drysuit inflation!

[jiveturkey]

we were only in bout 10m of water but it still scared me

Remember, those 10m are the most dangerous because it's where you get the largest changes in gas volume. It's where you're most likely to experience a lung expansion injury. It's also where the gas in your blood comes out of solution the fastest. Be very careful in those last 10m.

 

[Aquanautchuck]

For sure take a class and practice. Make sure before you sign up that the agency teaches not to use the dry suit for a BCD. I do not put air in my dry suit till at least 40' or so. I like to dive with a little squeeze on so you do not get the "bubble affect". Practice recovery often since you just never know when you will need it. I have a cuff dump on my DUI. In case of runaway assent it can dump a lot of air. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[gander]

I took my drysuit course through PADI and the PADI manual states that you should control your buoyancy with the drysuit. However, during the OW portion, my instructor told me the better way to dive a drysuit (only adding air to prevent squeeze) and good reasons why you should operate the suit in this fashion. Therefore, I have only added air to my drysuit to prevent squeeze.

Therefore, it depends on the instructor and whether the instructor is teaching out of experience and knowledge or just reiterating the information that he is supposed to teach. Personally, I prefer the more experienced and knowlegable instructor.

 

[DocWong]

I took my drysuit course through PADI and the PADI manual states that you should control your buoyancy with the drysuit. However, during the OW portion, my instructor told me the better way to dive a drysuit (only adding air to prevent squeeze) and good reasons why you should operate the suit in this fashion. Therefore, I have only added air to my drysuit to prevent squeeze.

Therefore, it depends on the instructor and whether the instructor is teaching out of experience and knowledge or just reiterating the information that he is supposed to teach. Personally, I prefer the more experienced and knowlegable instructor.

Last year when I first got my drysuit, I spent quite a lot of time in my swimming pool playing with it. Using the PADI drysuit book I did all the drills and in the book it said to use the drysuit for buoyancy control and not your wing. After fooling around with it for awhile and then doing a few ocean dives with an instructor I found that this did not work for me.

Having so much air in the suit I found cause me various trim problems and when I switched to just putting enough air in the suit to prevent squeeze it was a lot better.

Now, after many dives and now diving in douibles and deco bottles, using the drysuit for buoyancy is not possible.

Then I did a survey on line for who uses the drysuit for buoyancy and who uses their wings for buoyancy and found that about 90% of the drysuit users do not use the drysuit for buoyancy control and just inflate enough to not get squeezed and use the wing for buoyancy control.

 

[gcbryan]

If you are only on your 3rd dive after OW class definitely take the drysuit class. Most instructors explain both methods even if the PADI manual does not. This is a small part of the class anyway. I use only enought to offset the squeeze but either way you won't be using all that much air if you are correctly weighted in the first place.

For those who already have a lot of dive experience before going to a drysuit it may be possible to do without the course but for anyone else it is well worth it.

 

[spectrum]

PADI seems to have a disconnect with thier DS bood and many instructors.

I chose not to take a DS course and did reading, and dove with mentors and challenged things in safe locations.

I decided against doing a DS course with a PADI instructor. When I latter mentioned the suit for buoyancy doctrine he said he does not teach that method either!

Nothing is wrong with moving to a DS early on, it's not uncommon to make OW cert dives that way in Canada. Instruction and safe practice are the keys.

Use just enought suit air to prevent squeeze. Use the BC for control. Move up slowly, the suit valve is relatively slow at venting. Make sure your undergarments allow for easy air movement.

Pete

I took my drysuit course through PADI and the PADI manual states that you should control your buoyancy with the drysuit. However, during the OW portion, my instructor told me the better way to dive a drysuit (only adding air to prevent squeeze) and good reasons why you should operate the suit in this fashion. Therefore, I have only added air to my drysuit to prevent squeeze.

Therefore, it depends on the instructor and whether the instructor is teaching out of experience and knowledge or just reiterating the information that he is supposed to teach. Personally, I prefer the more experienced and knowlegable instructor.