Dry suit learning curve

[RPanick]

Its also going to take at minimum a few dives to get your weight and trim tweak correctly. For instance, where is your trim, do you need ankle weights, where do you need to put the rest of your lead.

Next issue is seals, adjustments and other details that are going to require some adjustment. In theory you can do them in the pool, in practice it never seems to work that way. First off, most pools are too warm to spend enough time in the dry suit to really get comfortable.

Dealing with bouyancy is another issue, do you use your suit or your wing. You need to get in the habit of working through how you use it. Your air consumption will also go up, everyone's does.

You're profile shows less than a hundred dives. How many of these have been in cold salt water? How many times have you dove in Kelp? How comfortable are you with the camera? Is it a point and shoot, or a high end camera? All these things affect your task loading. Start adding the dry suit tasks to the tasks you are adding for diving in what can be a challenging environment and then ask yourself, can I afford another set of tasks?

Besides there is nothing wrong with just enjoying the view. There will be other times to take pictures.

 

[coach_izzy]

Is this a bad idea?

Going into an environment where you have very little control (open water) with virtually no experience than a pool is a bad idea.

Trying to combine it with photography is REALLY bad idea. Everything may be fine in the depths of a pool (which rarely exceed 15 ft). If you are not familar with venting the suit or with your trim, you are going to end up feet up. What would happen if that were to occurr at a depth of 50 feet instead of 15?

Don't take any unnecessary risks. What's the worst that could happen if you did not take the camera? You may lose a few shots. What's the worst that could happen if you took the camera and things went wrong? Is it worth it?

 

[hollywood703]

Leave it at home....unless....you can get the class and 5-10 dives in open water to play around with it. You have to decide what to leave.......

 

[Tanked Monkey]

Dude, seriously. Take all new dive gear in stride. Expecially a first-time drysuit! Either dive wet on the trip or get in at least 8-10 dry dives before the trip. But you already knew that; that's why you asked the question here in the first place.

Mike

 

[scubak]

I am going to have to agree with the previous posts to leave the dry suit at home and enjoy your trip diving wet with the camera.
K

 

[Doc Harry]

I thought going dry was anticlimatic. I took a dry suit class and by the end of the first dive I realized how easy it was. I did learn a little more about dry diving in the subsequent 35 dives with a dry suit, but it's all finesse.

I would get in at least 1 to 2 dry dives before your SoCal trip so you can enjoy staying dry and warm.

 

[DiverBeth]

As someone who just started dry suit diving this year I would follow the advice of doing a few dives before going to SoCal. Getting your buoyancy down can be a little tricky with that air bubble moving around. We all have a different learning curve but take things slow and go to your lds and arrange a few practice dives first.

 

[scububa]

Here are a few comments from someone just a little further down the curve... I just am at the point of getting very comfortable in my dry suit...

I would same that the post on 20 or so being a number before you get real comfortable was not that far off for me. I have 40 drysuit out of 220 dives. Granted, I have also added other factors such as doubles, cannister light, and stage bottle along with the dry suit dives.

I would question taking a new dry suit I hadn't used a few times on a live aboard, never mind the photography.

Some things I would consider

...getting your weighting adjusted...do you want to spend your live aboard time with this?
...harness adjustments...might need to make some changes to lengths...might even effect if your BC still fits
...if your photo concentration puts you head down, feet up...this is a tricky postion for a dry suit due to the air bubble moving into your feet...takes a while to feel this coming and control it
...moving a dry suit thru the water takes more effort than a wetsuit...perhaps not conducive to getting your photos...or will cause you to work harder, potentially generating more issues...until you get use to accepting the difference

 

[Rick Inman]

Well, if it was me, I would dive the dry suit. But I would also find a way to make a few real dives locally before the trip - lake, quarry, whatever.

Hey, no mater when you start really diving the thing, you're going to go through the learning curve. I can think of worse places to do it then S. CA!

At first, you can plan on focusing less attention on the camera and more on the suit. Then, as you adjust to the DS, you will forget about it and get back into the normal shooting rhythm.


At least you'll be warm.

 

[dannobee]

When I learned to dive dry, I asked my dive buddy (who is an MSDT) if I needed to take a drysuit course through him. He basically said nope, that he'd let me use the pool to get the weighting close and practice inverting and such, then turn me loose in the ocean while keeping an eye on me. It took me about 15-20 dives before I felt really comfortable in it.

Personally, I'd dive with the drysuit, but leave the camera on the boat for the first dive or two to reduce task loading, unless it's a small point and shoot camera with the wrist lanyard, then I'd probably take it along just to have the option of taking pictures.

FWIW