Drysuit Course

[dherbman]

Smp

 

[HybridDiver]

eh i know how dry suit feel and work i have a special one for wakeboarding for early season wakeboarding. I found a friend around here who dives a dry suit he will teach me for free and he is a DM but not working he just took the course. Im start to meet more divers out here who have better skills then our instructors and even instructors have bad habits everyone knows that.

 

[*Floater*]

An experienced buddy is good, but there always seem to be those "Oh yeah, I forgot to warn you about that" things that occur.

Could some one provide a list of things I should know about or practice with a dry suit. I read the chapter from my PADI Adventures in Diving manual, but I won't take the specialty because I heard it's a rip-off and I don't have any buddies who dive dry.

 

[SharkRider]

The problem with the Drysuit course is they teach the BS of controlling bouyancy with the suit vs the BCD. They really don't teach you that much except the easiest way to put it on and take it off , how to burp it, and how to roll yourself back into position should you become inverted.

Here is a quick crash course:

Be sure to use gators and 2lb ankle weights when wearing a drysuit. While these are not required, I recommend them. Figure out your approximate weighting for use with a Drysuit. Typically add about 10 lbs to start out. If you were wearing 14 with a 7mm suit, try 24 lbs.

First Inflate your BCD
1. Remove all the air from your suit upon entry into the water (burp it)
2. You'll immediately feel suit squeeze, so begin adding just enough air to relieve the pressure.
3. Begin your Descent by letting air out of your BCD... If you're properly weighted you should begin to sink.
4. Go dive like any other dive.
5. If somehow you become inverted (feet up, head down) do a tuck and roll maneuver to force the air back into the upper portion of your drysuit. This should take care of the problem. At this point I usually suggest letting a little bit of the air out of the suit.
6. Continue Diving
7. When ascending, ascend normally, venting air from your BCD as you go. If you have vented all of the air from your BCD and you're still ascending, begin venting air from your left shoulder exhaust on the suit until you become neutral.
8. Ascend Normally...

Wallah... Drysuit Diving 101

 

[SharkRider]

Not wanting to start a war or anything here but if you use this type of logic why does anyone need an instructor to teach them anything. A lot of the old time divers never had a course and have dove safely for years. Couldn't you just read the nitrox book or talk to a buddy? Same for any of the other specialties.
I feel the same as Submariner....istruction is extremely valuable.

Joe

PREFACE:

I'm an Instructor... but I'm also old school.

This means that I teach, but I don't believe that everyone needs instruction for everything. Open water diving instruction is recommended. Virtually every specialty beyond that is NOT recommended. The only other recreational courses I recommend people pay for are Rescue and Night Limited Vis. Everything else is fluff.

I also highly recommend techincal courses such as Wreck Penetration, Cave Diving, Mixed gases beyond basic Nitrox and Extreme Deep Diving (beyond 130 feet.)

I'm on record many times as saying things like deep, boat, wreck (no penetration,) photography, spearfishing etc... are all better learned by doing and diving with others...

That ought to settle that.

 

[HybridDiver]

well if you dont have buddies who dive dry i would say take the course im just lucky i have some new friends i met at Dairy queen haha i saw one of them wearing a OMS and the other one was wearing a Diverite hat i was like oh pimp and went and talked with them we sat in dairy queen for 3-4 hours talking about gear and diving.. I say take the course it be way much easier.. cheers man good luck