Diving Dry...is it bouyancy control?

[The Horn]

Just a tid bit to throw out there. When diving in a dry suit how many of you use the dry suit to control your bouyancy vs your BC? I add air to reduce suit squeeze and then cotrol bouyancy with my BC. PADI has this thing about bouyancy control with the dry suit and then the BC is the back up. I go the other route. Any opinions?

 

[dherbman]

I'm with you. The smaller the bubble in my DS, the better.

 

[H2Andy]

i think controlling bouyancy with the drysuit is not a very good idea. the suit
has too many places air can get trapped in, reducing your ability to control how
much air you have in there. also, the purge valve on a drysuit is much to slow
to be responsive when you need it to be.

minimum air on drysuit

control bouyancy with wings

 

[Cave Diver]

Your BCD (bouyancy control device) is your bouyancy control device.

Your drysuit is your exposure protection, and your redundant bouyancy device. There is just enough gas in it to reduce squeeze and not restrict movement.

 

[Scottri]

I use the drysuit for keeping dry and warm, I use the BC for what it was intended for.

 

[kidspot]

I tried using my DS for bouyancy on one dive (my inflator was acting up on my BCD) I fixed the problem between dives as I did NOT want to have to dive that way again - much more uncomfortable and more difficult to control bouyancy IMO.

Aloha, Tim

 

[David P]

When I dive a single tank most of my bouyancy comes from my DS, that is simply because the little bit of air I put in the suit to ease the squeze is all that I need for bouyancy. When I dive my doubles, just a bit in the drysuit again, but most of the air goes in the wing.

 

[jimmys]

i dive a zeagle BC and whites drysuit (wrist dump valve). when venting with my BC, i had to tilt backward to vent properly; however, when venting with my dry suit, it is much easier.
so, for me, i control bouncy with drysuit and my lung.

 

[Hickdive]

On a single cylinder dive just taking the squeeze off will make me neutral therefore I require no additional air in the wing.

On a twin cylinder dive I take the squeeze off and then bring myself to neutral with air in the wing.

Just because something is called a 'Buoyancy' compensator doesn't mean that you absolutely have to use it and nothing else for buoyancy control. The trick is to use just the right amount of air to be both neutral and not have a big bubble sloshing about inside the suit. If you achieve that you'll be fine. I've seen people get so hung up on the 'you must only use the BC for buoyancy control' that they will suffer all sorts of cold, discomfort and restriction of movement through squeeze just to put air into the wing rather than the suit.

 

[Atticus]

I have a strong personal preference for controlling my buoyancy with my wing and not putting a bubble in my drysuit. Since PADI & NAUI both have training material suggesting that the drysuit be used for buoyancy I teach it both ways and suggest that people figure out what works best for them.