Dry Suit Need Tips

[Rand]

Quick question about what I quoted. You said fully open. Is this ALWAYS the case? Anytime not to have it fully open? I was told to have it fully open with three 1/2 twists closed (roughly).

I feel that my Sitech valve vents much more slowly than I would like it to, so keeping the valve fully open works for me. I dive properly weighted for whatever undergarments I'm wearing and unless I raise my arm and the valve into the vent position, the suit retains the minimal amount of air I put into it.

Like others have said, different valves vent differently. It is all part of getting used to diving the suit.

 

[furby076]

What kind of instructor would take a diver on his first dive ever in a drysuit to a depth of 90 ffw?

He didn't. First dive was at the platform (roughly 25 feet). I felt comfortable enough to go to the second dive which was planned roughly for 60 feet (give or take for finding the target item).

After a student had an uncontrolled ascent from 90 ffw, why would the instructor allow him to conduct another dive to the same depth? (OP reports having two uncontrolled ascents from 90 ffw.)

Either I wrote poorly or you're not reading properly. The mishaps happened during the same dive.

If the planned dive was to a max depth of 60 ffw, why wasn't that parameter respected?

Uncontrolled ascent/descent is the reason.

How could an instructor allow a student to get into a low-on-air (100 psi) situation (assuming no regulator malfunction, massive reg hose leak, etc.)?[/list]

The responsibility resides with me, not the instructor. Typically I outlast this instructor in terms of air, he knows this, and so do I. The drysuit experience killed my air. He finished the dive with 1600psi, i finished, well on a pony. Mind you, at no point was I surprised at the level of my air. I constantly check my watch, and I signaled the instructor at 700, and at 300 is when we aborted. Problem is that at 300 is also when I had the second uncontrolled ascent and that killed my air to 100 psi.

@furby076: Did you have a shallow pool session in your drysuit prior to diving at Dutch? If so, then it would have been appropriate for the instructor to discuss proper weighting, emergency techniques (feet-first ascents, stuck inflater, etc.), and the subtleties of managing the bubble inside the suit at that time.

I just did Dutch on the platform first. That's a relatively safe spot. Yes deeper then a pool, but 25 feet is not much of a danger for getting bent.

Anyhow - this thread is not about passing blame. I accept full responsibility for the mishaps. For the instructor, this is the first time, in all his diving career, that he has had mishaps with his students - and that's a pretty long career.

For everyone that provided tips - thank you. I will try them. I am going to try and get access to a pool, but if that does not happen I am gonna get 2-3 tanks and live on the platforms for a bit. Those are very safe environments (25 ft)

 

[boat sju]

furby,

I think the point people are trying to make about your instructor is that he shouldn't have had you in water that deep. First drysuit dives - a HARD bottom (not just a platform) at 30 ft or so is probably best. You learn a lot about drysuit diving in shallow water. I'm really not one to criticize in my posts (seriously), but in this case I really think your instructor is doing you a disservice and you should consider finding someone else.

 

[furby076]

Fair enough

I don't think Dutch has a suitable hard 30 foot bottom. The platforms are large. I am planning to go up and down from surface to 30 feet, especially since that's the threshold for the biggest change in pressure.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

New drysuit divers are notorious for having poor buoyancy control. With the proper choice of a dive site, the worst that can happen descent-wise is that the new drysuit diver becomes a dirt dart. No harm done there, provided that the diver was able to equalize properly during the unplanned descent.

Whether the uncontrolled ascents occurred on the same dive or on different ones is immaterial, in my opinion.
One uncontrolled ascent (too rapid?) from a depth of 90 ffw is reason enough to stop diving for the rest of the day.

The responsibility resides with me, not the instructor. Typically I outlast this instructor in terms of air, he knows this, and so do I. The drysuit experience killed my air. He finished the dive with 1600psi, i finished, well on a pony. Mind you, at no point was I surprised at the level of my air. I constantly check my watch, and I signaled the instructor at 700, and at 300 is when we aborted. Problem is that at 300 is also when I had the second uncontrolled ascent and that killed my air to 100 psi.

You are accepting responsibility for the LOA situation. That's fine. However, I'm left wondering why the instructor didn't begin the ascent immediately when you signaled to him that you had 700 psi. Bear in mind that I have no idea at what depth you signaled 700 psi. I also don't know what pre-dive gas planning was agreed upon beforehand.

What turn pressure or ascent pressure did the instructor specify during pre-dive planning?

Anyhow - this thread is not about passing blame. I accept full responsibility for the mishaps. For the instructor, this is the first time, in all his diving career, that he has had mishaps with his students - and that's a pretty long career.

Hopefully, this incident was a wake-up call to him.

If he really has had a long career teaching students, I'm actually more than a little surprised that this was the "first time" that he had a mishap with a student. Even if an instructor does everything correctly (e.g., chooses appropriate dive site for instruction, monitors students' gas supplies carefully), strange things can happen. By exercising good judgment, it mitigates the risk somewhat of bad things happening. It won't remove the risk altogether, though.

 

[EastTNDiver]

Thanks for the tips folks. I will take this in and recalc my weights. I think that may have been a big issue.

On a side note, I did spend the dive before on the platform and felt "OK", not great, but I chalked that up to inexperience. The dive should have been relatively uneventful, but we go to the quarry to learn (thank god this wasn't off the Jersey coast).

The planned dive was to about 60 feet - I say about because we were doing navigation, search/recovery so the exact depth was not provided, but it was in that range.
The instructor was fine - not his fault, and actually managed to grab my ankle and ensure I didn't pop up a gain and get bent.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I will get a chance to try it out again...though unfortunately I will not be diving dry on my next boat trip as I am not ready for that.

Thanks again!

One tip that I would give, is leave all those other activities alone until you are more comfortable in your drysuit. You need to develop a feel for the air bubble, anticipating the need to vent, etc. before getting task loaded with nav, S/R, etc. I was one of the rare ones that actually found it easier to maintain proper bouyancy/trim in a drysuit, but I was much more focused on just becoming accustomed to my new diving config, rather than being distracted by other tasks. Once managing the bubble and anticipating the need to vent became more of a reflex than a deliberate thought, then I moved on to task loading while diving dry. Also, like others have said, getting your weighting spot on will help greatly...IMO, more important than with diving wet. Good luck with it.

 

[jwin]

I know the fine-tune balance will come with time, but I had about 4-5 uncontrolled ascents....two of those from 90 feet (I am lucky I didn't get bent). No I didn't plan to go to 90 feet. I was swimming and all of a sudden starting flying up. I started venting air from the dry suit AND BC at the same time...hit the surface, and dropped like a rock (hence I got to 90 feet).

Sorry about my first response, but WOW!
In thirty years of diving I've not heard of anybody ever being so grossly over weighted, albeit intentionally, to drop to 90ft. As for the 4-5 uncontrolled ascents why do you think this happened? You stated short bursts of air. Back when BCD's had C02 cartridges, accidental "POPS" happened often but no one I dove with ever had ascents like the one's you've described. You need a proper weight check and some shallow water DS trainning before you or your "instructor" kills you.

 

[scubadobadoo]

The planned dive was to about 60 feet - I say about because we were doing navigation, search/recovery so the exact depth was not provided, but it was in that range.
The instructor was fine - not his fault

Thanks again!

I am very happy you are okay! That's the good news...

I am confused though. You were diving new in a dry suit AND doing navigation, search/recovery all at the same time??? If so, then I REALLY REALLY agree and not just simply agree with the above posts to get another instructor. Please clarify and again, I am glad you are well. Too much at the same time.

I have spent many hours at Dutch before I moved out west. I know the desperation and desire to dive dive dive that fills that place all too well and have done some stupid things there when I was a new diver too. Ugh.

What I do suggest is going back to the pool for some serious shallow water time with your new suit. You did start with a pool session?

 

[a22shady]

I have a Bare Trilam HD TechDry suit, I always leave my valve Fully open. I also dive with a SS Backplate and Xtra 6lb in my STA, I use a HP100 and I use a total of 4pounds in trim ppockets and find for me that is perfect when wearing my fourth element Arctic undergarments. My G/F has the same suit and same set-up only she uses 2lbs in her trim pockets and is weighted properlly.

I would suggest if your having a hard time getting used to everything, try using Just the drysuit for bouyancy/squeeze and only using the BC on the surface this may help you get used to it a little more quickly then task loading yourself trying to concentrate on the BC and Drysuit. You would not be able to add air to the drysuit before the dive because you wouldn't be able to sink unless you added a great deal of lead which wouldnt be a good idea.

 

[furby076]

Sorry about my first response, but WOW!
In thirty years of diving I've not heard of anybody ever being so grossly over weighted, albeit intentionally, to drop to 90ft. As for the 4-5 uncontrolled ascents why do you think this happened? You stated short bursts of air. Back when BCD's had C02 cartridges, accidental "POPS" happened often but no one I dove with ever had ascents like the one's you've described. You need a proper weight check and some shallow water DS trainning before you or your "instructor" kills you.

This stuff all happened quickly. The first two uncontrolled I was able to recover from. The 90 ft drop and surface just happened all at once. The reason this happened is lack of experience, plus the focus on the navigation. It was my mistake to bring the dry suit to the master diver training for navigation. The positive note about this experience is that I experienced how quickly a small uncontrolled ascent can turn into a huge one (never had a bad dive occur before). When the dive instructor saw me about to pop up on the last uncontrolled ascent he grabbed my leg, dumped his air and kept me down long enough for me to regain control.

@Others - thank you for the well wishes. Next week I am going boat diving, it's gonna be cold, but I'm diving wet until I get more experience at the quarry