Dry suit course failure

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Lozadora,
Wraysbury is an excellent place to practice skills. I was there yesterday and it was busy. The reason it was so silty was because a lot of schools were doing their OW courses.

If you fancy some skills practice drop me a PM. I'm not an instructor but I might be able to help you a wee bit.
 
dbulmer,

I trust you had no leaks yesterday :)

@OP a reasonable pool session first is highly recommended at least to get comfortable in a few meters of water
 
I did my BSAC Ocean Diver training and drysuit training all at the same time. Not knowing what it is like to dive without a drysuit I actually found it fairly straightforward. I did my training in Capenwray up in Lancashire and although it was busy the vis was pretty good even though us new students kicked up the silt a little! Good luck with the next attempt!
 
A diver becomes certified to dive in a particular environment. Once the environment is changed, it's recommended to have an acclimatization period where the Diver can feel comfortable in this new environment. A new and different environment can be predicted to cause an increased level of anxiety. Different equipment (such as a dry suit) will adds to this unnecessarily. From your description, it would seem that this was excessive for your current experience level.

I agree with some of the other comments that you've received. It's preferable to be comfortable in the environment you dive in before you start changing your equipment load-out. Once comfortable, it's an easy matter to manage the transition to different equipment.
 
Wraysbury is my local puddle. I'm more than happy to meet up and go for a dive :)
 
You will learn to dive and dive any suit well for one reason: because you can get out and DIVE. In the UK the best way to be able to get out and dive is to own a drysuit.

Drysuit from day 1 is a fine and common choice in any location where conditions make it the realistic choice. In practical terms it's also better to learn both the suit and the diving (while warm and comfortable) than to learn diving a little chilled then find yourself going from competent to buffoon (my experience) when you make the switch from wet to dry. I think most of our dry-from-day-1 students experienced maybe a 3-5 dive setback in learning to dive while also learning to dive dry.
AND => the class photos looked a lot better w/o so many blue lips!

I spent maybe 40 dives regaining good AOWD-level skills after switching to a drysuit at dive 51 or so. I also lost a lot of money buying both a wetsuit and then a drysuit (wetsuit resold at only 50% of purchase price), missed 5-6 months of diving per year and spent a needless number of bonechilled hours trying to tough out the cold days. Cannot recommend this route & didn't put my kids thru it.

As others have said, it would also help quite a bit if you either had better vis or were more used to poor vis; lask/stress loading is unfortunate. But do realize that drysuits enjoy picking on new people & don't let it get you down. The leaky glove gremlins still make sneak attacks on my daughter so often it beggars belief. Luckily most leaks let in pretty insignificant amounts of water and leaks will pretty much go away if you have a new/relatively new suit that fits you well.

Do remember to take photos anytime you get well & truely soaked ;-) One of my friends' favorite memories is a trip where (without extra clothes) I had to empty the drysuit, wring out & then replace my long johns and fill the boots with napkins to stay warm for the ride home.
 
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dbulmer,

I trust you had no leaks yesterday :)

@OP a reasonable pool session first is highly recommended at least to get comfortable in a few meters of water

I was there today as well and the leak is not too bad but still there. And it was the busiest I've ever seen it with commensurate visibility :)
 
As others have said you didn’t fail; your instructor let you down. By not taking your lack of UK experience into account. First dry-suit dives I take are in no more than 6m and on a shelving bottom. I spend time in standing depth making sure my student has the appropriate amount of lead – not just load in on (as your instructor seems to have done).

As for your leaking neck seal. Had you had the opportunity to try the suit on before yesterday? Were the seals neoprene or latex (thick like a wet-suit or very thin)?

Kind regards
 
As for your leaking neck seal. Had you had the opportunity to try the suit on before yesterday? Were the seals neoprene or latex (thick like a wet-suit or very thin)?

Kind regards

I met with this dive club for the first time at the site so they had my suit size and so I put it on for the first time there and then. I probably should have made a bigger deal about the neck seal, but as it was my first time in a suit I thought maybe it would be fine. They did have a spare suit but my clothes were wet through...and I had a new tattoo that I couldn't risk getting wet :wink:

My other issue with Wraysbury is that I don't own a car anymore - so if I were to go there to practice in low viz in a wet suit the lack of showers would be a pain in the butt as I'd have a 2 hour train journey back home all smelly and wet!

I think I might go to Chepstow and spend 3 days there doing a dry suit course / diving. I hear the viz is meant to be excellent?
 
Lozadora,

Stick suit in black plastic bin liner. Problem fixed.
If you are UK diving, smells are de rigueur :)
 

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