First dry dives this past weekend

[terrasmak]

What a blast and chore. 3 dives total , first one was an 80 minute dive at a beach cleanup, first 20 minutes i felt like i had worse control than a new OW diver, but at least i was warm. By the end of the dive, i was doing pretty well (not to mention i had to pee) and felt good enough to go on the next days boat dive.

Well having never burned off all my air , i started the second dive with the same weighting and ankle weights again. This one was a normal dive hitting the rec limits and the colder waters below the thermocline. WOW this thing is nice, my buddies were in 7mm wetsuits and freezing , i was fine!!! During the safety stop i tried doing some basic skills and screwed around a bit. First i tried the valve drills, for some odd reason i cant get to them ( i think my harness is two tight ) i have no problems with movement out of water , no limit of movement , time for some adjustment before the next dive. Next once the stop was complete i tried the inverted thing , i didnt have anyproblems with the legs and feet filling up and floating me out of control. The only thing bad i noticed is i came up with 300psi less than my buddies.

Last dive, once again DTB1981 froze and i was fine. Mid-dive i decided to ditch the ankle weights and see what happens, buddy close and wow, why the hell did i even buy those things, i felt free. Next i finally got my tanks under 1000 to start doing weight checks , first i ditch one whole ACB 6 pounds. Very nice difference then tried the second 7 pounds, well a bit to much , swapped the two around , took some out of one , some from the other. Finally when does , i figured out i was pretty much 6 pounds overweight NOT including the ankle weights(3 pounds). What a difference a lot of extra weight makes.

All in all , it was a great weekend of diving. I definatly need more time and practice with the drysuit. I also need to tweek my gear up a little (adjustments). I cant wait for the next weekend of diving , i'm going to try ditch the ACB's for a weightbelt , get a tailweight pouch from DSS and a few other tweeks.

 

[KMD]

What seems like a PITA putting on drysuit will soon become second nature. While you can never be as fast at gearing up as a wetsuiter, you will always look cooler. :14:

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Congratulations - now you know why there’s no going back to diving wet!

The fact that you can't wait to get back into the water, no mater how cold it is topside or below, is a huge change from diving wet isn't it?

It took me around 10-12 dives in a drysuit before everything felt squared away again but sounds like you're way on the way to getting there.

Remember to practice grinning at your freezing buddies.

Cheers,
Rohan

 

[Wilson]

It took me around 10-12 dives in a drysuit before everything felt squared away again but sounds like you're way on the way to getting there.

Ditto on this part. You may want to look at some of the drysuit gaiters. I had air get down toward my feet once in a current and it was more than entertaining when I got back to still water.

 

[TheHobster]

What seems like a PITA putting on drysuit will soon become second nature. While you can never be as fast at gearing up as a wetsuiter, you will always look cooler. :14:

I find suiting up in a DS to be much easier than a 7mm wetsuit - not as easy as a 3mm but easier than a 7 mm

 

[mikerault]

Other than needing someone to pull the back zipper it usually takes me much shorter to suit up than a wetsuited diver. It is just that we can wait around for you guys to finish, then get into our gear to we don't die from heat stroke waiting for you...

Mike

 

[Tigerman]

I dress up at least as fast in a drysuit as I do in a wetsuit, not to mention i get it off a LOT faster.
Im kinda exited about picking up my own drysuit this week tho, as it is thicker (BARE CD4) than the on Ive been using so far which is a DUI CF200 suit. I expect it to change my bouyancy a bit as well as not being as comfortable. I kinda didnt want to spend like 2200 dollars on the drysuit alone in my first setup..

 

[jbisjim]

I find getting in my Dry Suit way easier than a wetsuit. I hate diving in a wet suit any thicker than 3mm, i feel like the michelin man in a 7mm.

 

[terrasmak]

So far getting in is easy , but getting my feet out is a PITA . My suit is the Bare Trilam HD with soft socks. I am not looking forward to diving this thing in the summer, water temp is still cold but ambient will be way freaking hot espsecially if i do lake mead.