Drysuit diving

[MKrauter]

Hello everyone.

This weekend I will be finishing up my drysuit course which I am very excited about. Just for reference I'm diving a SP Everdry4 suit which is crushed neoprene with neoprene seals. I had my pool comps on Wednesday and did reasonably well. My only caveat was maintaining a hover with no fin movements. Which was difficult as I was constantly foot heavy however after figuring out that I can put air in the feet and not shoot like a rocket I was comfy. Also my gear doffing/donning at the surface was complicated with my weight belt and bp/w fighting each other...

But, at the end of the night I did well and had gotten a little confidence in the areas giving me problems. Now, for the open water portion, I am wondering f there is anything I should work on, outside of the mandatory concepts needed to pass the course, what are things I should work on or try out whilst doing this dive? I plan on trying to improve my trim and try to hover in less basic positions (i.e upside down, on my side, etc) as well as trying out different amounts of air in the suit.

Have to say though after just the one pool session I love it. It was awesome to finish dry and warm!

 

[fjpatrum]

It is very nice to be warm!

As someone with only 6 or so dry dives so far, I'll say watch out and don't get overconfident if your first couple dives go well.

My first dive went incredibly smoothly. 12m, no problems with buoyancy, runaway ascents or anything. Since then I've had a couple of inverted ascents (partial) a runaway and general "getting used to it" type issues. I find I don't have much effort if I stay above 12m or so. 6m is about where the squeeze gets uncomfortable for me and down to 12m I can easily manage the bubble. After that is where I have to pay a lot more attention (as a newb, anyway) to how much air I'm putting in and releasing. 18-19m is about the deepest I've been dry and my runaway ascent happened when moving from 18 to 12 m. I ended up halting everything (with a buddy's help) at about 3 m long enough to get sorted and just ascend the rest of the way to the surface. A little scary but not life-threatening given our dive profile and I kept my wits about me. I think it scared my buddy a lot more than it scared me because he didn't know if I was holding my breath or what...

Practice getting air out of your feet from an inverted position. This, to me, is the biggest/hardest skill with respect to diving dry. Having an instructor around will help you a lot with this one. (I didn't take a dry suit course but used my buddies as mentors.) I didn't have much effort dealing with buoyancy/trim compared to diving wet (except my last dives, which I've determined was due to another "new gear" issue). Learning when to purge and how much is what I'm working on now.

 

[Doomnova]

I can say this. Don't use your drysuit as a replacement for a BCD. Overall Drysuits do not exhaust air that easily. I would put enough air in to keep warm and keep the squeeze off and then dive that way. The reason is simple if you pay attension to your feet they will tell you when you have too much air in there you'll notice you can move your feet around a fair bit in your boots/foot sock of your drysuit its time to dump air out. I usually let enough air out so that my feet are back to being wrapped again. But as you dive more (it takes about 10-20 dives to get drysuit diving fully under control) you'll pick up on other subtle clues and then diving dry becomes second nature. Some day I will go to the places where water is warm and I will feel free without the 36lbs of lead and a drysuit...

 

[swimmer_spe]

Lessons learned:

1) Your drysuit is not a BCD. Air in the suit should only be there to reduce the squeeze.

2) weight belts just get in the way. get integrated weight pouches, get tank weight holders, and even use ankle weights.

3) practice with a buddy your various issues: feet first, getting trim, etc

4) A clean and waxed zipper is a dry person.

5) Hang by the feet to dry.

6) dry gloves and dry hood is a good idea. Why let those areas get wet, and cold?

7) the underwear you use should be able to be swapped out when it gets warmer/cooler.

 

[Jim-SAR]

Like other have said... Only use enough air to reduce the squeeze.

For venting, the exhaust valve is adjustable in case you didn't know. If you close it down, then you'll have to manually vent the suit every time your depth changes. With it opened all the way, your suit will automatically vent as you ascend. I you're up/down in your profile, you'll just use a bit more air to remove the squeeze when you go deeper. For a smooth deep to shallow profile, your manual venting is reduced.

I've been from 130 feet to the surface without the need to do much manual venting. It just takes a nice slow ascent.

If the water isn't too cold, don't be afraid to try regular street clothes, or a pair of sweats as an undergarment. On the dive rescue team, we're always in a drysuit, and very seldom do we wear the insulated undergarment. When winter comes and it's 20 degrees outside, that's a whole other story.


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[dive_turkey]

Glad I found this thread! I start my dry suit class on Friday.

 

[Doomnova]

Glad I found this thread! I start my dry suit class on Friday.

good luck. its not too hard the biggest thing is getting used to managing 2 air bladders. one day when I dive in waters where its warm I think I might feel naked or something. Its just getting used to how the air moved and where it tends to pile up (usually the feet) and how to deal with it when it gets there but before it becomes a major issue.

 

[dive_turkey]

Well, this was an incredibly easy skill to obtain. I found the dry suit to be very intuitive in its use. I would completely deflate my BC and manage all buoyancy through the suit's inflator. My trim was a little tricky to maintain as I learned to manage that bubble, but overall not too difficult. I was definitely underweight, but will fix that for next time.

 

[mtngoat2674]

If the water isn't too cold, don't be afraid to try regular street clothes, or a pair of sweats as an undergarment.

A lighter or no undergarment is appropriate for warmer water temperatures. Wearing cotton material under a drysuit is NEVER appropriate. If your suit floods or leaks, you will chill MUCH more quickly. More quickly, even, than when wearing no undergarment at all. Cotton has no insulative value when wet. This is a basic survival skill and applies to any wilderness environment. Light weight wicking fabrics like those sold for running or aerobics work well to keep the sweat away from your body in warm water temperatures or under exertion. Synthetic materials are great. If you prefer natural fabrics, use silk (very warm, even when thin, and does not add to buoyancy), wool, or bamboo (great for warm weather) fabrics.

The "what ifs" do happen and the potential for a leaky or flooded suit is there. Err on the side of caution and wear the proper gear. It doesn't have to be super expensive to work properly. Hypothermia can happen very quickly in cool water temperatures, even seventy-something degree water.

 

[dive_turkey]

Absolutely! I was wearing a tri-lam with basically long underwear. I got pretty chilled at the bottom. Next time I will be wearing my smart-wool and some sweats. Also, how much more weight to slow for more wonderful air in the suit. In other words, how much air should I have at neutral buoyancy?