Decision time: Bottom Time or Drysuits?

[DA Aquamaster]

I am both conservative, leaning me toward buying a durable goos over a vacation, and basically tired of divers who dive comparatively little then till up the reef. That ptobably does not apply to you, but in general, equipping yourself to dive often in the local area will make you a much better diver than diving a lot less on one or two warm water trips per year.

Besides, it is often a lot nicer below the thermocline than above it.

Fresh water is also badly under rated. If you can find a lake with fairly clear water, the amount of life in the shallows is unsurpassed, and down deep, there are some interesting things to be found. I have had some truly epic warm water ocean dives with large sharks, pretty tropical fish, bait balls swirling over the reef or wreck, etc. But the average ocean dive does not come close to that and it often is more like what it truly is - diving in the middle of the marine equivalent of a desert.

So get the dry suit and dive often and dive local until you get bored with it, then start thinking dive vacation.

 

[BioLogic]

Buy a drysuit for yourself, use the money you would have spent on the wife's drysuit to fund your vacation to the warm, salty place!

No, no, that'll never work.... I *am* the wife!:blinking:

*Sigh* In my heart I know the drysuit's a better plan, and we've already signed up to start the training later this month. We got about 60 dives in local waters in this year, but we couldn't really start until June. It's just hard to give up the vision of the reef -- there's no place I'd rather be.

Thanks to all for your support and advice; it makes it easier to pull the trigger.

 

[Buoyant1]

Another vote for the dry suits...You won't regret it! Warm and salty will still be there next season...the dry suit will make you happy longer!

 

[parzdiver]

I vote for overextending your credit and doing BOTH!

Find a nice shop that will give you 1 year same as cash financing on the dry suits and find a cheap tropical getaway.

I just got an e-mail that Fantasy Island is running a pay for one diver, the next diver stays for free! So for the cost of ONE dry suit, both of you can dive warm clear waters!

 

[fire_diver]

Drysuit diving can have a steep learning curve, and you have to re-learn everything you know about buoyancy control and proper weighting.

This is absolutely wrong. You don't have to "re-learn" anything. It requires learning HOW the drysuit operates. After that, it's exactly the same as diving wet, except it's much more comfortable. If you understand buoyancy already, the exact same priciples apply in a drysuit. The same rules apply to properly weighting yourself. Yes, you have to do a new weight-check, but that's it.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Dry suits, no question. Without a doubt the best equipment investment I've ever made was my drysuit.

 

[Sas]

Drysuit diving can have a steep learning curve, and you have to re-learn everything you know about buoyancy control and proper weighting. You don't say whether or not you've already tried drysuit diving before, but a compromise would be to go ahead with the warm & salty vacation and take a drysuit specialty course in the winter just to see if you like it.

Hmm not in my experience. I am definitely not one to pick up practical dive skills fast, but one dive in a drysuit and I was fine in regards to both buoyancy control and proper weighting (the weight check is unchanged from a wetsuit...). Also, I really do not think a drysuit specialty is necessary for the vast majority of divers either.

 

[meierdierck]

I vote for overextending your credit and doing BOTH!

Find a nice shop that will give you 1 year same as cash financing on the dry suits and find a cheap tropical getaway.

I just got an e-mail that Fantasy Island is running a pay for one diver, the next diver stays for free! So for the cost of ONE dry suit, both of you can dive warm clear waters!

great idea, that would help stimulate the economy too

 

[meierdierck]

my 2 cents= normally I would agree with the drysuit crowd, but I would want to know one thing first, how good is the local midwest diving, because warm & salty might look pretty nice around january or feb, from what I remember of midwest winters, I dont know where in the midwest you 2 are, but you might want to consider midwest winter vs warm & salty

 

[Blackwood]

Dry suits, no question. Without a doubt the best equipment investment I've ever made was my drysuit.

Second best equipment investment I've made.

The p-valve FOR the drysuit is the best