Dry suit questions????

[LI Diver]

Ok... thinking about buying/trying a drysuit and was wondering:
1) how much xtra weight will I need (even a percentage or guesstimate)
2) how hard is it to master
3) will I use a noticable amount more gas due to having one more thing to inflate
4) how comfortable are they

Thanks in advance guy's!!

 

[cummings66]

1 On one of my suits I need maybe 2 lbs more, on another I need 10 lbs more weight than my 7mm akona.
2 Not that hard.
3 I did a test the other day at 80 feet fresh water, hit the inflator and it used less air than one breath.
4 I find they're pretty comfortable. Not quite as free feeling as a wetsuit but much warmer.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

1)I use the same weight as I do for a wetsuit.
2)It takes about two minutes underwater to get used to it.
3)Use your BC for buoyancy and you won't see much difference.
4)A crushed neoprene suit feels like a loose-fitting wetsuit. A trilam suit feels like diving in a trash bag.

 

[H2Andy]

1) how much xtra weight will I need (even a percentage or guesstimate)

can't help there. i don't use any weight with my drysuit.

2) how hard is it to master

an introduction dive under supervision, and about 5 dives after that to cement it, tops. it's not hard at all.

3) will I use a noticable amount more gas due to having one more thing to inflate

not in my experience

4) how comfortable are they

excellent. i won't be going back to wetsuits.

 

[Bill51]

I use about 4 pounds more in my drysuit than a 5mm farmer john and part of that is more for an extra safety margin than absolutely needed.

 

[scubadobadoo]

I suggest you buy a book called "Dry Suit Diving" by DUI's Dick Long. Excellent stuff. It will answer all your questions and then some. The 14 bucks you spend on this book will save you money in the long run. Goodluck with your purchase!

 

[Scared Silly]

1) how much xtra weight will I need (even a percentage or guesstimate)
Depends on the suit, with a shell suit you might use less than with a 7mm wet wuit.

2) how hard is it to master
My first dives were dry, be doing it since. There are some skills that need to be mastered.

3) will I use a noticable amount more gas due to having one more thing to inflate
no, may be 1-2 cuft more of gas.

4) how comfortable are they
great. my only problem is skinny wrists with deep tendon tracks so water can leak in at times.

5) anyting else?
As already mentioned get Dick Long's book on diving dry.

 

[TSandM]

I can't answer your question about weight, because I've never dived in Puget Sound in anything but a dry suit.

They are very comfortable. Trilaminate suits are as comfortable as the amount of air you put in them -- they'll seal down around you if you want it that way, and that's not very comfortable at all; on the other hand, too much air makes them unstable. Compressed neoprene has a little stretch and, for my money, is more comfortable, and warmer.

If you put enough gas in the suit to notice, you're overweighted.

I disagree, though, that they're easy to manage. I suppose it depends on how good you want your buoyancy control to be. Doing precise stops in the shallow range is a challenge. It took me six months to get to where I could do 30, 20 and 10 foot stops within a two foot tolerance -- and I'm not sure how reproducible that is even yet. In my experience, the manageability of a dry suit depends on the dump valve position, the type of dump valve, how well it's been maintained, and how much air you have in the suit. It does take time to learn, and if you aren't diving your own suit, there's a learning curve for each one you use.

I have tiny (I mean TINY) wrists, which are bony and have prominent tendons, and my wrist seals leak NO water unless I am doing some kind of heavy work underwater. In a normal dive, I come out bone dry everywhere (now that all the leaks in my suit are fixed, anyway).

 

[JeffG]

I have tiny (I mean TINY) wrists, which are bony and have prominent tendons, and my wrist seals leak NO water unless I am doing some kind of heavy work underwater. In a normal dive, I come out bone dry everywhere (now that all the leaks in my suit are fixed, anyway).

Get drygloves.

 

[caveseeker7]

1) how much xtra weight will I need (even a percentage or guesstimate)

I need an additional 4 lbs over my 7mm suit. Worth every ounce.

2) how hard is it to master

Easy, just a couple of dives with an instructor to get comfortable.
I did the ds class, two dives, then a hird on a three dive boat trip and the last already felt quite comfortable.

3) will I use a noticable amount more gas due to having one more thing to inflate

Depends how much gas you (need to) add, really. A bad fit (suit too large) and bouncing up and down during your dive add to the consumption. But for most part it's negligable.

4) how comfortable are they

A comfortable fit is very important, more so on shell suits as they have no stretch. Too small will be somewhere between restrictive and painful, too large not much better. Requires more gas to keep it from wrinkling up and getting uncomfy.

If it fits well though, the comfort is hard to beat. Even if you get a chill it's dry, huge difference from being wet and cold. The first two years I had my suit I dove wet once in the summer, usually just one dive and called it a day. The 7 mm is much less comfortable for me. After that I took 6 - 8 week breaks over the summer, boats in SoCal were overcrowded anyway. Unless we talk about a 3 mm wetsuit I find dry much more comfortable.