Dry Suit, not so dry

[Magali]

I an the process of certification and on my last pool dive we were doing a somersault drill with the dry suit and I think what happened was air came out of my neck seal and hence I got alot of water in my suit.
I have my open water this weekend and really don't want this to happen again as we are diving in very cold water.
How do I know if this is what happened and how to I keep it from happening again?

Thanks!!

 

[oly5050user]

get a better fitting suit/seal

 

[H2Andy]

if the seals on the suit are old, they will leak if you move your neck around a lot, even if they were once properly fitted

if the seals are new and they leak a lot, it's probably because they are not properly fitted

new, well-fitted neck seals should not leak much when you do summersaults. however, they might leak a little (just like when you turn your head too much)

older or not-so-well-fitting seals will probably leak a lot during a summersault

 

[crlavoie]

Tough to say. In addition what's already been mentioned, it's very possible that you were over weighted as well. This is very common in your first few DS dives.

2 of my buddies were wet for about their 1st 6-8 dives.

 

[spectrum]

It may be fit

You may have that pronounced bone or tendon thing on your neck that makes getting a circumfrencial seal difficult especially when you do contortions.

You may have had a shirt collar or something caught under the seal wicking water into the suit.

You did a lot of sweating.

Pete

 

[crlavoie]

You did a lot of sweating.

Pete

Oh, forgot it was a pool. All 4 of us came out of our pool session soaked from sweat. Could be that simple.

 

[Magali]

Hmmm, I dont think I sweat enough to have to pour water out of the bottom of my suit.
But I will see if the seal is too loose

Thanks everyone!!

 

[SDAnderson]

If the suit burped a lot of air, it was over-inflated. As often as not, that results from being overweighted and using the suit to control buoyancy. Take the time to adjust your buoyancy correctly, use your BCD to compensate and only put enough air in the suit to take the squeeze off. The PADI course teaches using the suit for buoyancy, which is...controversial, at least.

 

[TSandM]

Magali, it may be overweighting, and it may be an ill-fitting neck seal, or it may be both. But a word of caution -- I had a similar problem with my rental drysuit in the pool, and everybody told me it would be okay, and I did my first two OW dives and almost ended up with severe enough hypothermia to require medical treatment. Don't let anybody tell you a leaking suit is okay. If you get wet in very cold water, you can get in trouble.

 

[Hoosier]

The PADI course teaches using the suit for buoyancy, which is...controversial, at least.

Actually, it is a big controversial, even in SSI.......... Most divers don't agree with that....