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

[TSandM]

Peter and I did OW dives 1 and 2 with a student yesterday. He had elected to do the dry suit option, because an attempt in a wetsuit resulted in him shivering within five minutes. He did superbly! He had a few buoyancy oopses, but caught them all and reestablished stability.

If somebody who's never dived before can do that, so can you.

Given what you've said about your cold tolerance, I'd highly recommend a Fusion Sport dry suit, with or without a set of X-shorts. The Fusion Sport is so light and easy to pack, you can take it anywhere. Get the user-replaceable seal system, and you've fixed the one downside of travel with a dry suit, which is the problem of getting seals replaced if you damage one in a place where nobody else dives dry. The Sport weighs no more than a good 5 mil wetsuit and packs as easily. By buying a laminate-type suit, you have the option of diving very cold water, with thick undergarments, or fairly warm water, with thinner ones, and you will LOVE getting back on the Caribbean boat and not shivering!

 

[Wayne at DiveSeekers]

Diving here in the NE, it's Dry as far as I'm concerned especially if you want to get into tec (to do tec you need lot's of practice & bottom time)! I travel everywhere with my drysuit because 7yrs ago, I too was getting cold in my 5mm wetsuit with a hood., switched to dry and never looked back! A quality Drysuit class should cover all the pros & cons of the different suit materials, the difference between all the different price points of suits on the market as well as the different techniques used for diving the drysuit. For quality and value I would look at the SANTI Espace. Tough Trilam, drys quickly, 2 pockets and attached streamlined boots. We are worth the drive, feel free to contact me about our Drysuit Class or with any questions you have.

 

[RJP]

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?

Dry suit is is not as hard as people make it out to be; personally I think it's the most under-rated and over-mystified piece of gear. I did my dry suit class as logged dives #15 and #16. Frankly, it was simple to learn and easy to master. I did it with Wayne's shop when I first got certified 7 years ago... nearly 1,000 dives later, I still love it.

There are several suit type options, and all do what they are supposed to. Devil's in the details. Suggest - depending on where on Long Island you live - you take Wayne up on the offer to come to the shop. They have range if suits, styles, sizes in stock... and a pool in the shop!

There's no substitute for trying them out in person. Will change your world!

 

[jscan1]

I agree with RJP, I dive in California, and have been pretty active in regards to continued dive education, but when my instructor couldn't give me a drysuit class because, uhm er he could no longer fit in his drysuit I enlisted my dive buddy to hang with me in the sand area of Lajolla Shores until I was comfortable. Needless to say I was comfortable pretty much immediately and our first dive was a typical dive for that area going out to the wall and hitting 70 ft. I just concentrated on taking the squeeze off to stay warm. Excess air in the suit is where you get into issues, because you can't dump it as fast as you can from your BCD. With that said most other Drysuit Divers I talk to give the suit enough air to take the squeeze off and stay warm, and use the BCD to trim out and control Bouyancy. My guess is with 100 or so dives your learning curve will be pretty quick!

 

[TravisD]

I decided to go dry about this time last year. Bought it on-line (DRIS) after trying one on at Beneath The Sea, and had it when the local quarry opened at the beginning of April. I did talk to my LDS about doing a class, but they basically told me to go dive the thing and learn it that way (as in, in an environment like the quarry, not off-shore somewhere). (And no, this was not an online vs LDS thing, they understood why I went with something that they don't carry). I spent a few weekends basically hanging out in the quarry, getting the feel for it. Lots of time with fin pivots at the platforms, as well as inverting and recovering. I think that it was really helpful for me at least to spend time just getting used to it, not completing some one-time tasks in order to pass a certification.

I would not suggest going it on your own in unfamiliar territory. Trying to learn how to dive dry by dropping off a boat into the ocean would be the last thing I'd want to try. It was a pretty alien sensation at first, and the last loading was pretty high the first couple of times. Just getting used to a neck seal can be a challenge! In the end, more diving is the answer though, and I'm really glad I went dry since it extended my local diving season by several months a year.

Oh, and if you don't get them up front, just go ahead and budget for dry gloves. When your body is nice and warm, having cold hands just seems wrong

 

[kr2y5]

After much deliberation, I tentatively decided to go with Whites Fusion, now choosing between the Tech, Bullet, or Sport, and the various options.

1) What exactly is the nature of the reduced mobility problem with Bullet, is it due to the preinstalled hard neck collar/ring being stiff, and restricting your arm movement, or is it due to the increased thickness of the outer skin and limited ability to stretch, or yet something else? Just based on the looks, it's not really clear to me why the mobility of Bullet vs. Tech should be that much different. Both of these skins seem soft. Did anyone try adding the collar to the Tech (or Sport), and experienced the same mobility issues with it during the dive, or is it really the skin being thicker?

2) I'm thinking of getting the hard neck collar with easily replaceable silicone seals, is maintenance cost the main advantage? How often did you damage your latex seals? The hard collar seems quite a bit uncomfortable and restricting, does having a silicone instead of latex on your neck offset the discomfort of that stiff collar during the actual dive?

3) Have you used dry gloves and/or a hood that attaches to your neck collar/ring? Which ones worked for you?

4) Do you recommend getting a P valve? I've been told by LDS that ordering it is not too common, due to a possibility of failure. What are the pros/cons?

 

[grf88]

I have a Fusion Tech, some of my buddies have the Bullet and others the Sport. I have not tried the Bullet but those that have them have no issues with mobility but I suspect if they tried my Tech skin they would notice a difference but not enough that it would be a concern. I have recently had mine upgraded to the silicone seals and don't find it either uncomfortable or restricting although it does tend to catch my nose when removing the suit. I am diving in cold water and have heavy undergarments which provide a bit of padding in the collar area, I might be able to notice the neck ring in thin undergarments.

I have been using the Quick Lock glove system and had the upgrade for the wrist seals done at the same time as the neck. Not sure how a fitted hood would work out, would't you still need a neck seal. I have had good success with the Quick Lock which I replaced my Quick Glove system with which at times could give problems. My buddies like their P-valves, I didn't think it worth the hassle or the risk of a UTI. I have the lace up boots as I was used to these from my previous suit, the biggest problem with them is if you are diving in cold conditions the laces can freeze before you can get them undone. The Bullet does take quite a bit longer to dry but this is probably only an issue if you are travelling by air, in which case you might want to consider the lighter Tech or Sport.

 

[al248005]

One piece of advice....this is your drysuit not Scubaboards. I suggest you go to the LDS talk it over with them try some of them on if possible or even look at the options and buy what YOU like. You will get a million different answers on here about options....some ppl like certain things and others don't.

 

[kr2y5]

Mostly looking for insights that were not apparent until you started regularly diving with the suit.

 

[TravisD]

Insights?

The amount of additional lead needed was the biggest shock for me. Wet, I was using 4-6 lbs. Dry, I need 32-36 depending on insulation, and that's in fresh water. I'm already using a SS backplate and steel tank. I'm very glad that I was already using a DUI Weight & Trim system.

I got to use it in my coldest dives yet last month. 38°F water temps, oyster diving. With dry gloves, I was never cold, even on the ride back to the dock. There were a couple of guys diving wet, and they were freezing after the dives. I'd have never been diving locally in December without going dry. My local dive season used to be June-October basically. Now it's April-December basically, and I'd consider some dives outside of that now if they were happening.

I haven't yet invested in a p-valve. I don't do long enough dives to need it. I'm sure that one of these days I'll wish I had one.

My Fusion has the Bullet skin. Dry time is annoying. If I travel with it, I'll probably spend the $150 to get the sport skin. I have the neck-tite ring, but don't notice it. It has the round wrist rings, and I use the Glove Lock system. They get annoying while getting into and out of my BC, but can't say I notice them under water. I've already had to replace the silicone wrist seals due to some holes. Not sure how they happened, but I didn't notice them until my wife tried the suit and wasn't using dry gloves. Oops.