Do I Need A Drysuit Course?

[WaterDawg]

guys, this disscusion was over when George said that he recieved instruction from a guy who had not 1 or 2 but "hundreds" of dives using the D/S as a bouyancy control device...an LDS owner no less!

OMG! I think its getting to be about that time, to take another SB hiatus. Some one asked a similar question on TDS the other day and everyone was like "Duhh, where have you been BC for Bouyancy and D/S for Dryness"
I guess it all depends on if you wear a snorkle or not.

 

[Sideband]

I would disagree "Respectively" about that. Bouancy should be controlled by the suit as a rule to avoid multiple air filled compartments to dump however as you get accustomed to the dry suit a little BC tweaking can help. So maybe the course aint so bad after all. Again I didnt take it but to each his/her own eh!!!!

Gotta disagree. The suit is for keeping you dry. Buoyancy is controlled by....wait for it...the buoyancy compensator. Drysuit air dumps will not vent air as fast as those on the BC. If a runaway ascent starts when using the BC you can pull one or more dumps to get rid of the excess air. Same situation using the drysuit for buoyancy and you have one option. Flood the suit.

Joe

 

[Sideband]

Obviously never dove in cold water. Diving a dry-suit shell suit compressed is not an option. At 100 ft. or more the air needed to relax the suit is quite substantial. Add that to a BC with air can amount to problems. I define cold as 32-50 degrees.
No offense intended just disagree.

I dive cold water all the time and still disagree.

Joe

 

[Dive-aholic]

guys, this disscusion was over when George said that he recieved instruction from a guy who had not 1 or 2 but "hundreds" of dives using the D/S as a bouyancy control device...an LDS owner no less!

OMG! I think its getting to be about that time, to take another SB hiatus. Some one asked a similar question on TDS the other day and everyone was like "Duhh, where have you been BC for Bouyancy and D/S for Dryness"
I guess it all depends on if you wear a snorkle or not.

Well, hey, no one said anything about a snorkle before!!! That changes the whole story. Of course you use the DS for buoyancy when wearing a snorkle! :14:

 

[Divedoggie]

If you don't feel confident, take the course.
If you have practiced, watched tapes, read books, read Scubaboard threads..lol, and feel confident, don't take the course.
Here in landlocked Colorado, its fun to take courses if you can afford it, just as an excuse to do something dive related.
For the sake of argument. I dive a Neoprene drysuit, and use just enough air to prevent squeeze. That small amount of air ends up making me nuetral. BC is for buoyancy, but I usually don't have air in it, so I vent the suit on ascent. I guess that takes both sides of the argument.

 

[Soggy]

Soggy,
I got my instruction from a lds owner with hundreds of drysuit dives who controls bouyancy with the suit. Imagine that.

So did I....

And I have hundreds of dives doing it the only way that makes sense if you ever plan on diving without ankle weights, in trim, and with something other than a single al80. What's your point?

 

[Soggy]

This is an important point. It's easy to think that the way to do it is with the drysuit, because with itty-bitty tanks, there is no need to use the BC. The 6 lbs of buoyancy compensation with an al80 can easily be accomodated with the drysuit and lung volume alone. Get much more than that, and the Michelin Man starts making an appearance.

I'm with Soggy. Even without deco bottles, and a set of double 95s, if I had to control my buoyancy with my dry suit, I would look like the dude in ianr33's photo!

Proper weighting with a AL80 on your back means you shouldn't even have to touch the bc inflator hose. Taking off squeeze should be enough to keep you neutral. That's not buoyancy control. That's just good weighting and diving. If you can't help but be overweighted because of the kit you've got on, you compensate for the extra weight with the wing, not the dry suit.

 

[Soggy]

Look, it's not about wisdom or opinion. Think it through. This is one of those things that there is clearly a "right" and "wrong" way of doing it and I don't mean that in the GUE or DIR sense. The right way is the way that works in any situation regardless of your gear configuration. The wrong way is the one that has to change to adapt to different tanks.

There are a ton of other reasons, including trim, streamlining, and weighting considerations plus the risk of runaway ascent with a drysuit pumped up like that. Drysuit valves are not designed to vent as quickly as a BC. Pumping up a drysuit to compensate for much more than 6-8 lbs of buoyancy is *dangerous*. Now consider that you will get out of practice with the BC and add to this the risk of BC inflators leaking gas into the BC (had it happen, 3 times with 3 different brands/styles of inflators) and your risk of runaway ascent increases tremendously, since now you are no longer considering the BC as a source of buoyancy.

Think about this question....If you are using your drysuit for buoyancy, why are you even wearing a BC? With only 6-8 lbs of gas on your back, you certainly don't need redundant buoyancy....your rig is balanced already. If you are going to go down this route, you might as well just go back to 1970 and dive with an ABS plate and no buoyancy compensator.

I've done it both ways. I took a lousy drysuit class that taught me to dive on my knees and use only the suit for buoyancy control. I did 30 dives or so like that before I thought it through and figured it out. If you do a search here on Scubaboard, or over on TheDecoStop, you'll find that amongst those with a lot of experience and training almost unanimously will tell you to use your wing/bc for buoyancy and the drysuit to keep you dry and comfortable.

I bow to your wisdom.... Thankyou for allowing
me my opinion. Im truly not worthy.

 

[Dive_Girl PNW]

Too funny...You got them all....Hook, Line and sinker.

Jeff,you have just restored my faith in Scubaboard

Your welcome....now go and get that drysuit class before you hurt yourself

Hm? I wonder if I wasted my time posting...

 

[JeffG]

Hm? I wonder if I wasted my time posting...

Someone...somewhere...may of learned something in the thread, so Its probably not a total loss.