Dry Suit Need Tips

[SubMariner]

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

By now you've had more than your share of people telling you that there were some errors made in your initial introduction to drysuit diving. And at the risk of repeating what probably has already been said, please seek out a knowledgeable Instructor who is certified to teach the Specialty.

DO NOT go back to open water in your suit until you have been through at least two confined water sessions with a good teacher to instruct you how to get out of uncontrolled ascents, feet first ascents, proper weighting in your suit, etc.

There are people who use their suit for buoyancy; there are people who put just enough air in their suit to offset squeeze & use their BC. NEITHER method is better or wose than the other. Use whatever version you find you can do most comfortably, then just keep practicing. Like any new skill, you will eventually get your weighting & buoyancy issues worked out.

Don't be discouraged. You may think the learning curve is pretty steep, but it sounds like you have the right attitude to use your drysuit safely & effectively to enjoy diving.

Bonne chance,

 

[USdiver1]

Drysuit diving, like many other scuba skills, is something that takes time to learn and master. I think that what the posters on this thread are trying to convey is that you put too much on your plate and your instructor didn't stop you from becoming a hazard to yourself, and by extension, to others at Dutch. You were lucky not to have gotten an embolism, ruptured an eardrum or other pressure related injury. What you need to do now is take it one skill at a time. Get proper confined water practice in your drysuit. Learn how to properly weigh yourself with the drysuit on, recover from a feet first ascent, vent via your valve, neck and arm seals. The top ten feet are the hardest to work your bouyancy, that is why you should practice it in the pool where there is a hard bottom at 10 feet. It will take from 20 to 50 open water dives in a drysuit before you will really have good bouyancy control. When I dive dry, I keep a mild squeeze on, and do all of my bouyancy control with my BC. If the squeeze gets too much, I will add the minimum amount of air to my suit to allieviate the pain. I do not attempt to provide any bouyancy from my suit, it is to keep me warm and dry, the BC is to help me keep my neutral bouyancy. Just get more training, competent training this time.

 

[altaskier]

My drysuit dives #4-#10 were on Lake Michigan shipwrecks, in rented drysuits from two different manufacturers (after I had completed the PADI class). I then bought my own and on my first dive in it I had a floatup from 25 feet in a quarry! So in hindsight I feel lucky that all went well on the deeper wrecks out in the middle of the lake... And I think it is wise that you are doing your boat trips in a wetsuit until you get the drysuit down a bit more!

I have some more quarry days on the calendar before my next boat dive, so I make sure I've got it down...