DRY SUIT COURSE

[DepthCharge]

Not sure if this is the correct forum or not but here goes. I've read in multiple posts about taking "Drysuit
Courses". Just a bit of history......I've been diving drysuits for 20+ years. Dove them in the Great Lakes, North Atlantic, Scotland. Never had an incident that I couldn't deal with. When I bought my first drysuit, the owner spent probably 45min-1hour going over the suit and how to deal with issues. He then went on a dive with me, and we went thru some drills. So all told about 2 hrs. There was no additional charge for this. Now remember 20+ years, no major issue.
So what does a "course" teach you and how much does it cost? Just curious.
Later,
John

 

[Lorenzoid]

My drysuit course probably taught pretty much what your dealer taught you. I have heard it is not uncommon for a dealer to offer a "free drysuit course" with purchase of a drysuit.

I don't recall what my course cost, but since it was a GUE course, I am sure most would say "too much."

 

[_Ralph]

Probably very similar to what you experienced 20+ years ago, just in a bit more formal format to sell.

Some background on suits, construction, maintenance, etc. As well as how to deal with issues and preventative measures.

Then it's a few dives to get used to the suit and make sure that you are good to go.

As for cost? Couldn't tell you, but I'd say usual instructor and administration fees and a weekend of your time.


_R

 

[BoltSnap]

Our drysuit course involved 6 - 10 hours of classroom time, 3 hours pool and 4 openwater dives (more if required).

 

[Diver0001]

I got my first drysuit in 1985. At that time the training consisted of, "don't go too deep at first".

Since then there have been some improvements. What the dealer did for DepthCharge is probably most of what the drysuit course goes into. The way we give it you do three dives. One in confined water and two in open water. The confined dive gives the diver time to adjust to the buoyancy aspects of the suit, trim, body position and get familiar with the basics like putting air in, venting it, achieving neutral buoyancy, finning (we usually do frog kick), how to deal with getting inverted, dealing with a free flowing regulator, putting the gear on/off at the surface, gear maintenance etc etc etc.

There's usually lots of time to play around with trying anything they're worried about not being able to handle. One of the things I always do is to get them in a handstand and then press the inflator button. As their hands leave the bottom they roll out of it and vent the suit. The idea is to get back to neutral before breaking the surface. A worse case of being inverted will never happen so lots of students get a confidence boost from that.

Goal of the confined session is that they know how the suit works, they're not afraid of it and any worries they had are addressed.

The open water dives are just two dives. Focus is on buoyancy control. We do some hovering, go deeper, make sure they anticipate properly during the ascent, put the gear on/off at the surface, uncouple the inflator hose (no actual free flow in open water) and that's about it. It's just for the extra experience. The real learning happens in the confined session. Open water is for experience.

To be honest, some students could really use the extra buoyancy practice, drysuit or not, so for some students the course is valuable just for that. An experienced diver could probably do with just the orientation in confined or on a shallow dive. Lots of people could probably figure it out alone, like we all did 30 years ago but the orientation shortens the learning curve.

As for the price I'm not sure. It will probably be on the order of €50 for the orientation in the pool and €100 for the day of diving so €150 in total..... I think if a person is buying a drysuit that they should try to negotiate the specialty for free as part of the deal. A lot of shops will do that.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

Our drysuit course involved 6 - 10 hours of classroom time, 3 hours pool and 4 openwater dives (more if required).

What on earth can you talk about for 10 hours? I think if I had 10 hours to talk about this that it would have to involve 8 hours of silent meditation.

As for the in-water time. Sometimes very inexperienced divers want to take the course and find themselves struggling with buoyancy control. 4 dives in OW isn't always overdone. Some could use more like 10 hours of bottom time. This isn't, however, because they need that much time to learn the drysuit, it's because they are still learning how to dive at all.

For someone who already knows how to dive the "adventure dive" (orientation) should be all they really need.

I've had a few students over the years not pass this course. One in particular didn't give a rat's patoot about his buoyancy control at all, drysuit or not, and when he couldn't control the suit through multiple attempts at making a clean safety stop at 5m (required by standards) I told him that I couldn't sign off on it but that I was willing to dive with him again on my own time to see if we could clean it up. I was diving the next day again and told him that he could tag along for the practice.

He refused and told me that he didn't have time for that kind of thing and that I would need to decide if I was going to sign off on it that day or not. I didn't. I think he was mad but he made his choice too. He needed an instructor who would give him a card for showing up but that wasn't me.

I've also had the odd one who decided that it was just too much work to dive in a drysuit and that they were happy to have done the course because it helped them decide not to buy a drysuit. That was a disappointment because I do try to make it as easy as possible. Obviously the shop was not amused about that since the expectation is that the students will come back in a hurry to buy a drysuit.

R..

 

[DepthCharge]

Seems to be quite a variation. One would think that for what a suit costs, they'd throw in the "training".
Later,
John

 

[Diver0001]

Seems to be quite a variation. One would think that for what a suit costs, they'd throw in the "training".
Later,
John

That's what I tell people who ask me. You should, in my opinion, never by a drysuit without the training included in the price unless, of course, you don't need/want it.

R..

 

[soonerwink]

We have a growing group of drysuit divers here in Oklahoma, and I think I am the only one that has ever taken a class. I did it just so I could rent a suit before I purchased my first one. It seems when we get a new DS diver we just give them some tips and off we go.

 

[kelemvor]

Not sure if this is the correct forum or not but here goes. I've read in multiple posts about taking "Drysuit
Courses". Just a bit of history......I've been diving drysuits for 20+ years. Dove them in the Great Lakes, North Atlantic, Scotland. Never had an incident that I couldn't deal with. When I bought my first drysuit, the owner spent probably 45min-1hour going over the suit and how to deal with issues. He then went on a dive with me, and we went thru some drills. So all told about 2 hrs. There was no additional charge for this. Now remember 20+ years, no major issue.
So what does a "course" teach you and how much does it cost? Just curious.

I bought my first drysuit about 2 years ago. My "course" was about the same as yours from the sound of it. My course was also included "free" with the suit purchase.