first drysuit dive today

[elan]

double post

 

[LaurenW]

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

No more than a heavy set of fins. Constantly having to readjust your position because your legs are too light is going to cause a lot more fatigue. Distribute your weight so you don't have to fight to position yourself properly.

Semi-technical explanation: your center of buoyancy (center of the volume of the water you and your equipment displace) is not the same as your center of gravity since, although you're completely submerged, you and your gear are not uniformly dense and the water you're displacing is. You want to distribute your weight such that the two centers are as close as possible, so you're not fighting to maintain your orientation.

On using the BC and suit for buoyancy control: I started using the suit to prevent squeeze and the BC for buoyancy but I found that once I got my weighting figured out properly I'm just about neutral with enough air to keep the squeeze out. Play with your weighting a bit, dropping some extra weight might make playing with the BC unnecessary. Not having to manage two separate air bubbles should help your task loading.

quick edit: If your weighting is perfect and you still feel like you need more buoyancy even after you've got some air in the drysuit, don't hesitate to put some air in your BC. I don't want to imply that it's a bad practice, and lots of people do it. I just wanted to explain my experience. Excess air in the BC is a lot easier to manage than extra air in the suit, it doesn't move around as much.