Problem with drysuit.

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chrispete

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
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Location
Seabrook, TX
# of dives
1000 - 2499
I made my first out of class drysuit dive today, and had a problem that seems rather odd to me. I was able to drop down (albiet slowly) and wasn't having any problems with bouancy or trim all the way down to 40 feet or so, adding a puff of air here and there to ease the squeeze. We cruised around a bit and after about 10 mins started to come up a slope that put us at about 30 feet. That's when the trouble started. I vented some air, but couldn't get neutral, so I proceeded to vent every bit of air that I could squeeze out of the suit (even going vertical, head up), yet I was still very positive. I checked to make sure that all of my weights were in place (12# on the belt, 1# on each foot) and all was good. I ended up having to swim at a serious down-angle to keep my depth, and of course ended up wearing myself out pretty well. I signalled my buddy while we were next to a bakery cart on the bottom, at which time I got myself into a sitting/kneeling position using the cart as an anchor to rest and see if there was any more air trapped somewhere. I could feel my suit starting to squeeze hard (like when I first entered the water) from my feet up my legs, but very, very slowly - maybe at 1/2 inch per sec or so, and little air resulted from venting. Thankfully my buddy understood my situation and quickly anchored a line to the cart, grabbed hold of me and we made a slow and controlled ascent (in spite of my constant sculling downwards to try and keep both of our shoulders from coming out of socket from the force of being so positive), with normal venting, etc., otherwise I would have shot to the surface out of control. A very tiring and somewhat embarrasing experience.

I've been stewing about what might have gone wrong, and I can only think of two things. First, I was not wearing (undergarments) what I wore to the OW portion of my class, in class I only had slacks and a rather thin long sleeve shirt, allowing air to pass through my clothes easily and compression of the clothes to happen more readily - tonight I was wearing a full set of thermals, a second thermal shirt, a heavy sweater with slacks, as well as much thicker socks than the first time. This may have made it hard for me to evac air from all of those layers after adding air to them (I was very squeezed after doing my pre-dive "crunch" to get all the air out of the suit and when I first got into the water, but never got back to that level of squeeze, even when I was trying to.) The second and most obvious is that I probably need to add more weight to my belt, but this kind of depends on the first possibility - if I can wear something different that is easier to get air out of UW, then I'd rather do that than add a ton of weight.

Any suggestions or nuggets of wisdom would be greatly appreciated! :grad:
 
maybe you were just underweighted. You should try using the drysuit in the pool (or wherever your class was) again..... this time with your undergarment on that you used in OW. See how you do then. I am sure you added weight for the salt water effects as well. But this might help you get a better feel for what you should be adding for weight.

Thanks for the post..... it helps others starting out with a drysuit.
What to be careful of!
 
You'll be less buyoant in a soft water pool than in the ocean. Also, the more undergarment you wear, the more air gets trapped, the more buyant you get. These 2 combines probably explains your problems.

Best advice is do a weight check next time you're in the ocean before diving and use ankle weights. They make a big difference. Don't start going down until you're comfortable.

A third possibility would be that you used more air in your OW than in the pool, because of the depth. The tank can make you more buoyant, especially if it's aluminium. After the weight check, you can add 5-6 lbs to what should be your normal weight with a full tank.

Also, regarding the squeeze, you'll always feel it a little bit. But with a comfortable undergarment, it's less of a problem.

I'm newly dry suit certified myself and love it. I've done 6 OW dives with it so far. It took a bit of adjustment to find the proper weight. Proper weight is much more critical with a dry suit than with a wet suit (though at the end of the day, it's essential to any type of diving).

Hope this helps! Enjoy the cold water.
 
At 6'0", 150 lbs, I wear 24 lbs with a HP steel 72 in salt water and 100# undies...Sounds like you were underweighted. Remember, the more you wear under your suit, the more weight you will need.

I've also noticed that I need significantly more weight in open water than a pool...there are no currents/surge in a pool and you also will rarely be in a pool with 500psi in your tank, unless you are specifically doing bouyancy checks.
 
I agree with bob, blue and aaron. Sounds like you are undrweighted. I'll wear 23lbs wih my 3.5 mil neo and 34lbs in my bag with the thermals. I'm 6' 200lbs.

Differences in body mass & gear aside, next time out, bring more weight and take the time do do a weight check
 
The more I think of this, it seems that weight offsetting the tank may have been the problem. Chrispete said he was sinking fine. The only change that occurs, if there wasn't any air in his suit or BC, is in the tank. And you always use more air in the ocean than in a pool.
 
I am heading to the local waterhole tomorrow for my nitrox class and will be taking extra weight with me to do a bouancy check and adjustment with. I'll wear the same amount of undergarments as the dive that I had trouble with to make sure that I get it right this time. I'll post a followup as to how it went. Thanks to everyone for their responses!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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