Dry Suit training / class

[dberry]

The pain of the transition will depend a bit on your DS. A trilam suit with good room for a thick undersuit is a bit of a PITA to become comfortable in due to air travel and the amount of weight you need to sink all the air in your undergarments. A snug, body-fitting neoprene suit like the Fusion or a Scubapro Everdry is almost (but not quite) as easy to dive as a wetsuit, IMO. Little air that will wander and good stretch makes the experience more wetsuit-like. Not quite, but noticeably closer.

The used suit I bought is a White's Fusion Tech. I spent an hour in a pool in Fusion tech during an AquaLung demo last summer. Okay, I get that I was only at 12', but maintaining buoyancy and trim seemed pretty straightforward, once I emptied air out of my wing and after fussing with the placement of the lead a bit. At least I could fin around a few inches off the bottom, and hover as long as I wanted. Of course, when I got out of the suit I was absolutely SOAKING wet. So much so I swore the suit had leaked, until I realized it was all sweat.

OBTW, has AquaLung made any significant changes to the Fusion Tech since buying Whites? (not counting optional wrist and neck seal systems or other doodads.)

 

[decompression]

Nothing significant that I've seen.


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[vinegarbiscuit]

No changes as far as I know. But do yourself a favor if your suit has the low-profile Apecks dump valve, and replace it with a high-profile valve (the Sitech ones are good). A cursory search of the message boards will reveal that several folks experienced problems with leaky valves (myself included). The high-profile valve is a drier bet.


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[Dive Right In Scuba.]

(1) Is a "class" really necessary, or is spending a day or two with a instructor / mentor good enough? (I don't care if I get an official card, but I do want to be safe.)

I would say that a class is unnecessary if you have a very experienced and patient mentor. Mentors can answer all your questions, and there will be many!

Is a class necessary--not really. A good mentor/instructor is really all you need, but everyone is different.

I am having trouble understanding the question and the answers.

It seems to me that a different way of wording the question you asked is, "Do I need to pay an instructor to teach me, or should I get the instructor to do that work for free?"

And it seems to me that people are telling you that, yes, you need the instruction, and, yes, you should try to find an instructor who is willing to work without compensation.

Or am I misreading it?

 

[rx7diver]

Is a "class" really necessary, or is spending a day or two with a instructor / mentor good enough? (I don't care if I get an official card, but I do want to be safe.)

I simply borrowed a drysuit from my friend, an instructor who owns an LDS, and then went diving. I had read a lot about drysuits by that time, and I chatted with my friend beforehand, reviewing what to do and what not do, before going off by myself, diving at one end of a local (central Missouri) quarry while my friend taught an OW/AOW course at the other end. This actually occurred when I was still a very new diver, maybe two years post OW certification.

Soon after, I moved to Michigan, purchased a custom (crushed neoprene) drysuit, and dove it for the first time in a quarry (Gilboa, in northwest Ohio) when I was taking a recreational nitrox course, iirc. Then off to Great Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior, boat diving, that same summer.

So, no formal drysuit instruction, but a few quarry walk-in dives, before I first jumped off a boat into "real" water.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

 

[vinegarbiscuit]

I am having trouble understanding the question and the answers.

It seems to me that a different way of wording the question you asked is, "Do I need to pay an instructor to teach me, or should I get the instructor to do that work for free?"

And it seems to me that people are telling you that, yes, you need the instruction, and, yes, you should try to find an instructor who is willing to work without compensation.

Or am I misreading it?

My husband would have looked at me very oddly if I had tried to pay him for his time. He expressed willingness to teach me; I was happy to receive coaching and advice. Had he not been a vastly experienced drysuit diver and instructor, and not my husband, I would have paid for a class. Simple as that.


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[dberry]

I am having trouble understanding the question and the answers.

It seems to me that a different way of wording the question you asked is, "Do I need to pay an instructor to teach me, or should I get the instructor to do that work for free?"

And it seems to me that people are telling you that, yes, you need the instruction, and, yes, you should try to find an instructor who is willing to work without compensation.

Or am I misreading it?

Yes, you are misreading it. Or at least the spirit of my original question.

I was asking whether a formal PADI/SDI/NAUI course was preferred as opposed to just paying a knowledgable guide / instructor to work with me on the skills, etc. I absolutely believe in compensating people for their time and efforts. And I'm not adverse to formal classes. Just wanted to hear what folks think of the *formal* courses for the specific case of drysuit training.

And I appreciate the feedback from everyone.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba.]

Thanks for the clarification. It just seems to me that in scuba for some reason people seem to think that there is something unseemly about instructors getting paid to do their jobs, and they seem to think nothing of expecting one to work for free as a "Mentor." You would not dream of asking a plumber to fix your leaky pipes for free, but many people seem to assume that scuba instruction is supposed to be given away.

 

[uncfnp]

...//... A snug, body-fitting neoprene suit like the Fusion or a Scubapro Everdry is almost (but not quite) as easy to dive as a wetsuit, IMO. Little air that will wander and good stretch makes the experience more wetsuit-like. Not quite, but noticeably closer.

I think this is true. I have limited drysuit experience but its in a neoprene and I purposely chose the closest fit (which I may soon regret) exactly because of the stories of runaway drysuits. I found that diving the neoprene drysuit was little different from a wetsuit except for the squeeze and remembering to encourage air to vent as I ascended.

 

[WarrenZ]

For what it is worth when I got my first drysuit I took the local shop owner up on his offer for a little informal intro to drysuits ie come to the open water pool session and work out trim inflation deflation and heres how to get out of floating from your boots. We had the agreement that If I was floating from my boots for longer than 5 minutes he would turn me over otherwise he was hands off neither one of us persued making it the full course and C card but it was enough to enjoy the drysuit for many years since. However If I have to rent a suit I am screwed, and I did get kicked out of my deep diver course and not allowed to dive with the shops air because I didnt have a drysuit card to show while in my suit.

Do you need the Cert card probably not (if you get a little help getting comfortable with the suit). Could the C Card pay for itself one day absolutely.