Dry suit diving malfunction has me scared

[Dr Neil]

There are some great posts regarding diving dry. BubbleTrouble and Colliam7 have provided great advice.

My two cents of advice:
Test drive several dry suits before you buy one. (DUI demo days are great!)
+ A diver's buoyancy control must be bang-on before moving to a drysuit.
+ Weighting is crucial. Not only the amount of weight but its distribution as well.
+ Practice, Practice, Practice! Dive someplace in a somewhat controlled environment. Practice drysuit skills there before venturing into more challenging diving.

Shrinkwrap diving isn't for everyone, but it is addictive.

 

[Steve50]

What does the PADI Drysuit book and video say?

Terry

Here ya go - from the specialty instructor manual;

4. Adjusting your buoyancy underwater.
a. Underwater, you add air or argon only to the suit. Do
not use your BCD.
1. This avoids a suit squeeze (severe pinching due to
compression as you descend).
2. You’re not having to control two systems —
adding or releasing gas as you change depth.
3. It keeps the proper amount of air/argon in your
undergarment for insulation.
b. As you descend, lower your left shoulder so gas does
not vent from the exhaust valve and add gas to offset
compression. This maintains buoyancy and avoids
a suit squeeze. At the bottom if you’re properly
weighted, you should need to make no more than a
minor adjustment to your automatic exhaust valve so
that your suit holds the right amount of gas to stay
neutral. You can close the valve slightly so your suit
holds more gas.
c. When adding gas to your suit, do so slowly — short​

bursts help keep the valve from freezing up in

extremely cold water. As you descend, just add short
bursts every so often. If you find you need to add a
lot of gas during descent to maintain neutral buoyancy,
you probably need less weight. [Review with
students how to add gas underwater to their particular
dry suits.]
d. After starting your descent, you can shift to spread
eagle position, which helps distribute added gas
evenly through out the suit.
e. During ascents, you may vent expanding gas either
manually or automatically — depending on the type
of valve on the suit. [Review with students how to
vent gas underwater from their particular dry suits.]
When using an automatic valve, open it all the way
to release gas easily. As you ascend, raise your left
shoulder (the exhaust valve) to vent gas automatically​

and/or depress the valve to vent gas manually.

Personally I make folks aware that the BCD may also be used, but just with the caution about controlling the two systems...

I find, like you mentioned, that weighted properly, enough air to eliminate the squeeze pretty much takes care of the buoyancy

 

[Web Monkey]

Here ya go - from the specialty instructor manual;

Thanks!

Terry

 

[Anti-Hero]

There are some great posts regarding diving dry. BubbleTrouble and Colliam7 have provided great advice.

My two cents of advice:
Test drive several dry suits before you buy one. (DUI demo days are great!)
+ A diver's buoyancy control must be bang-on before moving to a drysuit.
+ Weighting is crucial. Not only the amount of weight but its distribution as well.
+ Practice, Practice, Practice! Dive someplace in a somewhat controlled environment. Practice drysuit skills there before venturing into more challenging diving.

Shrinkwrap diving isn't for everyone, but it is addictive.

I disagree on a point here:

"A diver's buoyancy control must be bang-on before moving to a drysuit"

Why? The dynamic instability of a drysuit is going to change how they control buoyancy significantly. Good buoyancy is always a key ingredient, but there is no need to have perfect buoyancy before moving to a drysuit.

The part about weighting and placement is crucial to all divers, in any situation, in any kind of exposure protection.

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

If you're in the northeast, Indian Valley Scuba's Dueling Drysuit Demo program is even better than DUI! Every weekend we are someplace local, doing drysuit demo's with two different manufacturers, giving you the chance to test dive a whole lotta suits before you decide to invest. We mix up the manufacturers each weekend to give you a chance to dive Whites, DUI, Pinnacle, Bare & Waterproof!

The best part - it's FREE!

 

[Buoyant1]

You know.. THEM!

Oh boy not THEM again?!?!?!?!:shocked2:

 

[Sas]

The first (obviously not my fault) the inflator valve stuck and inflated my suit uncontrollably fast. Even had I been able to disconnect the hose (I couldn't due to the thick gloves I didn't want to wear) it all happened so fast and the force of the air made it nearly impossible to even move my arms enough to grab the hose. After the incident I was given a different dry suit to wear for my second dive.

It can take practice to learn how to disconnect the hose. I couldn't do it when I first started using my drysuit (I use 5mm gloves) but practiced it a whole bunch the first few times I started drysuit diving and can now do it easily - which came in handy on the weekend when my suit had the same malfunction as you! I am really surprised that the air made it impossible to move your arms... When you move them it should cause air to vent out the suit (can happen via dump valve or wrist/neck seals, in my experience) and free up your movement. With more experience you should be able to respond quickly to this so my advice is to practice I just ripped out the hose straight away, went vertical and pulled open my neckseal, and didn't really start to ascend at all. Though as my inflator button stayed stuck this let half the ocean into my suit But better than an uncontrolled ascent.

Anyway, I got my inflator serviced, was sand in the valve so that could have contributed to it sticking. Sounds like you might have a dodgy one. The second dive sounds like another malfunction. It really helps to have your own suit as drysuits can be fiddly with fit and so on, and rental ones might not be very suitable at all.

If you are nervous (and I can understand why you would be!) perhaps go practice all the drysuit skills in a swimming pool/shallow dive until you are comfortable. See if your AOW instructor can help you with this.

On drysuit versus wing for buoyancy. Well I used to only use the wing for buoyancy but not any more. I tend to overweight myself slightly so I can keep more air in my suit for long dives, just keeps me warmer. It is really not difficult to manage buoyancy in a drysuit (I was told by others to only use wing for this reason so I avoided it for a long while) so I think it really comes down to personal preference as to what people use. There is no correct way despite what a lot of posts on Scubaboard say I think people should be taught the pros and cons of either method and then they can make up their own mind. Some people seem to run the suit with so much squeeze that it defeats the purpose of thermals as there is no air to loft the undergarments...

It is also interesting to read that a number of people think that water in a drysuit will cause one to sink. Not sure why that seems to be such a common belief?? I have had SO many arguments with people about this trying to convince them that a flooded drysuit is not negative

 

[GDI]

Genesis Scuba Diving Institute of Florida

This may help you out don't be dicouraged just get the right fit and practice

 

[DoogaDiver]

I'm not as nearly as experienced a diver, but having studied some physics, I would have to agree with Bubbletrubble. I would also think that in an absolutely worst case scenario, were the counter point true, and a flooded drysuit did become very negatively buoyant, a simple flick of a dive knife would quickly remedy the situation.

@Kingpatzer:
I'm just going to point out that in most cases with a leaky drysuit:

• the water is free to move in and out ("open" system)
• the seawater inside the suit will have the same buoyancy characteristics as the seawater outside of the suit -- water inside the suit doesn't suddenly transform into lead!
• it's the loss of the air inside the suit (which confers positive buoyancy with an intact suit) that makes a diver with a leaky drysuit more negatively buoyant
• once you exit the water, the water inside the suit won't be able to escape (barring that the hole is in the foot region) so the suit could feel VERY heavy depending on how much water entered initially. At that point, I'd agree with you that the water inside the suit is part of the weight that you carry...on land.
• WebMonkey already pointed out that, depending on how bad the leak is, the diver might have to ditch some weight to be less negatively buoyant. It's the loss of the air inside the suit which causes the negative buoyancy. FWIW, the undergarment itself may have some positive buoyancy in seawater when sopping wet, too.

@heidihart88: If you dive enough in a drysuit, there will come a day when that drysuit will leak -- leaky exhaust valve, ripped neck/wrist seal, improperly seated seal, torn material, etc. Be mindful of the situation and it won't be that big of a deal. It's definitely not something you need to fear.