drk5036
Contributor
Hey guys,
So I ordered my Seaskin Ultra drysuit and am looking to get it some use. Based off of recommendations of a few people, I've signed up for the PADI drysuit diver course. The trick to this, and the reason I'm posting this thread, is that I live in northern Japan, and the dive shops here don't speak English. I've lived in Japan for 5 years now and can speak some Japanese, but I'm honestly not sure how it's going to go (I'm more than a little apprehensive about the language barrier). When I signed up I let the instructor know there could be language issues, but he basically said if there were problems he would demonstrate and I could follow him. No one can speak underwater, anyway (additionally, one of my friends trained with him before and said he was really nice, and that I shouldn't be worried).
So, regarding the course, from what I've seen online it generally covers donning and doffing the suit, general instruction on how to dive with it, and emergency procedures (for example, how to recover if you end up in a leg-up position). Are there other things I should expect?
Luckily, the "theory" on drysuit diving I'm completely good with, so I think that shouldn't be an issue.
Also, I was looking to get some advice on weighting. I've been doing a fair amount of diving here using my stainless freedom plate, really heavy steel 10 L cylinders, and my Hollis neotek semi-dry suit. I dive with 4 kg of lead, which is basically perfect. Any ideas on a ballpark estimate for what I should dive with my first time out in the drysuit? 6 or 8 kg?
Thanks for any feedback.
So I ordered my Seaskin Ultra drysuit and am looking to get it some use. Based off of recommendations of a few people, I've signed up for the PADI drysuit diver course. The trick to this, and the reason I'm posting this thread, is that I live in northern Japan, and the dive shops here don't speak English. I've lived in Japan for 5 years now and can speak some Japanese, but I'm honestly not sure how it's going to go (I'm more than a little apprehensive about the language barrier). When I signed up I let the instructor know there could be language issues, but he basically said if there were problems he would demonstrate and I could follow him. No one can speak underwater, anyway (additionally, one of my friends trained with him before and said he was really nice, and that I shouldn't be worried).
So, regarding the course, from what I've seen online it generally covers donning and doffing the suit, general instruction on how to dive with it, and emergency procedures (for example, how to recover if you end up in a leg-up position). Are there other things I should expect?
Luckily, the "theory" on drysuit diving I'm completely good with, so I think that shouldn't be an issue.
Also, I was looking to get some advice on weighting. I've been doing a fair amount of diving here using my stainless freedom plate, really heavy steel 10 L cylinders, and my Hollis neotek semi-dry suit. I dive with 4 kg of lead, which is basically perfect. Any ideas on a ballpark estimate for what I should dive with my first time out in the drysuit? 6 or 8 kg?
Thanks for any feedback.