Cold water diving is a PITA

[TSandM]

It's really useful, at the beginning of the dive, to lie on the surface and fill the suit up with a lot of gas, and then stretch your arms and legs out and wriggle around a bit. This distributes the fabric in a way that maximizes comfort and flexibility when the suit is not so full of air. (This is true for other dry suits, too.)

 

[Peter_C]

I always put my weight belt on, and before donning my scuba kit, stretch tall to get everything into place. Helps me reach my valves too. None of my drysuits have had any extra material though, so I have never an unruly air bubble.

 

[billt4sf]

I always put my weight belt on, and before donning my scuba kit, stretch tall to get everything into place. Helps me reach my valves too. None of my drysuits have had any extra material though, so I have never an unruly air bubble.

I'd be afraid if I did that, that my arms and legs would stick out!

 

[Chilly_Dipper]

Woohoo!!! This is great news. Okay. Air will travel up my legs and expand causing increased positive buoyancy and shoot me upward. Before I assume the head down/feet up position, I should vent the dry-suit (completely or partially). Since I'll be reducing buoyancy within the suit, assuming I was already neutrally buoyant, I'll have to compensate either through greater lung volume or added air in the BCD.

While, the position has risks, it can be achieved and controlled with practice. Do you think I'm headed in the right direction with this reasoning?

O.

If you have that much air in the suit that you can't compensate for the difference of a couple of feet of expansion then you have to much. The suit is for comfort only not for buoyancy if you have a large air cell in the suit your going to have a hard time managing it.

Allot of new divers over weight for fear of run away ascents (which is a valid fear of course) but I highly recommend at 6 month intervals to recheck your lead requirements. I went from 45 pounds down to 30 within 6 months of diving. Going from the BCD to plate I dropped 10 (6 for the plate and an additional 4 for all the padding that was in the BCD). I'm now down to 20 in a dry suit and for the record that's 4 in lead, 10 in steel tanks, and 6 for plate so I actually only have 4 pounds of lead.

The fusion suit in particular is meant to be a low volume suit, so if you are ballooning up in it then you are not taking advantage of the one thing the suit was designed for over and above standard bag suits. Constant venting is another sign of over inflation. You should have enough air in your suit to relieve the squeeze that's it... if you need more buoyancy that's what your BCD/wing is for. And if you wing is full during your dive you have WAY to much lead on!

 

[Groundhog246]

Almost all I do is cold water (Great Lakes). All I can say is practice, practice, practice. Of course, since I learned in cold, I'm sure that going the other way is a lot simpler. And it depends what you consider cold. At around 60F, I switch to my thick wetsuit, as it's simpler than drysuit diving. Adding surf entry to the learning curve, will add frustration. Best approach is to minimize task loading, until you have stop thinking about the task. I did a handful of drysuit dives in a pool when I first got my suit. Shell suit, with track pants and a T shirt. Spent all my time working of smooth descent/ascent and buoyancy control. if you can hover in 12 feet of water, move slowly up to 8 feet and hover, then slowly ascend to the surface, diving at 40 feet and deeper becomes dead simple. After you stop having to think about buoyancy, then you can add cold.
My one tip for drysuit diving, remain horizontal. Aside for an initial descent, feet down, once I am horizontal, I stay there, including ascent. As soon as you start to shift from horizontal to vertical, the air in your boots and legs will rush to your chest, squeezing your feet and very quickly making you positively buoyant. Learn to accept some squeeze. The less air in your suit and the less ballast you carry (lead), the easier it will be. And contrary to many teachings, I was taught to use BC for fine control and only add enough air to my suit to counter squeeze and keep warm. And ditch the ankle weights. If you want a bit more weight on your feet, get an old school pair of rockets and spring straps.
Good luck.

 

[billt4sf]

Almost all I do is cold water (Great Lakes). All I can say is practice, practice, practice. Of course, since I learned in cold, I'm sure that going the other way is a lot simpler. And it depends what you consider cold. At around 60F, I switch to my thick wetsuit, as it's simpler than drysuit diving. Adding surf entry to the learning curve, will add frustration. Best approach is to minimize task loading, until you have stop thinking about the task. I did a handful of drysuit dives in a pool when I first got my suit. Shell suit, with track pants and a T shirt. Spent all my time working of smooth descent/ascent and buoyancy control. if you can hover in 12 feet of water, move slowly up to 8 feet and hover, then slowly ascend to the surface, diving at 40 feet and deeper becomes dead simple. After you stop having to think about buoyancy, then you can add cold.
My one tip for drysuit diving, remain horizontal. Aside for an initial descent, feet down, once I am horizontal, I stay there, including ascent. As soon as you start to shift from horizontal to vertical, the air in your boots and legs will rush to your chest, squeezing your feet and very quickly making you positively buoyant. Learn to accept some squeeze. The less air in your suit and the less ballast you carry (lead), the easier it will be. And contrary to many teachings, I was taught to use BC for fine control and only add enough air to my suit to counter squeeze and keep warm. And ditch the ankle weights. If you want a bit more weight on your feet, get an old school pair of rockets and spring straps.
Good luck.

Very nice advice, Groundhog, thank you. The pool is probably an excellent idea for us. Maybe we can rent a pool session somewhere that they have our size drysuits.

However I did not understand why it you and others recommended ditching the ankle weights and switching to heavier fins. What difference does it make?

- Bill

 

[TSandM]

Bill, it really doesn't. A lot of us who dive dry like fins that are negative, because they become part of our total balance package. Ankle weights really do just about the same thing. The big difference is that ankle weights are both something to remember, and something which isn't difficult to lose, whereas, once one has learned about spring straps, fin loss really becomes a thing of the past

 

[Groundhog246]

Very nice advice, Groundhog, thank you. The pool is probably an excellent idea for us. Maybe we can rent a pool session somewhere that they have our size drysuits.

However I did not understand why it you and others recommended ditching the ankle weights and switching to heavier fins. What difference does it make?

- Bill

Ankle weights add two more pieces of gear to manage. You mention overheating, meanwhile you're adding the time to put one on each leg. Also, Rockets have a nice large foot pocket, making them easier to get over drysuit boots. And spring straps are both easier to get on and the last straps you'll ever need to buy. Even if you don't want to change fins, I still recommend the spring straps. One tip I've shared with many newbies. Face down horizontal is not a natural position for us. Try lying face down on a table with your head just over the end for a while to get a feel what truly horizontal feels like. That's what you want to do in the water. You'll need less effort to move forward and stir up less silt. Also, if you can have someone shoot video of you and watch later, to see exactly what you look like in the water. I thought I was much better than I was, until I saw myself on tape. Most who think they're feet are 'floaty' are actually swimming feet down and fighting a nice horizontal form. This applies to diving wet.
If I recall the amount of weight you mentioned , it sounds terribly high. Of course, you don't mention what type of suit (shell or neoprene) or undies. I'm 5'9", about 180 lbs, dive a USIA shell suit, dry gloves with rings and vary the undies with water temp. With my heaviest undies, I've done dives in 34F water. With Rockets, spring straps and a Sherwood Outback BCD, AL80, I wear 28 lbs in Fresh water and maybe 4 lbs more for salt.
My first couple of attempts I needed more weight to descend and tried ankle weights. With some assistance from experienced drysuit divers I quickly learned I had too much air in my suit and just wasn't relaxing into the dive. First I ditched the ankle weights, as I found I was working to keep my feet up to be horizontal.

Last, I don't think you mentioned how experienced you are (# of dives, how long, etc). I had over 100 dives logged before my first attempt at drysuit diving. To the point that I had buoyancy dialed in to where I no longer thought about it. So when I added a drysuit the only learning was drysuit, not a new BCD, etc.

 

[Ben Prusinski]

As someone who was a warm water diver at first, I disliked cold water diving until I invested in a drysuit and did boat diving! Far easier and more enjoyable than shore diving. I still like tropical diving but cold water diving provides easier and more frequent access. Most can only do the annual exotic trip so Monterey is nice to have close by.

 

[Ouvea]

As someone who was a warm water diver at first, I disliked cold water diving until I invested in a drysuit and did boat diving! Far easier and more enjoyable than shore diving. I still like tropical diving but cold water diving provides easier and more frequent access. Most can only do the annual exotic trip so Monterey is nice to have close by.

In our area, we have some very easy shore dives. In the Monterey Bay, we're only, at most, a parking lot's distance from the entry point. You do not need any great stamina to dive from Del Monte Beach, the Breakwater, Lover's Point, McAbee Beach, Otter Cove, or Coral Street. On the Carmel side, Point Lobos is ridiculously easy. While Monastery Beach requires some effort, even those that aren't physically inclined can manage this.

Of course, we all have our preferences. Those that have good sea legs can enjoy some of the more remote and least often visited dive sites. It's nice to be in an area where you've a good pick of your favorite ice cream flavors.