first dry suit dive

[Tyler labelle]

Why not? Over here, everybody I've dived with tucks their seal, whether it's neoprene, latex or silicone.

When I had a neo suit with neo seals, I tucked the neck seal. If I didn't tuck it quite right, I got a cold shower down my back if I turned my head too much. Now I have silicone seals, I still tuck my neckseal. No more issues than with a neo seal, except it's a little easier to get a fold in the seal where water can seep in. My son has latex seals, he tucks his neck seal and it works great for him. Just make sure there's no vertical fold, and everything is A-OK. And make sure there's one tuck, no rolling, and that the seal is tucked about halfway up.

One advantage with tucking the neck seal is that if there's less risk of the seal "burping" air since air pressure against a tucked seal will go into the tuck and increase the sealing against your skin, while a flush seal will burp if you get a bit of air pressure against it. Underwater, a neck seal burp will probably give you a cold shower down the back, and on the surface the suit holds less air if you're not quite horizontal in the water.

I've done north of a hundres drysuit dives, in water down to 3-4 degrees C (37-40F). Most of them below 10 degrees C (50F). And some of those who I dive with probably have north of a thousand drysuit dives in our waters. They tuck, too.

Mine was rolled outward not inward.

 

[Storker]

Mine was rolled outward not inward.

Ah. Then I agree with @Doby45 . Don't do that.

But you might want to experiment with tucking it like a neoprene neck seal. As I said, I - and AFAIK everyone around here that I've dived with - prefer that.

 

[Doby45]

Exactly, don't roll it down like a little donut, bad bad. You can most definitely can tuck it inward OR what I do is I actually pop it over my head and then work the seal down my neck to the point that it no longer wants to "roll" down my neck. Once I have done that I have a solid inch of neck seal against my neck and have zero leaking issues from moving my head around.

 

[Doby45]

everyone around here that I've dived with - prefer that.

Hell, I am going to try that myself.

 

[Storker]

Hell, I am going to try that myself.

Just have your buddy inspect the seal making sure you don't have any vertical folds in it, and/or help you straighten them out. Those WILL give you a cold shower. Don't ask how I know that...

Kneeling on one knee, your back against your buddy, gives your buddy a nice working position.

 

[Tyler labelle]

2nd dive in it tonight went great. still a little learning curve to it but I'm getting the hang of it. almost perfectly dry tonight. only time I got any water was a wrist seal when grabbing a handle on a sunken boat and instantly felt water come in. learning the ropes but have come a long ways since sunday and tomorrow hopefully will be even better.

 

[outofofficebrb]

2nd dive in it tonight went great. still a little learning curve to it but I'm getting the hang of it. almost perfectly dry tonight. only time I got any water was a wrist seal when grabbing a handle on a sunken boat and instantly felt water come in. learning the ropes but have come a long ways since sunday and tomorrow hopefully will be even better.

How are you finding getting used to using the drysuit as far as buoyancy goes? Any specific challenges or worries? I'm thinking of going dry.

 

[Tyler labelle]

How are you finding getting used to using the drysuit as far as buoyancy goes? Any specific challenges or worries? I'm thinking of going dry.

So I've only been using it to stop the squeeze and been using my bcd for buoyancy. Problem is when I dump air on bcd the dump on drysuit also dumps. Sure I could close it a little more but I think I'll just use the suit and only use bcd at surface.

 

[Storker]

Problem is when I dump air on bcd the dump on drysuit also dumps.

That's a feature, not a bug.

Usually, and especially when diving wet, dumping from the BCD means that you've ascended a bit and are getting a bit light due to Boyle. Now, Boyle works equally on your suit air and your BCD air, so to stay neutral in a DS when ascending, you would need to dump a bit of air from your suit as well. In fact, in my gear config, just taking off the squeeze when descending keeps me pretty much neutral so I don't have to add air to my wing. And dumping air from my suit to stay neutral as I ascend brings me back to the same amount - or absence of - squeeze. So I hardly use my BCD on ascents/descents, I only dump from it to offset the decreasing amount of gas as bottom time goes by.

Disclaimer: YMMV and all that, this works for me in my config and might not necessarily work for you.

 

[Tyler labelle]

That's a feature, not a bug.

Usually, and especially when diving wet, dumping from the BCD means that you've ascended a bit and are getting a bit light due to Boyle. Now, Boyle works equally on your suit air and your BCD air, so to stay neutral in a DS when ascending, you would need to dump a bit of air from your suit as well. In fact, in my gear config, just taking off the squeeze when descending keeps me pretty much neutral so I don't have to add air to my wing. And dumping air from my suit to stay neutral as I ascend brings me back to the same amount - or absence of - squeeze. So I hardly use my BCD on ascents/descents, I only dump a little from it to offset the decreasing amount of gas as bottom time goes by.

Disclaimer: YMMV and all that, this works for me in my config and might not necessarily work for you.

Problem is it's not leaving any air in suit. I want a little to keep squeeze off.