Dry suit course in the Denver area

[RMAdventure]

I recently picked up a DUI CNSE off of eBay. It turned out to be a pretty good deal, fits me great and came with a lot of insulation, rockboots, fins, gloves, etc. I tried it out in the pool at my LDS and there were no leaks or issues with it. One of the instructors was a little annoyed that I dived a dry suit without having a C card for it though. Who do you guys recommend for taking a dry suit course? I really want to get out and dive the with it, but I want to make sure that I am safe as well. I'm leaning towards my LDS, just because I am familiar with them.

 

[g2]

Good on ya'!

Any qualified instructor at your LDS should be able to provide a class in drysuit diving (PM me if they don't, I'll make some recommendations). IMO, it should be a short, fun course. Beyond that it's mostly just practice.

Although I think you should definitely take a course, dry suit diving doesn't require any kind of certification. I have a couple friends who are self-taught dry suit divers, and they're probably better at it than most instructors. Lots of practice.

 

[RMAdventure]

I definitely considered going the self taught route and am tempted to go and dive it a couple times before taking the class. I spent around 40 minutes in it at the pool and felt like it was fairly easy to use. I practiced a lot of what I have read on here, inflate/deflate, removing/attach the inflator hose, feet up recovery, etc. I actually felt pretty comfortable using it.

 

[g2]

I actually felt pretty comfortable using it.

Excellent! By the way, I have dry suit envy.

As you're probably finding out, buoyancy control is the big issue. Proper weighting is really important. A good instructor should be able to tune your technique and get the weighting dialed-in.

Welcome to the world of dry suit diving. It's your ticket to dive in some amazing places and see things that will knock your socks off.

 

[RMAdventure]

Dry suit envy? I figured you of all people would have one, especially with all of the high altitude dives that you like to do. I'm very interested in doing some high altitude dives as I get some more experience.

In the pool I was using 18lbs with thin long underwear type undergarmets. I even made sure to run the tank down to 500 psi and I could still descend and hover at the bottom of the 12' pool.

 

[g2]

Oh, I've got two dry suits (DUI 450CLX and a Viking). I just don't have a compressed neoprene one... yet.

Dry suits wear out. Sooner or later you'll need to replace the seals and zipper, maybe the booties and gloves too. I've decided that I need at least two, maybe three, so I can keep diving while the others are being repaired. If you don't dive much it isn't a problem, but if your apex career goal is 'dive bum' then you can't have enough equipment.

Most of the serious divers on this forum dive dry: BoulderJohn, BigBubbaJ, RonFrank, RedDiver, PeteCO, WinterHawk, and others. For Colorado, it's the only way to go.

 

[RMAdventure]

Since this one was a pretty good deal, I won't be too disappointed if I have to replace it down the road. It came with what appears to be Si-tech wrist ring seals set up with a lightweight glove and an insulated pair. Before I even signed up for a OW class I knew that I would want to dive dry to be able to dive locally. I've already talked to reddiver and peteco about it. Reddiver and I talked about going to dive once he gets back from diving the cenotes.

 

[Peteco]

I'm diving a Bare tri-lam right now, just fabbed myself up some dry gloves for it, need a thicker hood to dive in winter. Might pick up that new Scubapro suit in a month or two, gotta drop 20 lbs more before fall (in which that Bare will be HUGE on me).

I dive dry pretty much everywhere around here, went to BH last month and dove dry there and at Perch lake. Can't beat it.