Dry Suit - Learning to dive dry

[RiverRat]

Now Greg, let's be reasonable, we all know LDS's use a metal rod, not a 2x4 and they don't go anywhere near your head

I hear that! Now when I go to do the OW-DS dives in the spring or whenever I'm gonna unload on the LDS if I hear one more ball busting comment about my backplate (it will push me forward and I'll drown) or....with a Drysuit you REALLY need a weight integrated BC......sales pitch crapola....or my "bragging" that I don't like to wear a lot of ditchable weight (a slam in front of 2 other students, again trying to push weight integrated BC's during the DS class) or comments about my "baby fins" I guess everyone HAS to have split fins to be cool around the LDS.......and don't let any incompetants mess with the internals of your regulator......and yada...yada....yada....

 

[zackdon]

I don't like the vedio myself. I don't think it is any clearer than seeing someone do it. Try it in a pool first.

 

[Bubble Blower 479]

When I first used a drysuit I don't think there was a class available. Maybe so but I hadn't heard about one. It's just not that hard. If your new to diving then a class might be helpful since your not a experienced in the water, but if your have a bit of exprience I think your should be able to apply the knowledge you already have when learning to use a DS. I think it depends on your skills and experience as a diver if you should pay an instructor for help.

 

[ERP]

When I got my first Drysuit with a wopping 6 or 7 OW dives under my belt I asked my open water instructor (who is a PADI course director) if the drysuit course was worth taking. His answer was no largely because they teach the suit for bouyancy thing.

I went out with an experienced drysuit diver buddy who got to enjoy a comical display of uncontrolled inverted ascents (all of them very shallow) on what I would describe as my least enjoyable dive ever. After getting some pointers and 8 or 9 dives under my belt, it was starting to feel natural. I know people who've had a lot easier time of the transition, some took the course others didn't.

I don't think you need to take the course, but do understand that you want to get used to the suit before you start diving aggresively.

 

[Greg D.]

What skills did you practice? Did you practice the skills prior to the dives or after the dives?

We went over the easy stuff like how to put on care of seals and the like. I already know all this of course but we wne over it anyway. We worked out proper weighting, and discussed use of the inflator and exaust valves. then we did a pre dive plan. Discussed the skills I was gonna practice, getting rid of excess bouyancy,stuck inflator, how to recover from a feet first buoyant accent. We did the dive in a local lake at 15-20 ft, we did the skills twice each and that was that. Went a few days later and practiced some more and felt totaly comfortable the day after when I did a 100+ ft dive.

 

[Greg D.]

Now Greg, let's be reasonable, we all know LDS's use a metal rod, not a 2x4 and they don't go anywhere near your head

Thats freakin funny! Sad but True

 

[peter_dorset]

Just wanted to thank everyone for the helpful comments it has been very useful and we have learnt a lot from this particularly about different ideas on buoyancy. We purchased our dry suits on Saturday and will get them in two weeks time.

I’ll put an update on our progress a week or so later. We have decided to go with the non instructor option for now and are test diving in 6 meters of water using the dry suit for squeeze technique and the bc for buoyancy.

Happy diving to everyone!

Peter

 

[yhuubert]

Diving in the UK is perhaps one of the most challenging environments low vis 1 meter to 2 and we get excited about 6m viz! and at 30m its pretty dark too. The reason for drive suits is not because the water is cold our oThree Semi drys keep you very warm it’s just cold getting out of the water due to wind chill (hence dry suits)

The cost for the UK training is £100 per person so that’s about $400 for both of us which is why I was wondering about alternatives to a PADI specialty.

We are planning to take the PADI Rescue diver this year at £200 per person, you see I don’t mind paying for training that I can see a value for.

Just got my drysuit some weeks ago and am looking to try it out. What I have chosen is to do it with an instructor or someone very experienced, but I have told them I do not want any agency to get part of that money as license fees for a plastic card. I see no reason to increase our foreign trade deficit

This coming weekend seems to have nice weather for that, no more than -3 to -5 degrees Celsius outside temperature and 5-10 m/s winds on the sea, so we decided we can skip the pool sessions and head straight to the seas. The visibility is probably no more than 1 meter, then again it usually is not much better most of the summer either. The last weekends storms of over 30-40 m/s winds were just not inviting enough to do the training then - although the surfers said it was a lot of fun then, and the sea water temperature actually felt very warm when fell into it, although I doubt it is more than 1-2 degrees Celsius

And I really hate it the quarries and the sea are not frozen and we can not do any ice diving this year, because of the warm weather.

Jüri
Tallinn, Estonia <- I always dream of UK conditions when someone says they are challenging

 

[OneBrightGator]

you, my friend, are hardcore.

 

[TekDiveGirl]

you, my friend, are hardcore.

You just say that cause you are a FL WWW!!!

(-;

Kimber

... but I agree....