Drysuit - Managing the air bubble?

[TSandM]

I think the major points have been covered -- if your suit is auto-venting, either you are significantly out of trim, or you are overweighted. It should not be difficult to retain the gas to balance a single tank's worth of air in your suit.

But in addition to static weighting, which can be a problem, there is also body posture. If you tend to flex your hip joints and bicycle kick, it will tend to drop your legs. In addition, if you aren't bending your neck, you are probably rearing your body up to be able to see in front of you. You can play with these ideas with a buddy, just by adjusting your posture and asking your buddy to give you feedback on your trim, but it does help if you have someone in the water with you who knows what the likely problems are. I think if you do a formal weight check and fix your posture, your trim issues may resolve themselves.

 

[kwinter]

Lose the ankle weights and get some gaiters to control air flow to and from your boots.
Keep dropping weight until you are too light to submerge after venting all gas in your suit. Then add a little back.
Your compressed neoprene suit should be less buoyant at the surface than your non-compressed neoprene semi-dry. Hence the need for less weight. But the wild card is the undergarment.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

 

[swimmingsheep]

Thank you all for the advice!

I will bring my more experienced buddy on the next trip and explain everything that you all have said!

 

[WhiteSands]

I will suggest when doing your weight check, to keep a comfortable amount of gas in the suit, just enough to give your arms full mobility and the undergarments their full loft.

Don't try to dump everything out and then do the weight check.

 

[swimmer_spe]

1) You are a beginner.

2) You are likely overweight.

3) You are using a drysuit as a BCD, which is not something a beginner should be doing.


So, first, stop using your dry suit as a BCD. Learn how to control your air for only removing the squeeze. Use your BCD as a BCD.

When you dive, make sure that before you dive that you get all of the air out of your drysuit. Once you do that, get someone to help you do a buoyancy check.

Dive more. Over time, I have been able to drop about 10lbs.

 

[sylverbard01]

The only air in your drysuit should be to keep the insulation loft full. Not for.bouyancy. that's what your BCD is for. I'll bet the first thing your class did was add ankle weights and ten pounds of lead. Useless. Before you dive open the valve and kneel down and squeeze all the air out. Leave the valve open. Get in the water and go dive. When you feel the squeeze add some.gas to your suit to relieve it. Use your BCD for bouyancy.