buoyancy, dry suit vs wet suit

[ConfusedTrout]

Hi!

I am a super new diver - I got my certification just last week. I live in a cold country and I did it with a dry suit. Buoyancy was achieved with the dry suit, the BCD was only ever inflated on the surface, and stayed completely deflated during descent, ascent, and diving.

My next dive will be - for sure! - in a warmer sea, but I did not really practice buoyancy with a wet suit. For those who use both, what do you find easier? Is it very difficult to achieve neutral buoyancy with a BCD?

Thanks!

 

[jborg]

I find that ascending is in fact more convenient with a dry suit, since it's just a small shoulder movement to let out some air while the BCD requires reaching back to the dump valve and then it vents quicker and with less precision than the dry suit... Other than that it's not that much of a difference, if you can dive dry you can dive wet.

 

[Bowers]

If your weight is right and you have a thin wetsuit, you will only need minimal changes in bc anyway. I think drysuit gives me more precise control but wetsuit is “easier”.

 

[BlueTrin]

You can use either BCD or drysuit for buoyancy. You will find plenty of people using either BCD or drysuit for buoyancy when diving with a drysuit.

With a wetsuit you will just manage buoyancy using your BCD. Just add air as you go down to stay close to neutral and release when you go up like you did with your drysuit.

 

[Edward3c]

Hi!

I am a super new diver - I got my certification just last week. I live in a cold country and I did it with a dry suit. Buoyancy was achieved with the dry suit, the BCD was only ever inflated on the surface, and stayed completely deflated during descent, ascent, and diving.

My next dive will be - for sure! - in a warmer sea, but I did not really practice buoyancy with a wet suit. For those who use both, what do you find easier? Is it very difficult to achieve neutral buoyancy with a BCD?

Thanks!

Use your first warm water trip to adjust to using the BC. On your first few dives you may go for your drysuit inflate button, I do. But you’ll soon adjust. As your wetsuit compresses you’ll need to add buoyancy, and when you ascend let air our. Just like driving the drysuit. The important thing is to do a weight check on the first dive.

 

[TMHeimer]

Much is made at times about the intricacies involved in having great buoyancy. I've only ever dived wet. In the OW course I took, our instructor simply said regarding the LP inflator--"When putting air in or letting it out, short bursts". Assuming you are properly weighted, it is no more complicated than that, and should take a VERY few dives to get it just right. Even if you were taught the OW course on your knees, like I was. Yes if you are taught neutrally you'll probably be fine right out of the OW course.

 

[ConfusedTrout]

I was taught on my knees, and I struggled with buoyancy during the classes. It got better after they halved my weight, but I ended up head down a couple of times... I believe ending up head-down can only happen with a dry suit, though.

 

[Julius SCHMIDT]

Did your head go down, or did your legs go up

 

[Pareto]

Hello

At the beginning it was a little bit difficult in the drysuit but you get used to it quickly. One tip I can give you is not to get into the habit of buoyancy mainly with the dry suit.

My friends used to do buoyancy mainly with the drysuit and so I got used to it as well, it was also easier because you didn't have to operate BCD and drysuit at the same time. In retrospect, however, I must say that my buoyancy and my trim were a disaster at that time.

During my Adavanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures course I had to drastically improve my buoyancy and trim to meet the decompression levels.
I realized how much easier it was when the drysuit was only filled to the point where it didn't pinch and the buoyancy was only controlled by the BCD.

Switching to the wet suit is so much easier for me now because all the handles are exactly the same and I don't have to change my handling to maintain buoyancy.

Greetings from Switzerland
Pareto

 

[Edward3c]

I was taught on my knees, and I struggled with buoyancy during the classes. It got better after they halved my weight, but I ended up head down a couple of times... I believe ending up head-down can only happen with a dry suit, though.

Ideally your instructor should have taken the time to get your near neutrally buoyant in the first few lessons, a little overweighting, say 1kg, is OK, but not halve your weight.

If you're head down Its likely the band holding your cylinder was too far down the cylinder. Its got nothing to do with wearing a drysuit. That said, you will have had plenty of practise rolling out of a feet-up position.