Help w/ Mares Isotherm !!!!

[swoodley]

After reading alot of good things about it (here and in other reviews) I bought a Mares Isotherm semi-dry suit for diving here in New York/New Jersey. I should say, at the outset, that I have just started diving in cold water. My previous diving has all been done with a 3 mm wetsuit, sometimes with a 5/3 mm hooded vest over it for cooler water (say mid 70s to 60s). I realize that diving with this much neoprene creates new buoyancy issues that I need to learn to control.

Still, I am having trouble getting used to this suit. My biggest problem is that it is a little large around my chest, and I can feel air trapped inside it while I dive. I feel sure that this extra air has alot to do with my buoyancy problems. How do I get it out !!???

I have read post on this site where some people said the "burp" their suits. I gather that is a dry-suit term. I have no training for using a dry-suit and don't know how to do this. Can anyone help me.

-Sam W.

PS - I am going diving again tomorrow (July 27, 2003), so if anyone has some helpful suggestions NOW I will be eternally gratefull.

 

[Dryglove]

The easiest way would be to don your weysuit and go into water right up to your neck seal.Put a few fingers inside your neck seal to pull it open.The pressure of the water should force the remaining air out through the neck seal.

 

[norcaldiver]

It's like burping a tuperware thing. You press on it and open the seal a little to pushes the air out.
A buddy of mine had the isotherm and she does the same thing I do for my dry suit. Once on and zipped up, squat down like you're going to do a duck walk, so that your knees are up at your chest. Stick your finger in the neck seal and pull out a little so that the air can escape. You'll know if you did it right because you'll see and hear the air come out under your chin.
She also does this sometimes if we're doing a shore dive. Walk into the water about mid-chest level (hopefully it's not reall surgy) and squat so that the wate is at the collarbone, then burp the neck seal. This really gets the air out.
Good Luck and enjoy the suit