Drysuit cert?

[trymixdiver]

Theres no question a drysuit cousre would help, it all depends on your personal comfort level in the water.

I bought the book drysuit diving and read it while my Viking suit was on order. Theres no qustion the book was helpfull, but it cant give you the inwater experience you need to master diving dry.

Depending on your ability i would:

read a good book
Talk with drysuit divers
do a few pool sessins
OW diving in safe conditions
Finally take the class if your not comfortable learning w/o instruction.

Andy

 

[TexasMike]

Here is an additional thought from my dry suit experience....

There can be a significant difference in how each different dry suit "dives". And when you change between suits, be prepared to step back a bit and get comfortable with your new setup (not unlike diving a new BC).

When I had my instruction for drysuit, I used a Mobby's twin shell suit and provided my own undergarments by layering my ski underwear. Class went well, and I also took advantage of renting the same suit for 6-8 more dives, (cold water, schmold walter...I wanna dive!) each time increasing my experience in diving with a drysuit.

During this time, I placed an order for a White's Catalyst dry suit with their polar fleece undewear. My first dives in it were last weekend. I qickly discovered that there was a noticable difference in how the White's suit dived. Mostly from the different buoyancy characteristics incliding how fast air was injected by the inlet valve and "discarded" by the exhaust valve. And since my prior experience had been with a different suit, I wasn't able to anticipate the White's as effectively during these first dives.

The dives went well, but I do recognize that I need more practice in the suit in relatively calm conditions (aka the local lakes) before I head off to more challenging conditions such as diving on a wreck.

(BTW, I am very happy with my purchase...just smart enough to realize I need more practice with it)

--TM "Squishy sock and all"

 

[pipesergeant]

Okay, when I bought my drysuit part of the deal was that if I bought the suit I had to take the class. Mind you I had to PAY FOR the class. $125. I was eager and the dealer gave me a great price on the suit so even with the class I was way under typical retail. So I did it.

Would I recommend it? No. Let me rephrase that: If you're a do it yourselfer, then by all means don't take the class. There's really only two or three skills you really need to learn and the rest is fluff. All of it can be found in any number of drysuit diving books that are available. I recommend buying a book and reading it then going out and doing some nice shallow dives till you get used to it and get all the skills down: Ie. stopping an inverted ascent, dumping air from your wrist and neck seals and disconnecting and reconnecting the inflator. How hard is this stuff? Do we really need to pay for this? NO! BTW, my class was through SSI in case anyone was wondering.

Now if you're a newer diver or are in any way uncomfortable in the water, then yes take the class, you'll feel better.

 

[SubMariner]

Texas Mike sums up things nicely: a drysuit is NOT just another passive piece of equipment that you put on & use like a pair of fins. It's important to have proper training in order to use the suit safely & effectively. If not you can get hurt... or worse!

To Lost Yooper: yes, we know you all hate PADI. Get over it.

When it comes to buoyancy control underwater there are pros & cons to using the suit vs the bcd. In most cases it's a matter of personal choice.

In the end it all comes down to TRAINING.

~SubMariner~

 

[Lost Yooper]

'Bout time you got on here. I set that one up special for you, Submariner .



Mike

"Get over it"? Not likely, much too easy of a target (virtually all agencies, BTW).

 

[SubMariner]

LOL! :tease:

~SubMariner~

 

[NJdiver85]

Last summer, I planned to take the dry suit course, and then a PADI wreck diver class. After reading the PADI dry suit book and watching the video, first up was the pool session for the dry suit course, lasting about 15 minutes. I have to say this was the most important and most helpful part. I ended up moving from this to doing my open water wreck dives without doing any shallow OW dry suit course dives, and I had no problems whatsoever. For me, there was no difference between the pool and open water when it came to operating my drysuit. However, I don't think I would have been comfortable in open water if I had NOT done the pool practice.

Therefore, my advice would be to at least read the PADI book, watch the video, and get in the pool for some practice, either with the instructor or with someone who is an experienced drysuit diver. Maybe you can get a deal like my LDS where the pool session was free, and the book and video were loaned to me for a few weeks, and all I paid for was the other PADI course I took.

 

[Arduous]

"pipesergeant posted"
"How hard is this stuff? Do we really need to pay for this? NO!"



There are warnings on Dunkin Donut coffee cups telling you that the coffee is HOT. There are instructions that come with your new TV telling you if it won’t turn on check to see it it’s plugged in. Theres a warning that comes with our hair driers telling us not to use them while we are in the bath tub. These warnings ARE necessary because 25% of our population don’t have the brains God gave to a house fly. Just as there are drivers on the roadway ( with a license ) that have no business driving, there are also divers ( with c-cards ) that have no business in the water. A separate dry suit class may not be required for all of us, who wish to dive dry. However there are those who maybe lacking in certain commons sense skill and may benefit greatly from the course. I took a dry suit course as part of a search & recovery course. The dry suit training was incorporated along with the search & recovery in a seamless fashion. The only time I felt that I was just dry suit training was at a pool session where I was fitted to a suit and then run through some practical applications of the basic dry suit skills. I am glad I took the dry suit portion of the course. It gave me some information that may have taken me some time on my own to figure out or get right. The information I received pointed me in the right direction to get the most out of my suit and diving. And I consider myself to be in the top 75% of us who expect that when I ask for a hot cup of coffee, my hot coffee is going to be HOT.

Dive Safe and don’t get burnt ………………..Arduous

 

[chuckrt]

I took the Dry Suit course and yes ther were alot of things in the book that didn't need to be but were informative about different tyles and materials. Everyting we covered became apparent in the pool sessions, there were two pools. The pool sessions were 1 1/2 hrs. each and we practiced all skills. We did taking off weights, BCs, Mask etc and putting them on again as well as feet up buoyancy control and dumping air. I do not think I would have been comfortable in not doing the course. It was SSI and maybe the difference was in the instructors as they dive with most of their students at one time or another.

chuckrt