Decision time: Bottom Time or Drysuits?

[Brian Sharpe]

Another vote for the drysuit - last year when it was a balmy 40ish degrees in the St. Lawrence I was snug as a bug - my buddy in his wetsuit was definitely chilly by the end of the 2nd dive, he now owns a drysuit.

Even better, win the lottery & do both!

 

[ligersandtions]

Here's another vote for the drysuit! To not be able to dive for a huge chunk of the year would be horrible! And once you two are in drysuits, you can visit really cool diving locations (like socal, norcal, and the PNW) -- warm, tropical vacations are overrated Actually, I'm somewhat serious, but that is just my opinion, of course.

 

[pelagic_by_nature]

Nah, take the trip! Life is uncertain; eat dessert first!

Richard

I like that.

I started reading this thread thinking that the responses would be more even and not so tilted towards the drysuit. I'm glad, though, because I am about to ante up for a drysuit. By the way, I have Grand Cayman coming up in November and Cozumel in January. Hopefully I'll get some local drysuit diving in before and between and after the warm water diving.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Second best equipment investment I've made.

The p-valve FOR the drysuit is the best

That and spring straps are both on my "near term" purchase list. I suspect the dry suit will move down to #2 or 3 after those

And back to the topic at hand -- if you've never done an ice dive, you really, really need to! Around here it is way better than a warm water trip -- 30 or 40 folks crowded into food and heating tents, tending ropes, and tooling around in crystal clear water looking up at what is really something like a cathedral ceiling, and "skiing" on occasional, makes for one of the most enjoyable dive experience you can ever have! And if you do that -- you REALLY need a dry suit. You can do it in a wet suit, but you'll spend a lot more time hanging by the heaters and a lot less time having fun.

 

[BlancoB]

Go with the drysuit, that way you can extend your local dive season and prepare you for new dive possibilities in other vacation locations. Spring diving in Florida or Alaska in the summer, etc, the possibilities are endless

 

[joolz]

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.

Let me rephrase. By steep learning curve, I'm not suggesting it's unusually difficult, but even a competent wetsuit diver can expect to spend several dives just figuring out the different buoyancy characteristics of a drysuit, particularly if you're also experimenting with different underlayers at the same time. You're not starting from scratch, but most people don't get it immediately and have to go through a period of feeling a bit uncomfortable before it finally clicks. Sort of like learning to drive automatic then switching to a stick shift. Yes, there are some smart cookies who get it right away, but in my experience that's the exception rather than the norm.

There's more stuff to think about in a drysuit, like making sure your dump valve is positioned properly so that it can exhaust, or controlling the air pocket so it doesn't go to your feet and flip you upside down. I definitely recommend starting with some instruction, just so you've got some professional supervision as you figure this stuff out. I've seen far too many people give up on diving just because their initial experience in a drysuit was so horrible.

I'm standing by my suggestion to take the vacation and rent drysuits in the meantime. So there!

 

[rstofer]

You know, the downsides you mention are the primary reason I haven't bought a drysuit. My wetsuit is adequate. I don't like it but it is adequate.

The whole idea of turning upside down (and, yes, I know how to recover - at least in theory) just has me thinking the whole drysuit idea just isn't worth the hassle. Huge air bubbles migrating all over the place...

Now I have another inflator hose, a dump valve to position, put in enough air to eliminate the squeeze, be sure to vent the air before rocketing to the surface, diddle with the air in the wing, carry even more ballast... All this seems like just too much effort.

It's clear that drysuit users like them. If I spent that much money, I would claim to like them too!

But I KNOW I like diving in warm water. I can't come up with one good thing to say about diving in cold water other than "well, it's diving, kind of".

Take the vacation. Drysuits will always be around.

Richard

 

[meierdierck]

You know, the downsides you mention are the primary reason I haven't bought a drysuit. My wetsuit is adequate. I don't like it but it is adequate.
The whole idea of turning upside down (and, yes, I know how to recover - at least in theory) just has me thinking the whole drysuit idea just isn't worth the hassle. Huge air bubbles migrating all over the place...
Now I have another inflator hose, a dump valve to position, put in enough air to eliminate the squeeze, be sure to vent the air before rocketing to the surface, diddle with the air in the wing, carry even more ballast... All this seems like just too much effort.
It's clear that drysuit users like them. If I spent that much money, I would claim to like them too!
Richard

I never thought it was that big of an issue, and after 3-5 dives, I have never even heard a complaint, or been turned upside down, I think you are blowing it way out of proportion
even with all the "downsides" you mention, not peeling out of a frozen 7mm suit and not fighting your way into neoprene period, and the comfort still make s the drysuit a deal at twice the price IMO

I still vote vacation

 

[ligersandtions]

You know, the downsides you mention are the primary reason I haven't bought a drysuit. My wetsuit is adequate. I don't like it but it is adequate.

The whole idea of turning upside down (and, yes, I know how to recover - at least in theory) just has me thinking the whole drysuit idea just isn't worth the hassle. Huge air bubbles migrating all over the place...

Now I have another inflator hose, a dump valve to position, put in enough air to eliminate the squeeze, be sure to vent the air before rocketing to the surface, diddle with the air in the wing, carry even more ballast... All this seems like just too much effort.

It's clear that drysuit users like them. If I spent that much money, I would claim to like them too!

But I KNOW I like diving in warm water. I can't come up with one good thing to say about diving in cold water other than "well, it's diving, kind of".

Take the vacation. Drysuits will always be around.

Richard

If you don't have a "huge air bubble", you can flip upside, sideways, whatever way you want to....with absolutely no issue. I've never once even come close to a foot-first ascent and I can go upside down whenever I want/need to.

I find it sad that you think cold water is "diving, kind of". I absolutely love diving in cold water....and I find that warm water (at least the one place I've been recently) bores me to tears -- not really, I love the fact that I'm diving, but I just don't really see the appeal of miles upon miles of hard coral (maybe soft coral is different though).

 

[joolz]

Hey, I'm not trying to discourage anybody from drysuit diving. I'm only saying that it may not be a completely effortless transition, and it requires a bit of patience. I'm speaking from my own experience, since my first 50-ish dives were in warm water and I had to force myself to keep doing cold water dives until I got the hang of it.

I don't see these as "downsides", just a new set of skills to master. Once you've figured them out, they become second nature and you don't even think about them...but you have to be prepared to invest the time.