Dry suit air in your leg

[Aquanautchuck]

I have seen dry suits with dump valves in the legs. I have not heard many good remarks about them though. I do have a wrist dump that I love.

 

[ScubaJW]

Dump values in the leg, one of them is Apollo drysuit: http://www.apollo-sports.com/Graphics/ecosuit1.jpg

 

[TeddyDiver]

During my drysuit orientation I was deliberately flipped upside down and taught to tuck my knees in against my chest which kinda rolls you out of it.

Same here! Never had any problem with it so far..
What's important factor affecting to feet/air issue is how well your DS fits and how much thermal isolation you have under the suit.. And weighting of course!

 

[victor]

I actually have been diving dry for 20 years I usually dive the Bay of Fundy and in order to get repetitive dive I much prefer dry. Sometime I do like to dive wet just to remind me why dry suit were invented. The reason I was asking is my wife will be starting to dive dry and was asking if there was more than one way of getting rid of the air if it ever went in your feet and leg.

I think what everyone is saying here is that prevention is better than cure.
After a few dives in her suit she will recognize the symptoms and rectify it before it becomes a problem.
On my first dive I ended up doing a handstand in about 20ft of water holding on to the railing of a yacht with about 20lbs positive. Yes I was flustered, reached down and grabbed the railing with one hand then pressed the inflator button, not the dump as I had intended. My instructor turned me the right way up and I now remember which one is which.

 

[Sylvain]

I would like to take this time to thanks everyone for their input.

 

[InTheDrink]

So this is kinda of reviving an old thread, however....

I got a new dry suit a few months back at a dive show here. DUI TLS 350. They only had one left and the boots were already on it. The boots were a bit big but the price was phenomenal so I got it.

I've only been diving dry for a short while but in my training (neoprene suit) had no problems whatsoever and tbh didn't find it much different than diving wet technique-wise. Occasionally had to apply a slightly differently angled fin movement to keep trim ok and not have legs start to drift up but nothing worth even mentioning. I was pretty pleased that I took to it so well.

Now it's all turned to **** with my new suit. I'm trying to establish whether it's me being an idiot and needing more practise or whether it's the suit/boots/undersuit and what remedial measures to take. On some training dives over the weekend my legs/feet were doing there damnedest to send me shooting legs first. Really had to manoeuvre hard to avoid this happening. And it's tough work and not fun.

Sometimes it seemed like the air had moved out of this location (I can't exactly why so I can't say I'd know how to repeat it to fix it) and all was 100% again and back in good trim with effortless buoyancy.

I'm considering buying gators to try to address this issue, as I don't want to use ankle weights if avoidable. Ideally I'd like to avoid using any of these things so perhaps perseverance is the solution - but given that the suit I trained in seemed to present no issues and the one I've bought does, it's hard to know which way to go. Tempting to get the gators to be completely honest as I'd prefer to avoid a repeat of this weekend's antics. Another solution might be to replace the boots.

FYI, under drysuit was full 4th element arctic thermals and a typhoon undersuit. Had 4th element socks, 4th elements arctic boot socks and a normal pair of thick socks. The water was fairly cold, 4C (39F).

TIA, I had some pretty horrible dives this weekend and felt an idiot to boot, so any thoughts welcome.

J

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I am a dry suit newbie having purchased a used DUI that was a bit tall for me. My first 2 dives I struggled with trim, due in part to the excess material around the ankles from the imperfectly sizes suit. I too felt like a total idiot wondering what I was doing wrong - I used to be a good diver.

I purchased some gators and the trim issues have been greatly reduced without resorting to ankle weights. Still not as good as a w/s, but I think it will come with some more practice.

 

[TSandM]

You might try finkeepers to try to collapse the boots a bit. It might also be that, with the new suit, you need to move some weight around to be balanced.

 

[InTheDrink]

I am a dry suit newbie having purchased a used DUI that was a bit tall for me. My first 2 dives I struggled with trim, due in part to the excess material around the ankles from the imperfectly sizes suit. I too felt like a total idiot wondering what I was doing wrong - I used to be a good diver.

I purchased some gators and the trim issues have been greatly reduced without resorting to ankle weights. Still not as good as a w/s, but I think it will come with some more practice.

O'K this is good to know thanks, I'm gonna give them a shot. Nice to know someone else out there feeling like an idiot too

J

 

[InTheDrink]

You might try finkeepers to try to collapse the boots a bit. It might also be that, with the new suit, you need to move some weight around to be balanced.

Never heard of finkeepers - I'll take a google, thanks.

Good point also about weighting. Think my horseshoe wing might not have assisted me (I don't want to blame ability issues on equipment but sometimes they conspire together) and on one dive I felt really light and added another 3kgs plus got twin 12s and stage refilled. I was extremely heavy next dive, not sure that helped much either.

In terms of where the weight was though - around my waist so should have kept my legs down. I don't use any weights diving twinset wet.

Gonna give the gators a blast, learn how to move gas on rhs of to left on my wing and practise more in pool.

Thanks as always for the input.

J