Let me see, downsides to diving dry.
1 More expensive, initially. Then you sit down and look at the lifespan issue of wet vs dry. Take an avg of say 50-75 dives a year. If you can do that a wetsuit starts to look pretty crappy after say 5 years tops. Other than some small stains my OS suit looked almost as good after 6 years as it did when I got it. In addition a wetsuit that lasts that long and STILL RETAINS it's insulating properties is going to be hard to find. Avg life on a dry suit can be 15-20 yrs or more with proper care and maintenance. I never had to replace a seal due to it deteriorating thanks to seal saver. I sold the suit after 6 years and the buyer is still diving it with only one mod. She had to get smaller boots. Bottom line on cost:
Dry Suit -say 1000 if you get a deal. Divided by 15 years = 66 per year
Custom or very good 7 mil wet suit - 500 roughly. divided by 5 years = 100 per year. that's every 5 years
Value in staying warm AND DRY = priceless!
And if you can get a keyman deal on a suit it's even better!
2. Getting in and out of can be harder. With the older back zip suits yes. You needed a buddy or a rope with a hook, mirror, and tree or car bumper. Tree better, they don't suddenly drive off! But with the diagonal front zip suit I find it's easier to get the suit on than my 5 mil. And watching some have a tug of war with a well fitting 7 is just painful as I put each leg in EASILY, slip one arm in, pull the top over, slip the neck seal down, and then put the other arm in EASILY, and then Zip up. Between dives I leave the suit on and just pull the top down standing in my DRY insulated undies leisurely sipping tea while wet divers are turning blue.
3. Buoyancy control can be tougher. Strike that- it can be different. It's tougher if you buy the BS line that some agencies push about using the suit for control. They do this because they assume that the new drysuit diver, especially if they only have OW or maybe AOW is too stupid to manage two sources of buoyancy control. This is a fallacy. With a little good instruction from an experienced dry suit diver and a proper patient approach it is not more difficult to manage. In fact when you are not shivering and breathing fast from COLD water hitting various sensitive parts of the body:shocked2: it's quite easy to manage to do both.
4. P valves are a pain. They can be if the glove doesn't fit, then unlike OJ you do have a problem! But there are alternatives. Depends, not hydrating as much, or holding it and doing the pee dance while getting that dam big zipper down! Or you can use salt. I found after reading a post by Lynn (TS&M) that salt slows the urinary output. Deciding to put it to the test I ate a 99 cent bag of chips on the way to Lake Erie. Washed it down with two 20oz bottles of water. Went "barehanded" so to speak, and lo and behold taking a whiz when I got to the marina and once on the boat before the first dive, I was good for 3 hours and even drank an extra bottle of water! I did this not once but on 5 trips up there and the results were the same. With water. Don't know how it would work with coffee or tea but with water was fine. I even do it when diving wet and it's actually harder and more uncomfortable to take the wet suit off to go.
5. Traveling is bulkier. Maybe, Shell suits roll up pretty small and weigh less than some 7's. If I'm going somewhere to dive cold water like I did in Monterey, I plan on checking a bag with the drysuit. So for the small hassle of doing that I get to dive somewhere really neat and be warm and DRY!
6. What else? Oh yeah, the suit at some point will leak somewhere. Another given that you need to be ready for. Shell suits can be patched temporarily with duct tape. Except for the zipper which is arguably the most expensive single item in the suit and really needs to be replaced by a pro, seals are not that expensive and can be done at home. I prefer to use superior dry suit repair though. Fast and very reasonable.
7. Drysuit undies can be expensive. True depending on what you need. I ice dive so I went with a very good set. Did not pay retail as being an instructor has it's perks. But for someone like the OP who is looking at using the suit in tropical and moderate local temps, she does not need a top of the line Santi undergarment. A wicking layer - underarmor coldgear works well, a medium - heavy weight fleece or two layers of such may be enough. There is also decent quality quilted stuff sold on ebay that for most who do not dive really cold water runs about $100 for a jump suit rated to 40 degrees. And again with keyman type discounts its possible to get good stuff for a very reasonable cost.
I don't mind diving wet. Enjoy it most times but when the season changes and the air start getting cooler I'm glad I went dry early in my diving career.
And yes I now sell drysuits so let's just get that out of the way. but anyone that knows me knows I don't BS about stuff I consider to be a safety item and drysuits fall in that category. Staying warm results in a diver that is more comfortable, able to concentrate on more things than just staying warm or more likely on how damn cold it is, and that results in a safer dive.
