BluewaterSail
Happy in Doubles
I'm writing this for those who might be thinking of making the switch from wetsuits to drysuits, or more to the point, from warm water to cold water. I wanted to share the experience of my first drysuit dives, so you know what to expect.
I'm one of those warm water wussies who recently decided that I didn't want to limit myself to where my 5mm wetsuit would be comfy. I figured that as my skills developed, there would be more and more missed opportunities if I couldn't dive dry, since I have no intention of being uncomfortably cold for any length of time. So it was about time to buy one of those contraptions, and learn how to use it, so I would have confidence with it, when the opportunity struck next time.
I decided on a Santi Emotion drysuit, which is not imported into Israel, my country of residence. So I contacted John Kendall, who is the UK Santi distributor, and a GUE instructor, and bought a packaged deal; most of the bits and pieces of the basic drysuit set, plus a couple of days of training. So last week, off I went to the south of England, to Vobster Quay Dive Center, which was a perfect drysuit training site. Sheltered fresh water, a well equipped dive shop with a helpful staff, and authentic cold water (10 deg C).
First step was to examine all of the stuff, have an explanation of how to put everything on, and get sent off to the women's dressing room. Gosh, there is a lot of stuff! In order of assembly:
1. Back at the hotel, I had assembled and attached a She-P (this is not the thread to discuss that adventure
)
2. The top and bottom of the base layer (I bought 4th element Drybase at the Vobster shop).
3. The 200g Santi Thinsulate Undergarment, which is like a one piece jumpsuit
4. A pair of 200g Thinsulate booties
5. The drysuit itself, which has the challenges of 2 zippers, a neck seal and 2 wrist seals, suspenders, a crotch strap, and has attached boots. And of course a Halcyon p-valve installed at the factory, which has a tube which needs to be connected to the other tube from step #1, routing it through the undergarment and base layer, and whatever else you are wearing under the base layer.
I am happy to report that I am able to do all of the above myself, unlike my wetsuit which I can't zip myself.
Then down near the water, the following was added to the outfit:
6. A hose was added to my left post first stage, for dry suit inflation
7. 6mm Neoprene hood
8. 5mm wet gloves (gloves make opening bolt snaps, and feeling that things are in the right place much more challenging!)
I didn't bring my fins with me to England, because I knew that the Large Jets that I bought for my wetsuit booties would not fit the drysuit boots. So I rented fins from the shop. All they could find were XXL, so I tried them.
Of course we needed to add more weight than I usually use. First try was a good guess.
Next I noticed that none of the gauges that I usually wear on my arms don't fit around my wrists any more. I took and old computer with a long strap just so that I would have depth indication, and dealt with the rest of that later with lengths of bungee.
Now we learned how to inflate and deflate and burp the air out of the suit, and we were ready to hit the water!
First we filled the suit with gas, and stretched out horizontal on the surface to even out the suit. Then we learned to submerge, using the deflate on the inflator hose a lot longer than usual, really getting well under water before getting into trim and using the rear dump. And speaking of the rear dump, no more pushing your rear end skyward to dump the wing, you need instead to roll on your side. In a drysuit, you really need to be conscious of your position, since the air will always rise to the highest point.
I was so glad that I had a kind, patient, knowledgeable instructor with me, who I trusted implicitly. Everything feels so different!
If you raise your feet too high, the air goes there, and you go upside down if you're not really paying attention! More practice needed here! We spent a lot of time on exercises of how to recover from the clumsy positions that one might find oneself in.
Also, we are used to controlling buoyancy with the wing alone, and now there is another place where gas needs to be put in while descending, and removed while ascending. Both need to be managed, and you need to get a feel for how much gas is in both. I was advised to use minimal gas in the suit to help me keep control. But even a slightly squeezed suit still has the potential for floaty feet, and inelegant loss of desired position.
Releasing gas from the suit is not a push button or string pull, its dependent entirely on body and arm position. You need to move the air bubble to a vent on left arm near the shoulder, which is always left open. So if you are doing something with your hands, and need to release gas from the suit, it gets a bit task loading, because that arm needs to go up to be the highest point. On the other hand, if that becomes the highest point, even if you didn't intend to release gas, off it goes.
On the second dive of day one, we went exploring the lake, doing minor ups and downs. Well, those too-big fins came off, first one, when we were right beside a cliff, and I chased after it so it didn't fall far down. That excitement caused fin #2 to come off. We surfaced, and John went back down and found the missing fin. What a guy! :worship: The next day, John went into the storeroom at the shop himself and found more suitable fins for me, the right size and even with spring straps. So that drill was not repeated!
I have spent the last year trying my best to have horizontal trim. I found that I need to have a little bit of a head up trim, to keep my feet air under control. John was very nice about it and told me not to worry so much about my trim. Especially when trying to vent the suit.
Because the undersuit was a little too snug (I must lose those pounds I gained since I was measured), I found it difficult to reach my isolator. Trying to find it during a valve drill was the only time that I actually shot up to the surface. Other times when I lost control of position, I was able to recover. I did, however, revert to the dreaded hand sculling that I thought I left behind months ago.
So anyhow, I did 4 dives over 2 days with John, and feel that I understand how all this works, even if I can't do it right all the time. Thank you John! Then I had one lovely, much more relaxing day, doing 3 dives with some of the local crowd (thanks Rob!!! ), when I mostly kept under control, and had a fabulous time seeing the sights of Vobster.
And through it all, I was warm and comfy and dry!
Linda
I'm one of those warm water wussies who recently decided that I didn't want to limit myself to where my 5mm wetsuit would be comfy. I figured that as my skills developed, there would be more and more missed opportunities if I couldn't dive dry, since I have no intention of being uncomfortably cold for any length of time. So it was about time to buy one of those contraptions, and learn how to use it, so I would have confidence with it, when the opportunity struck next time.
I decided on a Santi Emotion drysuit, which is not imported into Israel, my country of residence. So I contacted John Kendall, who is the UK Santi distributor, and a GUE instructor, and bought a packaged deal; most of the bits and pieces of the basic drysuit set, plus a couple of days of training. So last week, off I went to the south of England, to Vobster Quay Dive Center, which was a perfect drysuit training site. Sheltered fresh water, a well equipped dive shop with a helpful staff, and authentic cold water (10 deg C).
First step was to examine all of the stuff, have an explanation of how to put everything on, and get sent off to the women's dressing room. Gosh, there is a lot of stuff! In order of assembly:
1. Back at the hotel, I had assembled and attached a She-P (this is not the thread to discuss that adventure
)2. The top and bottom of the base layer (I bought 4th element Drybase at the Vobster shop).
3. The 200g Santi Thinsulate Undergarment, which is like a one piece jumpsuit
4. A pair of 200g Thinsulate booties
5. The drysuit itself, which has the challenges of 2 zippers, a neck seal and 2 wrist seals, suspenders, a crotch strap, and has attached boots. And of course a Halcyon p-valve installed at the factory, which has a tube which needs to be connected to the other tube from step #1, routing it through the undergarment and base layer, and whatever else you are wearing under the base layer.
I am happy to report that I am able to do all of the above myself, unlike my wetsuit which I can't zip myself.
Then down near the water, the following was added to the outfit:
6. A hose was added to my left post first stage, for dry suit inflation
7. 6mm Neoprene hood
8. 5mm wet gloves (gloves make opening bolt snaps, and feeling that things are in the right place much more challenging!)
I didn't bring my fins with me to England, because I knew that the Large Jets that I bought for my wetsuit booties would not fit the drysuit boots. So I rented fins from the shop. All they could find were XXL, so I tried them.
Of course we needed to add more weight than I usually use. First try was a good guess.
Next I noticed that none of the gauges that I usually wear on my arms don't fit around my wrists any more. I took and old computer with a long strap just so that I would have depth indication, and dealt with the rest of that later with lengths of bungee.
Now we learned how to inflate and deflate and burp the air out of the suit, and we were ready to hit the water!
First we filled the suit with gas, and stretched out horizontal on the surface to even out the suit. Then we learned to submerge, using the deflate on the inflator hose a lot longer than usual, really getting well under water before getting into trim and using the rear dump. And speaking of the rear dump, no more pushing your rear end skyward to dump the wing, you need instead to roll on your side. In a drysuit, you really need to be conscious of your position, since the air will always rise to the highest point.
I was so glad that I had a kind, patient, knowledgeable instructor with me, who I trusted implicitly. Everything feels so different!
If you raise your feet too high, the air goes there, and you go upside down if you're not really paying attention! More practice needed here! We spent a lot of time on exercises of how to recover from the clumsy positions that one might find oneself in.
Also, we are used to controlling buoyancy with the wing alone, and now there is another place where gas needs to be put in while descending, and removed while ascending. Both need to be managed, and you need to get a feel for how much gas is in both. I was advised to use minimal gas in the suit to help me keep control. But even a slightly squeezed suit still has the potential for floaty feet, and inelegant loss of desired position.
Releasing gas from the suit is not a push button or string pull, its dependent entirely on body and arm position. You need to move the air bubble to a vent on left arm near the shoulder, which is always left open. So if you are doing something with your hands, and need to release gas from the suit, it gets a bit task loading, because that arm needs to go up to be the highest point. On the other hand, if that becomes the highest point, even if you didn't intend to release gas, off it goes.
On the second dive of day one, we went exploring the lake, doing minor ups and downs. Well, those too-big fins came off, first one, when we were right beside a cliff, and I chased after it so it didn't fall far down. That excitement caused fin #2 to come off. We surfaced, and John went back down and found the missing fin. What a guy! :worship: The next day, John went into the storeroom at the shop himself and found more suitable fins for me, the right size and even with spring straps. So that drill was not repeated!
I have spent the last year trying my best to have horizontal trim. I found that I need to have a little bit of a head up trim, to keep my feet air under control. John was very nice about it and told me not to worry so much about my trim. Especially when trying to vent the suit.
Because the undersuit was a little too snug (I must lose those pounds I gained since I was measured
), I found it difficult to reach my isolator. Trying to find it during a valve drill was the only time that I actually shot up to the surface. Other times when I lost control of position, I was able to recover. I did, however, revert to the dreaded hand sculling that I thought I left behind months ago.So anyhow, I did 4 dives over 2 days with John, and feel that I understand how all this works, even if I can't do it right all the time. Thank you John!
Then I had one lovely, much more relaxing day, doing 3 dives with some of the local crowd (thanks Rob!!! ), when I mostly kept under control, and had a fabulous time seeing the sights of Vobster.And through it all, I was warm and comfy and dry!
Linda
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