Considering drysuit diving, any advice would be welcome...

[kr2y5]

Here are my parameters. I have ~100 logged dives so far, 30-40 vacation dives/year in tropical destinations. I would like to get more experience and seek more training, possibly tech training at some point out of curiosity. That's unlikely to happen during vacation dives, mostly due to time constraints. I have tried some local diving off the NJ coast, but even with a two-piece farmer John's, these were mostly experiences that started out exciting, and ended up borderline traumatizing. Given my low tolerance to cold (e.g., I use 5mm wetsuit in the Caribbean), I am limited to only a couple of months a year. I am mostly looking forward to local diving in, say, a 100-foot range, in part because local wrecks and good visibility are easier to find further offshore, at a greater depth, and in part because the primary purpose of local diving would be additional training/experience, and it stands to reason that I should challenge myself, especially if considering tech training. I understand that at this depth, significant wetsuit compression makes it less than effective in cold waters...

Naturally, I am drawn to drysuit diving, but given some of the points raised in this thread, I wonder how much it really makes sense. Dan claims that with 10-20 dives a year (and at this point, I am not yet sure I can do more local diving than that, it will largely depend on how safe I will feel with the type of diving I plan to engage in), one is unlikely to develop and maintain good drysuit skills, and most seem to agree that diving a drysuit in the tropics is not too enjoyable.

Given the above, I wonder if advancing to a drysuit is premature at this point, whether I should limit myself to 8mm semi-dry wetsuits, abandon the idea of doing the additional training, or find some way to budget the time for it during a trip to the Keys.

If advancing to a drysuit is a viable option, which one should it be? Fusion One seems to be mentioned a lot... any alternatives?

 

[al248005]

I completely disagree with most everything in that thread. That thread was a complete train wreck pretty much. Not everyone can dive in 70+ deg waters year round in a wetsuit. I have a drysuit. I made the jump to the drysuit at about 80 dives. I took the drysuit class through the LDS which helped a lot. I would highly recommend that. I didn't think the transition was too terribly hard. It took about 10 dives to fine tune it in. Now I have approx 25'ish dives in it and I'm pretty comfortable in my abilities in it. Now its hard for me to go back to the wetsuit unless the water temp is above 65-70.

The whole drag issue that was brought up in that thread IMO is garbage. Yes there is a little more drag with a drysuit but when your diving in 30-40 degree water things tend to slow down atleast for me and I'm not participating in a track meet. There's many sorts of drysuits out there. Tri-lams, Bi-lams, Crushed Neoprene as well as manufacturers (DUI, Whites, OS Systems, Bare, Pinnacle, 4th Element, Santi). I would look around and check out the LDS's in your area. I know Whites and DUI and sometimes Santi has demo days where you can try the suits out with an instructor and they are fantastic. Just do your homework on them. They are $$$ and can last a long time if they are cared for. Best of luck!

PS...I would not even consider a semi if you can afford a drysuit. Semi's can run $600 or so and drysuits can be had for just a tad more and last a heck of a lot longer.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

It is definitely a whole new learning curve to dive dry. You have to learn what the air feels like when its over your back and up by your feet and what to do about that. And of course you have to spend time to get the weight dialed back in. Fit is really important so while a semi custom suit may seem like an extravagance it really is not since a good fitting suit will contribute greatly to your ease of diving. Beyond the up front front expense there is maintenance cost to replace zippers and seals which can average several hundreds of dollars per year. And then there will be accessories like dry gloves, rock boots and fins. It all adds ups but it will extend your diving season.

 

[boulderjohn]

As I believe I said in that thread or another thread in which Dan made similar claims, Dan has a very strong tendency to argue for a position by claiming only blithering idiots who should be shipped off to a hospital for their own good disagree with him. He cannot just say he thinks wet suits are preferable to dry suits; he has to make it seem as if dry suit divers are dying in droves because of the difficulty of learning to use them.

It is simply wrong. Yes, it takes a while to learn the nuances of buoyancy in one, but try a search to see if anyone has ever had the kind of serious accident (and death) he says are routine. Notice that he also said he was talking about the TROPICS, which does not include Long Island.

If you want to dive locally, get a good dry suit, practice with it a little, and you'll never look back.

 

[Darnold9999]

Gave up local diving for almost 20 years because it was just too uncomfortable and too much work getting into a wetsuit that would keep me warm and then waddling to the water wearing said wetsuit. This was in the Pacific Northwest. Went on an extended tropical vacation and the diving there convinced me that I had given up diving in a very special part of the world so I came back and bought a whole new set of gear - including a trilam drysuit. This was at about 100 lifetime dives - most of which were vacation dives in various tropical locations. A few dives a year mostly.

Yes it takes a few skills and some practice to be comfortable in a drysuit. Took 5 - 10 dives to get to the point where it was second nature. Took 2 or 3 to get comfortable. YMMV. Now diving locally is something I will consider, still cold, but nowhere near a wetsuit, particularly multiple dive days.

Yes it is like swimming a brick around in the water - a wetsuit in the tropics is MUCH easier. However, I have since moved to a Fusion and that sensation (brick in the water) has gone away. The difference is significant. Still not as easy to move around in as a tropical wetsuit, but easier than my old wetsuit, and a lot warmer in the water.

Wouldn't dive a drysuit in the tropics unless I was spending significant time in water - and wouldn't dive a wetsuit in cold water if I had a drysuit available.

 

[spc751]

From my experience a dry suit is the only way to go. But be sure to learn to dive it correctly. Take a good dry suit course or dive with a good mentor. Just make sure it is someone who can teach. There are two shops in my area that teach open water students to dive in Whites dry suits and do not have problems because they know how to teach.

I could never dive in a wetsuit again because I hate being cold and hate how difficult it is to put on a wetsuit compared to a dry suit. I dive in Riveria Maya Mexico every winter and find it too cold for a wetsuit.

 

[SoBay Jim]

. . .If advancing to a drysuit is a viable option, which one should it be? Fusion One seems to be mentioned a lot... any alternatives?

I dive a 5mil in the Caribbean, but LOVE my DUI FLX Extreme for California diving. You can get a reasonable deal here on the ScubaBoard Marketplace or on eBay for a used one, which is how I started. I recently upgraded to the FLX because the one I had was old and couldn't be updated for the ZIP seals. . .Gee, I guess I should list the old one for sale sometime soon. . .

 

[seattlepaul1975]

Go drysuit. Find a good local LDS and take a class on it. Being in the Pacific Northwest I have only done drysuit even during OW. Only wetsuit dives were in Thailand. Make diving in a wetsuit seem easy. I would look at whites suits. I think they dive pretty easy and they do not need any custom fit.

Sent from the deep blue sea.

 

[00wabbit]

I dive dry with less dives than you. It took me a good 10-15 dives to feel pretty ok in the suit, about 10 more dives after that to start figuring out how much less air I need to dump and then maybe another 20 dives to change to using less air in my suit and more in my wing. Now I don't even think about the drysuit. It's just part of my dive equipment. I actually don't know my weighting for a wetsuit with my current gear. I only dive dry.

The cool thing is I can dive all year round even up here in Indiana and I look like a space man.

I too disagree with that thread. I am not into diving to rocket around. I want to be comfortable and chilled out and take in the sites. NJ is not Palm Beach.

 

[grf88]

If you believe, as it appears than Dan believes, that going fast is the primary objective of diving then you should not consider a drysuit. If, like 99.999% of other divers you think that being comfortable is important then a drysuit is the best option for coldwater diving. Most of my diving is in The Great Lakes and I dive most months of the year and enjoy coldwater wreck diving more than reef diving. I have a Fusion Tech and it is a very easy suit to dive, previously I had a Bare Nexgen which I also enjoyed. It took me many years to move to a drysuit but today I only dive a wetsuit if a 3mil is warm enough.