Betty bought a drysuit . . let the corking begin again!

[BettyRubble]

Well I bit the bullet .. spent the dough ... drank the kool-aid . . . I am the proud new owner of a dry suit. Couldn't resist the great deal Indian Valley Scuba gave me.

Heaven help us now!

As some of you know, I finally mastered the buoyancy issue (thanks to the Peak Buoyancy class IVS gave me!!), and had the pleasure of being complimented by several dive buddies on my last dive trip. Never thought that would ever happen!!

But now I have to learn it all over again in the dry suit (UGH UGH UGH).

Sooo. . looking for your top 2-3 tips on how you mastered drysuit diving. Like everything else, I want to master this part of my diving as quickly as possible. I've heard horror stories about it taking 50 dives to master -- oh mother of fudge sticks, please tell me that isn't the case.

Fortunately, I have had offers from several excellent dive buddies to give me hands on training and I'll do a drysuit class this spring too. But I want to start researching and thinking about it now. For me, diving is 90% thinking it through.

As always, thanks in advance for answering my newbie stupid question of the day!!!

And HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

[Buoyant1]

Hmmm, 50 to master? Probably about right...but to get to a point where you're diving in it, and it's not a struggle probably takes about 15-20. At least that was my case last year. AS usual, get your weighting right. It's a different mindset depending on how warm you want to be and what you're wearing underneath. One of my buddies told me to go a LITTLE heavy so I can add enough air to stay warmer.

Bubble management in the DS is a little different than in a BC since the bubble can move more places! For my first few dives in it, I spent time on platforms just trying to control my ascents and descents, then hovering. After about 10-15 minutes we ventured off and tried to do a quick tour moving forward and trying to maintain depth and getting used to it.

I'm no way proficient in it yet, but I feel a heck of a lot better about it now than I did in March of 2009 when I fist got it wet! (I STILL prefer my 3mm! hahaha!) I also added extra gear as I went along...after about three dives I started carrying my light again, then after a few more I added the pony bottle back...working out moves with the inflator on your chest, and not in your left hand is different!

Good luck...I'm sure you'll do just fine!

 

[TSandM]

Congratulations on going dry!

You may hate the suit for a dive or two . . . or three, but you will eventually love it.

My tips: Don't follow the advice to use the suit for buoyancy control from the beginning. It's too much gas to manage, particularly if you are not perfectly weighted. Put enough gas in the suit so that you can move around, and put the rest in your BC. If buoyancy starts to get away from you, it's much faster to dump from the BC than to work the gas in the suit up to the valve and get it out that way.

Don't try to weight yourself to the absolute dead minimum. If you do a weight check to weight yourself neutral at 15 feet with an EMPTY suit and an EMPTY BC, then you've committed yourself to getting the suit and the BC EMPTY at the end of the dive in order to hold a stop. One or two pounds of extra weight can make that last bit of buoyancy much easier (not five!)

I found that, as I began my ascent, venting the BC first would allow the gas in the suit to expand a little, to where it was much easier to get it up to my arm and out. You have to be VERY careful not to be feet up if you do this.

Anticipation is the key to drysuit buoyancy. Pay attention to your depth, and if you're headed up a contour, start venting before you feel light. Dry suit gas gets away from you very fast. Pay very close attention to how the suit feels -- you will learn to recognize when it's getting too loose, and realize that's a signal to get some gas out of there NOW! (BTW, as you gain facility with the suit, you can run more gas in it, which makes you warmer -- but you have to be much cleverer with the venting then.)

Have fun with it -- don't do any very deep dives for the first few, and don't get too frustrated if you have some buoyancy issues to begin with.

 

[BettyRubble]

TSandM

Great advice .. as usual!! Thank you!!

 

[sam1]

Don't follow the advice to use the suit for buoyancy control from the beginning.

I couldn't agree more! I was taught to use the suit and had a devil of a time. When I switched to the BC it was soooo much easier!

 

[fairybasslet]

Congrats Pammie and thanks Lynn for that excellent advice. I may have some money one day for a dry suit & new fins, which I will need too.

 

[Sas]

Yea I agree that it is a good idea to start off using just the wing for buoyancy. Though you might find later on that you will start using your drysuit more and more. At least, that is what I do now, just to keep warmer.

I'm kind of different to most in that drysuit diving was one of the skills I got comfortable with in the first dive - about the only skill to date that I have started off well in So it may not necessarily be hard and if it is it will get easier so don't get discouraged!

One of my issues is floaty feet, which I have gone to great lengths to try to fix, but so far neither me nor a number of instructors have been able to suggest anything other than ankle weights to fix. Of course I get a lot of crap over this but say if you need something like that, just go with it! I did a bunch of uncomfortable dives because people convinced me that it was stupid to wear ankle weights... It might be but at least I'm comfortable now

Also another thing that made a huge difference to my drysuit diving is getting a p-valve. I'm not sure how long the dives are that you do (mine can be over two hours sometimes...) but something to consider as it was SO uncomfortable on some dives when I didn't have one.

Try not to make really sudden and sharp movements in your neck or wrist if you can avoid it. Your seals might leak a bit.

One thing that I found the most annoying was remembering the extra checks for drysuit diving before hand. Namely connecting the drysuit hose and then setting my auto dump to the right setting. When I was new it was always open though again that is something you will start to play with the more comfortable you get. Also make sure the seals are on right - had a few dives where I've had the seals folded wrongly :shocked2: Very wet dives... And the most important check - ZIPPING IT UP - nearly forgot that one once and I've seen a few people do this . If you don't zip up your wetsuit it isn't nearly as bad as when you forget your drysuit.

Anyway, enjoy your new suit!

 

[letterboy]

did ya get a pee valve?

 

[Montana Diver]

The one area I had the most difficulty was when changing to a vertical position, especially when getting to a wreck and changing from a horizontal swim to a vertical gazing position. Immediately I realized that I had moved the air bubble to the shoulders and had decreased my depth since my shoulders were higher than I was when horizontal. Talk about an immediate need to vent, I was up at least 8-10 feet before I regained control.

Good Luck, I went back to the pool and practiced stuck valves and best ways to swim down and roll back vertical in the event of a stuck inflator. I found that slow and steady wins the race. Most of the time!

 

[SeaCobra]

Proper weighting is very important! An extra pound or two may be helpful, but I have found most dive with too much weight and put too much air in the suit which can cause things to bad quick. Just enough air to alleviate the squeeze.

Other tips:

Start with a good "wicking" layer. Since you dive in an area that can be hot but the water is cold, you want you first layer to move perspiration away from the skin. Common to sweat a bit during the gearing up process and then the perspiration gets quite chilly in the cooler water.

Time your gearing up process. Mkae sure your buddy and you are on the same schedule, nothing worse than having sweat pouring into your eyes and seeing your buddy no where near ready.

On hot days, after zipping the suit, jump into the water (not from a moving boat and follow general safety precautions) to take the heat out of the suit.

Resist trimming one your seals just one more time. As long as there is good circulation they will probably be just fine after a dive or two.

Lube - the zipper.

Let me know if I can help, gotta get in the water soon.

Jeff