Miserable Westsuit Experience

[BenjaminF]

Soak the wetsuit prior to putting it on

From the inside out? Or from the outside in?

 

[Todd Dicker]

Pfft. Cold water drysuit divers are wussies. Real divers dive wetsuits.

Real divers dive naked. Carrying rocks for weights. And hold their breath from the surface. And sketch what they see on a tablet. But since, you know, technology....I'll keep my drysuit and camera and relax during my dive. Less shrinkage.

 

[ljpm]

The silver lining to that is when you ascend from 43F to 60F, 60F starts feeling like diving in the tropics. At least, it does for me whenever that happens.

True, but without all the pretty fish. The down side is that it being a quarry the 30' portion was the ramp to the bottom so not much area to explore. The plus side was that my 12 yo son completed his OW at the quarry that day.

 

[boulderjohn]

@msinc so long as you follow your training, which generally means adding air bit by bit as you descend and then venting it bit by bit on the way back up, you will be good. The trick is not to over inflate or over vent.

That is correct.

Unfortunately, some instructors (and resort area DMS) do not teach this. Knowing only the thin wetsuits of the tropics, they teach their students (or diving customers) that when they begin an ascent, they should first dump all the air from the BCD and then swim toward the surface. That is NOT good advice for someone wearing a 7mm suit.

 

[TMHeimer]

My instructor hammered it into us to use little bits of BC inflation/deflation and I was good with all that from day one. Later it was my pleasure once to be her assistant.

 

[CT-Rich]

My first wetsuit was a 1980 Parkway 1/4" (no metrics system in those days....). It was a Biaaatch to put on and worse to take off. The cardio in diving was getting in and out of it. I have forgotten the learning curve involve with buoyancy control (in those days there was almost no training about it, power inflators were an optional feature). I always found that I below 60' the fit became looser and it became a lot less thermal protection at depth. Ilearned to bring a gallon or two of hot water with me on cold water dives. After I am in the suit I pour it in to wet the inside and warm me up. On hot days when diving dry I started bringing cold water to wet the outer skin of the drysuit to help keep me cool before going in.

Diving cold water is pretty much all I have ever done (3mm in midsummer). Like all dive skills there is a learning curve, 7 mm is a lot of material to make sink and it will take some practice, just like not hanging yourself with the dive flag. Every year I relearn some lessons about my gear. It is not elegant, it is not pretty...

I love listening to my daughter bitch about her gear (we got a deal on a 7 mm for her). Modern materials are so much nicer and better designed....

 

[TMHeimer]

That's great. Never heard "hanging yourself with it"! Hold it out far and let the current/wind take it AWAY from you. I love it.
Don't need one up here, no boats, but in CT........I hate even putting that &*^(*%$ thing in the car.
Sorry. Back to topic.

 

[CT-Rich]

I have seen a few people get tangled in there own flags.... and other problems....

 

[TMHeimer]

I have the same exact flag. Tried Kings Beach on dive #25 (2006), but aborted due to scary viz. Well, I was a newbie. One of the very very few I've aborted over the years. Went to "Queens Bridge" (I think) for a dive instead.

 

[Blue1800]

I started with 14 lbs but after about 6 dives I’m at 6lbs . It still blows my mind Lol