air you add to it will stay there until you release it, and it's predictable.

I'm a big fan of using Drysuits for keeping dry and Buoyancy Compensators for compensating for changing buoyancy.

Terry

There are quite a few responses on here which advise using the BCD for buoyancy. Ever since I got it, people have told me to use the suit for buoyancy. For some of the dives around here, it is all up and down and when you go up, the valve bleeds which means you need more air when you descend again. I wonder why they are not telling me to use the BCD for buoyancy then? Any ideas? I wish I had asked the dive masters that were working on the boat yesterday.

 

[Far_X]

I remember when I first started using it (not that I have used it a lot in comparison), I did have a lot of air in it as I was juggling it around from arm to arm as it would spin me around depending upon which arm had more air than the other. I do not put that much air in now, just enough to keep me off the bottom, but if I can't see the bottom (bad vis. and night) then I am all over the place. I would prefer to use the BC for buoyancy control (after all, I did it when diving wet) but think that somehow I just got to be able to do this easily before I move on to the next method. The squeeze doesn't cause pain around you know where but I am aware of a squeeze.