Dry Suit Course?

[Gidds]

Ok I've been reading the dry suit threads, lotsa useful info about getting one thanks folks
What's a drysuit class like though?

 

[ppo2_diver]

It's pretty simple actually. If you take a PADI class, your first experience will be in the pool. I usually have my students do all of the skills in the pool before moving them to open water. The skills you will do are: nuetral buoyance using the dry suit (i.e. fin pivot and hovering), connecting/disconnecting inflator hose, proper weighting, inflating and venting the suit, and handling a feet up situation. I'm sure I may have forgotten a couple skills, but I don't have the manual with me.

One thing about PADI's program is that they teach you to use your dry suit as your primary bouyancy compenstating device and your BCD as the back up. I don't agree with it, but that is the way I have to teach it. I only add enough air to my suit to offset the squeeze.

DJ

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

Don't forget all the good info on the care and feeding of your drysuit.

Ditto on the using your BC for buoyancy and your d/s for warmth, but that's a dead horse.

 

[mossym]

One thing about PADI's program is that they teach you to use your dry suit as your primary bouyancy compenstating device and your BCD as the back up. I don't agree with it, but that is the way I have to teach it. I only add enough air to my suit to offset the squeeze.

DJ

if you get a good instructor you can work around that...

 

[Diver0001]

What's a drysuit class like though?

A good one will give you:

1) A quick refresher on Boyle's law, buoyancy and breathing
2) Insight into the issues specifically related to dry suit diving, such as what a drysuit does to your buoyancy control, proper diving protocols, how to get and stay horizontal, (holing-arching your back etc), trim weights, positioning of weights and so on and so forth.
3) Materials used to make drysuits and the pros/cons of various materials as related to the diving you intend to do
4) Maintenance of your drysuit
5) Influence of other bits of gear....tanks, weights, fins, finning styles, mobility etc etc.
6) proper fitting.

In the pool

1) Buoyancy check, buoyancy control, hovering and related skills
2) Descending and swimming with that thing on....
3) Dealing with a free-flowing and/or misbehaving inflator
4) Getting out of a feet-up position
5) Getting out of a feet-up ascent
6) Getting out of a feet-up position on the surface
7) Learning how to barrel-roll, somersault, act crazy and have fun (we do stuff in the pool with students that they will probably *never* do in open water just to prove to them that *anything* they can think of can be dealt with--for example, all of our students do hand-stands in the deep end of the pool to show them the "worst case" scenario in terms of buoyancy control.....).
8) Donning/doffing kit on the surface.
9) frog kicking
10) making a clean ascent with the drysuit on.

(sure hope I didn't miss anything).....

After that you should make a couple of dives in open water and practice the things you learned in the pool.

R..

 

[Dectek]

Then again you could go to the other extreme like mine.
Watch the Padi Video "Anyone have any Questions about the video? OK See you at the pool next week"
At the pool ...After helping EVERYONE else into their equipment and installing inflator hoses on their regs, I was left high and dry to get mine on by myself for the first time because even the instructor was in the pool.
" OK.. Swim around for a while and get used to the Buoyancy"
About 20 minutes later he had us hold onto a weight at the bottom while he filled the suits with air and had us upright ourselves before reaching the surface.
" OK swim around a little more ...work on buoyancy"
I had a hard time swimming because I kept rolling to one side or the other. I thought I was getting air trapped in my BC but later the problem became apparent.
After struggling to get out of the pool I asked if anyone had a camera to take a photo of the Red and Black Michelin man. When the water is over 80 degrees it is hard to tell if you are sweating or the suit is filling up.

" OK Guys...Go on any two dives with me or any of my other instructors and you will get your cert"
Needless to say.. I do not have the Cert.....But I certainly have the Experience.

 

[scubadobadoo]

The instructor that did my pool session was very helpful. On the other hand, the guy who did the cert dives was basically a waist of flesh. Granted he was leading a dive with about 10 divers but that's not my fault. At one point he actually got upset with me underwater when I wasn't ascending fast enough in my new dry suit. Clever fellow. After the dive he asked me what I was waiting for and why I was going so slow (because he was busy leading the dive) and I told him I was trying not to kill myself and pop to the top like a cork. I actually had to remind the guy that I was doing my dry suit cert dives. Basically, I paid money to be lead around a quarry that I have been in 40 times. SO, my point is, if you buy a good book (like Dick Long's) and take it slow and go with a friend who is VERY comfortable in a dry suit you should't have much of a learning curve, assuming you are not a NEW diver.

 

[scubamickey]

Damn...you guys got a pool session?
I just got thrown into the water.

A pool session would have been helpful. Maybe I wouldn't have looked like a fool rolling around the bottom when I couldn't control myself.

 

[cmt489]

I will be taking my drysuit class next week. Hopefully my experience is better than some others in this thread!

 

[Jim Lapenta]

We teach the class like ppo and Diver0001 described. As PADI says you use the suit for buoyancy (right!) and bc for trim. However if you should decide that you would like to TRY using the bc for buoyancy and the suit for just taking the squeeze off after the "official ow dives" and we "happen" to be there to give you some advice based on our experience then that is entirely up to you. Unofficially I use the suit for warmth and inflate for squeeze. I now also use gaiters from diverite and love em.Was not allowed to use 'em in my specialty course and rightly so, If you can't get out of trouble without them, dive warmer water. But now that I've got my rating I'll use whatever makes my experience more enjoyable. Gives extra protection to my shins and lessens amt of air getting into feet. I also don't have to use ankle weights like some of my buddies do. I actually had 2 pool sessions, 11 dives in the springs mid march with my instructor, three more with him in 46 degree water in wva on good friday of this year, and then did my official ow dives a few weeks later. I think I had a good course.