Dry Suit Thoughts and Experiences?

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edhjr

Registered
Messages
30
Reaction score
12
Location
Cortland NY
# of dives
None - Not Certified
Almost completed SDI eLearning Dry Suit certification; although I have not completed OWC, nor have i used a wetsuit for diving purposes, dry suit diving is overwhelmingly complicated and riskier than wetsuit diving, in accordance from what i have studied through eLearning.

Would any one like to comment or share your thoughts or personal experience about dry suit diving?
 
Drysuit is different as it is another air bubble to manage, but it's not very hard just takes practice
 
On face value, yes it’s more complicated and risky than a wet suit but that doesn’t mean it’s complicated or risky. A drysuit really comes into play as you do longer dives, once chilled to the bone a wet suit or better said, lack of a drysuit/warmth can take a toll on judgement and can become more of a risk.
 
Dry suits are not overwhelmingly more complex, they just represent a few more skills to master. Managing another air bubble, learning to add gas and vent and a few more emergency management skills. All that comes with a reward of warmth and redundant buoyancy in case of a bcd failure.

I have used both neoprene dry suits and trilaminate dry suits, they have advantages and disadvantages. I found neoprene dry suits easier to learn in but trilaminate more functional. Neoprene is more form fitting and thus managing the bubble is a little easier, plus you generally don’t have to fuss with the additional layer of thick undergarments since the neoprene offers some thermal protection.

That said I generally prefer trilaminate suits. They offer a lot of benefits, such as self donning models and the ability to layer up or down for differing conditions, also no buoyancy change as a result of neoprene compression at depth.

drysuits are also one of the more expensive items of kit. You will want to try several types and get some experience before committing to a purchase. You will have a steep learning curve during your OW and will likely not be able to isolate what you like or dislike because everything is new. Experience will help with that. Also important to know where you are taking your journey, start with the end in mind and you are more likely to travel right there instead of taking a windy road.
 
I just got my drysuit cert in May. My experience is that it doesn't really change the act of diving. Yes their is a second air bubble to manage which isnt hard but is another task to add to your load. I am still working on that. I have a bad habit of starting to roll while trying to hover. That and my feet keep falling. Probably need to find more bouyany fins. The comfort is definitely a bonus though. As far as emergency skills, there are a couple new ones you have to practice but none are physically hard to do. Just need to practice until it is automatic
 
my wife and I have rescue certs, ppb, and about 70 dives each, with a mix of great lakes cold water and warm vacation diving. We boat dive, and shore dive, about equally. We bought Seaskin trilam suits this winter, and just started diving them. We chose to not take the drysuit course. We did however, borrow the course material from a friend, and completed the book, tests, and video work completely. We only have 3 dives in them so far so take my comments for what they're worth...

The 1st time out, was in a local "pond", max depth of about 25 ft. Easy beach-like shore entry, and chosen for the benign conditions. We had plenty of time to get ourselves sorted out on shore, and had tried on the suits a few times at home, to get used to the dressing process. We complicated things a bit (or a lot) though, as we were using steel plates instead of carbon, and had moved from aluminum 80s to steel hp100s during the winter. Also swapped to jetfins for the added weight. Basically, we broke all the rules about making big changes all at once, but it's just way it was happening. We hadn't changed the overall configuration we dive in, but all the "materials" had changed, in favour of heavy gear = less lead.

First things first, a proper weight check. We had over estimated our lead requirements, but this was due mainly to the tanks and plates. We sort of expected this, and it was easily sorted. We dumped a bunch of lead on shore, and went about having our dive. We dive suits for squeeze, and wings for lift, and didn't find it all that big a deal. We worked through the Padi requirements for the cert dives on our own, and was pleasantly surprised how well it went. We inverted, did feet up recoveries, somersaults, etc... Maintaining neutral buoyancy was not an issue, and after a little while, felt very natural. The dive was about an hour long, and as such, with the shallow depth, we still had half full tanks. We used the same tanks for the 2nd dive, and was able to do a proper weight check at 250psi with a very slow controlled ascent from 20 ft at the end. This should well cover our weight requirements for a lightest case scenario. We had no issues whatsoever, and the suits performed and fit great (thanks seaskin).

3rd dive was just a fun evening shore dive with our local dive group. No skills or practice, just a nice swim around in our new suits. Suiting up is getting even easier with more practice, and the diving dry feels pretty natural already. My wife claims she feels about as perfectly neutral as she ever has, and already now much prefers the drysuit.

All in all, we found it quite easy to convert to diving dry, and sort of feel like we saved $800 on the cert cards. I was prepared to take the course if we struggled, but thankfully it is all going smoothly. We are lucky to have a pretty active local dive community, and the vast majority of the divers eventually go dry, so we have a vast experience pool to draw from. Time will tell, as we have some deeper dives planned soon, but I feel confident that if we take it slow and easy we'll be just fine.
 
I've only been dry suit diving for a little over a year and I don't find dry suits to be complicated or risky at all.
 
Anyone can dive a drysuit, but to dive a drysuit as skillfully as you might in a wetsuit could take a lot of practice. I had well over 200 wetsuit dives and considered myself a very skilled diver when I bought my first drysuit (trilaminate--basically a bag of air with you in it). It felt like I was learning to dive all over again. But if you start out diving in a drysuit, you will never think of the learning curve as being steep since you have nothing to compare it with.
 
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