Drysuit disaster from La Jolla to DC...!

[ABCdivepro]

Thanks for the tips; I think I was rushing my way into drysuiting before I mastered wetsuiting! Going to take your advice and get my first round of gear in hand before hitting that cold water-

Sounds like a good plan. Everybody learns differently, person best-suited (boom!) to know how well, how fast you take on new stuff, react to situations, multitask etc is only you.

A little knowledge of human factors helps manage runaway situations like uncontrolled ascent. Managing workload is core, progressive learning and practice is usually the best fit (pow!) for most divers.

1, possibly 2 new things at a time is ok, 3 or more is asking for trouble. Proven time and again in so many different situations., thanks flying instructor from so long ago.

Well done for not getting any barotrauma btw, human instinct is to breath-hold in a situation, increased by mammalian dive reflex that's stronger in cold water.

 

[ABCdivepro]

It’s a common thing you see people doing, basically you zip up, cross your arms and do a deep knee bend squat while pulling your neck seal out to vent. This is a good boat dive technique where you go straight into the water and you don’t want to be a cork while things vent, unnecessary if you are shore diving and have any sort of swim out since, if the exhaust valve should be open, water pressure will push out any excess air before you get to the drop point.

You can also do this after zipping by opening the exhaust valve, balling up and closing the valve, or even with fingers in the neck seal to vent, as in this video
I tend to do it while zipping as it makes my zip easier to close without pinching, immediately after checking the neck seal. When you stand up a leak is noticeable. This works for my front-zipped trilam, mileage will differ with neoprene, back zip etc.

 

[Diverantz]

Luckily or not, I guess I wasn't a mammal about it! I'll post an update after the next attempt, outside the near future-

Well done for not getting any barotrauma btw, human instinct is to breath-hold in a situation, increased by mammalian dive reflex that's stronger in cold water.

 

[ABCdivepro]

Luckily or not, I guess I wasn't a mammal about it! I'll post an update after the next attempt, outside the near future-

Go fish, interested to see how you get on, what works best for you.