Oside Jimc
Contributor
And I'm not wet either!
Well I got to dive my new dry suit today, so first I want to say THANKS to everybody that gave me advide during the order/purchase process (In particular Mike aka SoCalSwami). I ended up with a TLS350 signature series with rock boots. I dove it in the pool Wednesday night to learn how to use it, very nice, after hearing phrases like "now you get to learn to dive all over again" I was a little aprehensive, but no worries, it felt really good, no problems with control even when I had to hover 1' off the bottopm and hold 1" while I swan from the deep end to 3', no issues, never broke the surface with a fin. Learned all the disaster recovery drills, only issue I had with the "floating up by the feet" was a little nausea from sommersaults, OK so I flunked gymnastics.
So today I took a ride on the Marissa, since I lack a regular dive buddy and I didn't want to be a lame instabuddy in the event I had suit issues I went ahead and paid for a private divemaster, Steve was very cool and took good care of me.
First dive was the "Lazy Daze" (sp?), totally cool, and yet not cool, I was warm for a change! What a great dive, besides the depth it was a nice easy dive, lots of life, nudi city for sure. about 20' viz, little surge, a fun relaxing way to test dive the new suit. I was able to do the whole dive just using my suit for bouyancy, and for sure it felt a little wierd having that bubble moving around. When the computer said it was time to go I ascended next to the anchor chain "Just in case", but there was no issue whatsoever. A nice steady free ascent, held the safety stop like a champ so it looks like my weighting is spot on (+4 from my wetsuit weight, 12 total on the belt) so right on! The SI was enjoyable for a change too.
Dive 2 was "Broomtail reef", at 25'-35' and with a building swell this dive was more of a challenge, just your typical dive in the washing machine with 5'-10' viz. Lots of depth changes that were enough I had to deal with them but no worries, just lift the left arm to sink, push the magic button to not sink. Only issue I had was once I got inverted looking under a ledge and felt the air rush to my feet, but since my bouyancy was right no issues, just got my feet back down so the air went back to where it belonged and voila, back in business. Lots of lobsters here, a couple of legals, but probably 2 dozen shorts. But after 40 minutes of watching the bottem sway back and forth and getting tossed around I had enough, I was getting sea sick.
All in all I"m a super happy guy, I do have to sort out my fin situation, I bought a pair of 2XL turtles, but they were solidly stuck to my feet at the end of the dives, may need to go 1 size down on the rockboots (these also seem a little big).
Well I got to dive my new dry suit today, so first I want to say THANKS to everybody that gave me advide during the order/purchase process (In particular Mike aka SoCalSwami). I ended up with a TLS350 signature series with rock boots. I dove it in the pool Wednesday night to learn how to use it, very nice, after hearing phrases like "now you get to learn to dive all over again" I was a little aprehensive, but no worries, it felt really good, no problems with control even when I had to hover 1' off the bottopm and hold 1" while I swan from the deep end to 3', no issues, never broke the surface with a fin. Learned all the disaster recovery drills, only issue I had with the "floating up by the feet" was a little nausea from sommersaults, OK so I flunked gymnastics.
So today I took a ride on the Marissa, since I lack a regular dive buddy and I didn't want to be a lame instabuddy in the event I had suit issues I went ahead and paid for a private divemaster, Steve was very cool and took good care of me.
First dive was the "Lazy Daze" (sp?), totally cool, and yet not cool, I was warm for a change! What a great dive, besides the depth it was a nice easy dive, lots of life, nudi city for sure. about 20' viz, little surge, a fun relaxing way to test dive the new suit. I was able to do the whole dive just using my suit for bouyancy, and for sure it felt a little wierd having that bubble moving around. When the computer said it was time to go I ascended next to the anchor chain "Just in case", but there was no issue whatsoever. A nice steady free ascent, held the safety stop like a champ so it looks like my weighting is spot on (+4 from my wetsuit weight, 12 total on the belt) so right on! The SI was enjoyable for a change too.
Dive 2 was "Broomtail reef", at 25'-35' and with a building swell this dive was more of a challenge, just your typical dive in the washing machine with 5'-10' viz. Lots of depth changes that were enough I had to deal with them but no worries, just lift the left arm to sink, push the magic button to not sink. Only issue I had was once I got inverted looking under a ledge and felt the air rush to my feet, but since my bouyancy was right no issues, just got my feet back down so the air went back to where it belonged and voila, back in business. Lots of lobsters here, a couple of legals, but probably 2 dozen shorts. But after 40 minutes of watching the bottem sway back and forth and getting tossed around I had enough, I was getting sea sick.
All in all I"m a super happy guy, I do have to sort out my fin situation, I bought a pair of 2XL turtles, but they were solidly stuck to my feet at the end of the dives, may need to go 1 size down on the rockboots (these also seem a little big).
