dry suit buoyancy

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scubascobey

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Seattle, WA
I'd like to ask for advice on dealing with buoyancy in my dry suit. Here's the situation:

- I have a small BARE suit and dive with a very thick undergarment (NW water) and wear 29 lbs weight, with a 119 or 130 steel tanks. I have weight split between my weight belt and BC and my BC is a back inflater. I weigh 116 lbs and am short (5'4").

- My 1st problem: When practicing buoyancy I tried hovering for 5 minutes, with no air in my BC, using only my dry suit for buoyancy. The air I'd add to the dry suit kept going to my legs/feet, of course then I wasn't hovering any longer because I had to summersault to get the air out. Or if that didn't happen, I'd start hovering and after a minute, I'd end up rolling so my tank would be towards the bottom and it would pull me down to the floor. I'm trying to find "perfect" buoyancy to pass my AOW class. When I had this problem, I was wearing: 16 lb weight belt, 1.5 lb on tank and 3 lbs in one pocket of my BC and 2 lbs in the other = 26.5 lbs total.

- My 2nd problem: Using only my dry suit for buoyancy, I tried hovering with a different set up, but now I'm having problems with getting my fins up off the bottom. I moved my tank up (my BC down) so that the weight was shifted higher, and moved to ankle weights (to deal with leg buoyancy). I'm having troubles with finding the perfect amount of air in my dry suit so that I maintain buoyancy when swimming and when hovering without adding/removing air. I was wearing: 16 lb wt belt, 1.5 lbs on each ankle, 5 lbs in each pocket of BC = 30 lbs total.

I need some advice on anything I can do to correct these problems.

Thanks much!
 
Try using your "buoyancy compensator" for buoyancy control, and just use your drysuit inflator to take the squeeze off with increasing depth.

It can be very difficult to control your buoyancy using your DS, as you have observed. Most--if not all--of the drysuit divers I know use their BC to control buoyancy.

If I may ask, where did you get the idea of using your DS for buoyancy control?
 
Well, my first advice is to stop using the dry suit for buoyancy :)

Really, having a big bag of air in your drysuit is hard to manage, because that big air space moves around all the way from your shoulders to your feet, and where it goes, so do you. If you put the air in your BC, it's closer to your center of gravity, and much less likely to put you in an odd (read: Foot up) position.

The air in the drysuit is for a couple of things -- It's required for insulation, and it allows mobility. Once you've achieved those two things, any additional air should go in your BC. You have to manage two air spaces that way, that's true, but it makes you much more stable in the water.

Your second paragraph I don't understand at all. If you can get your fins up, why are you using ankle weights? Doesn't make a great deal of sense.

I assume you are local, since you posted this in the Orca Bait forum. I'd be happy to go out with you and play with your weighting and trim, if you'd like.
 
Thanks for the reply. My current instructor for AOW is requiring that I use only my DS for buoyancy for the Dry Suit Certification Dive. It's required by PADI for AOW cert.

My boyfriend and all his friends who use DS's use their BC's for buoyancy control and like you suggest, only inflate their DS's to remove squeeze or for a little extra warmth.

I'm totally struggling with this skill to pass the Dry Suit Cert dive.

Thanks again!
 
I hate to say it, but I'd find a different instructor. If I recall correctly, some of the old PADI materials suggested using the DS for buoyancy but I don't think it is required (note that I don't train with PADI anymore). There are instructors on the board that may be able to answer that question if you post elsewhere.

Ask your instructor why he or she is requiring you to use your DS for buoyancy control, and ask them if they do the same thing. Then note that your boyfriend and everyone else you talked to uses their BCs for buoyancy control. Then ask the instructor why this is wrong in his or her opinion. My guess is there will be no good answers to these questions.

Your frustrations are perfectly natural, and nicely illustrate why using the DS for buoyancy control is a major PITA.
 
I don't want to start a flame war, however. I use my DS for buoyancy control and my BC for surface floation only. Since getting a DS about 4 years ago, I have steadly managed to reduce the amount of led I carry. I'm down to 28lbs open loop and about 26lbs when I dive my Sports KISS and stage bottle. I've found that with the correct weight on my belt, I can add just enough gas to get rid of the squeez and that just about makes me neutral.

I learned this technique from my CCR instructor. It comes in handy because the last thing
A CCR diver needs is another bag of gas to manage during descent and ascent.

Your mileage my very and there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Let me add that I am NOT and instructor. When being instructed, I would advise doing as your instructor tells you or get out of the water and go find another instructor that tells you what you want to hear. :)
 
Personally I do mainly use the DS for bouyancy compensation and the BC mainly on the surface.

The instructor ive been using for my certifications, which btw does NOT include the DS cert, actually told me something like "some preferr to use the BC, others preferr to use the DS. Experiment with it and find what suits YOU the best". Keep in mind this was NOT a official "drysuit class" setting. I also had the privilege of having a couple of other drysuit divers with me who could give me some advice and experiences to go by. Of course I spent some extra energy messing around with using the different options for bouyancy for the first 3-4 dives, but in the end I just found it easier to use just the suit. Partially because it allows you to generally use ONE device rather than two during the dive.

However, a general issue when putting your air in the DS, regarless of wether its just for equializing for the squeeze or using it for bouyancy is that if your feet is the highest point, thats where the air will end up, so you might want to try keeping your feet rather low when diving dry to not allow air to travel up to your feet to begin with..
 
Try using your "buoyancy compensator" for buoyancy control, and just use your drysuit inflator to take the squeeze off with increasing depth.

It can be very difficult to control your buoyancy using your DS, as you have observed. Most--if not all--of the drysuit divers I know use their BC to control buoyancy.

If I may ask, where did you get the idea of using your DS for buoyancy control?

Completely agree. I have tried both the BC & DS for bouyancy, and found the best control is the BC, and only adding air to the DS for comfort (relieving the squeeze). Using this method I have not experienced any bouyancy mgmt problems, and find less air heading to my feet, and air exhausts smoothly as I do my ascent.
 
I find that is works best with a dry suit, to wear enough weight on my belt to make the drysuit neutral just as it barely starts to squeeze, and my rig is buoyed separately with my BC to offset the weight of the gas I'm carrying. On descent I add gas to each, first the suit to reach the same squeeze and then the BC to level out. On ascent the suit dumps itself and I have to vent off the BC (which I also have to do as I run through my gas).
 
Try using your "buoyancy compensator" for buoyancy control, and just use your drysuit inflator to take the squeeze off with increasing depth.

It can be very difficult to control your buoyancy using your DS, as you have observed. Most--if not all--of the drysuit divers I know use their BC to control buoyancy.

If I may ask, where did you get the idea of using your DS for buoyancy control?

PADI teaches it that way. It's a joke!
 
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