first drysuit dive today

[MaxBottomtime]

Other than using your BC for buoyancy rather than the suit, the best advice I can give is to close your exhaust valve once you get out of the water and inflate the suit. It's much easier to walk around in without the squeeze.

 

[pdelannoy]

Hey gbray,

Thanks for the post. I am also learning the dry suit and so I enjoyed the details in your post. At the moment I use a combination of BC and drysuit to adjust my buoyancy.

 

[CalgaryDF]

I've found that when I put enough air in the suit to take off the squeeze and still be warm, I am pretty much neutrally buoyant. If I need to adjust more, I put air in my BCD because I don't like to have lots of air in my dry suit.

As for trim, I had a lot of trouble with trim when I first started diving my dry suit and got floaty feet a lot. I tried to move my weight around, lower my tank, everything, but it was still a struggle to get horizontally trimmed until I got 1lb ankle weights. It basically solved by trim issues, so I wouldn't count them out. If you continue to have issues, you may want to try them.

 

[AfterDark]

I've found that when I put enough air in the suit to take off the squeeze and still be warm, I am pretty much neutrally buoyant. If I need to adjust more, I put air in my BCD because I don't like to have lots of air in my dry suit.

As for trim, I had a lot of trouble with trim when I first started diving my dry suit and got floaty feet a lot. I tried to move my weight around, lower my tank, everything, but it was still a struggle to get horizontally trimmed until I got 1lb ankle weights. It basically solved by trim issues, so I wouldn't count them out. If you continue to have issues, you may want to try them.

This person knows how to use a dry suit. I'll add that before I start to surface I release some air in my dry suit, just to the point of feeling squeeze, it makes it easier to keep up with the expanding air in the suit on the way up. As soon as I no longer feel a squeeze I dump more air from the suit until I do. If I start to speed up too much I release air from the BC. IMO dry suits should have ankle weights incorporated into the suit around the ankles. Makes going upside down and back again easier and safer.

 

[sambolino44]

I was influenced by SB'ers who said that ankle weights are for beginners, so I resisted getting them for a while. Now I'm used to them and it's no big deal. I've considered trying to get rid of them, but then I run into the fact that that's 4 lbs I'll have to put on my belt.

It turns out that I like having my weight distributed into smaller chunks so that no one piece of gear is too heavy.

I have a DSS SS plate with weight plates; my rig (without regs) weighs about 15 lbs. I have 14 lbs on my belt, and 4 lbs on my ankles. In the summer, with a lighter undergarment, I use 10 lbs on the belt. Maybe next spring I'll experiment by just keeping my belt the same and removing the ankle weights.

 

[FlyinV]

After a couple dozen dry suit dives I think I need to lose my 1 pound each ankle weights.
Now I am finding my feet are too heavy.

 

[Buoyant1]

I got one this year and started using it in March. My first dives in the dry suit were as you said "complicating things"! I was all happy and content in the 7mm, but the dry suit changed it considerably!

I'm 25 dives into it and still not as comfortable as I'd like to be, but it's DEFINITELY a great way to dive!

I did my first dry suit dive after spending two weeks in the Keys (and diving in a 3mm) and I was back to being really clumsy, but it came back to me towards the end of the dive!

 

[Divers Platform]

Hummmmm, I use ankle weights here is my point of view. Not all divers are built the same. I dive with a lot of people of which some use ankle weigths and others don't, bouyance is different with everyone and is different in the different kind of dry suits avaliable on the market today depending on cut and fit and undergarmet type. Here is a point maybe some may have not condidered, I have had neck problems for years from sports in high school, I use a slightly upper body trim that allows me to look more forward with out cranking my neck so hard back and up. The use of ankle weights has allowed me to adjust a slight head up trim, I also use a steel high pressure 130 tank our dives here in the northwest usually last about one hour to and hour and fifteen min incold water. When you are trimmed well and comfortable time under the water just flies by. I hope you enjoy diving as much as I do, have a great day

 

[sabbath999]

Hey Gary, I just noticed this... I've been away.

Let me know if you want a partner that sucks really badly at dry suit diving (me, I am a total clown in my new drysuit) go out with you sometime.

Jeanne is, unfortunately, out of commission for quite a while so I will be looking for a diving buddy at the stop (she pretty much is out of commission for the next 6-8 months... more cancer surgery, chemo, the whole deal).

I won't be around nearly as much this year (since I want to do things both she and I can do) but there will be lots of times when she will just want to hang out by the waters edge... perhaps she and your wife can hook up on those really nasty bad vis cold days and do some stuff while we get wet.

Glad you enjoyed your dive. Any plans on getting a suit for yourself?

 

[elan]

Ankle weights = another tool to optimize weight distribution
There's nothing wrong with using ankle weights.

Other than they load the ankles and and make the legs more tired