Panama Jones
Contributor
OK. So this may seem like a dumb question and I might be able to think it through but I have cold water brain freeze at the moment and when I hear you answers Ill probably go ..Duh! to myself.
I have just decided to go dry and have about 12 no issue dives in my drysuit. Found it quite easy and very warm. The question I have is all the comments about how important it is to have a properly fitted drysuit to avoid a large roving air bubble which could present a dangerous situation.
My point, even the perfect fitting drysuit will allow a bubble many many times too large for proper buoyancy control. If you put too much air in, you will have a large roving bubble, period. It doesnt appear to me that it has anything to do with how much air the suit will hold, but how much air you need to add to maintain neutral if you use the suit for buoyancy or to take the squeeze off if you use your BCD for buoyancy (lets not turn this into a debate about this). Once you are at depth and before you add your first shot of air, as much air as possible has been squeezed from your suit and it's hugging you tight. You only add enough air to meet your warmth or buoyancy needs. Doesnt matter if youre in a 5 gallon bag or 8 gallon bag.
My Trilam is a little big and off the shelf, but doesnt matter because once it's hugging me I only add enough air to get loft for warmth. I may agree that there could be a problem if it is so large that a bubble gets trapped in a fold but for the most part, once you get your first squeeze at depth, air will take the path of least resistance.
So I always here the advice that if you are not a perfect off the rack body type, you require a customized suit as a suit too big (within reason of course) is a danger. I challenge this advice as well as the comment below.
This from dive website. A snug fitting suit and undersuit will tend to have less air in it and therefore less to move around while a baggier suit may have more in it to give the extra insulation
Someone tune me in.
I have just decided to go dry and have about 12 no issue dives in my drysuit. Found it quite easy and very warm. The question I have is all the comments about how important it is to have a properly fitted drysuit to avoid a large roving air bubble which could present a dangerous situation.
My point, even the perfect fitting drysuit will allow a bubble many many times too large for proper buoyancy control. If you put too much air in, you will have a large roving bubble, period. It doesnt appear to me that it has anything to do with how much air the suit will hold, but how much air you need to add to maintain neutral if you use the suit for buoyancy or to take the squeeze off if you use your BCD for buoyancy (lets not turn this into a debate about this). Once you are at depth and before you add your first shot of air, as much air as possible has been squeezed from your suit and it's hugging you tight. You only add enough air to meet your warmth or buoyancy needs. Doesnt matter if youre in a 5 gallon bag or 8 gallon bag.
My Trilam is a little big and off the shelf, but doesnt matter because once it's hugging me I only add enough air to get loft for warmth. I may agree that there could be a problem if it is so large that a bubble gets trapped in a fold but for the most part, once you get your first squeeze at depth, air will take the path of least resistance.
So I always here the advice that if you are not a perfect off the rack body type, you require a customized suit as a suit too big (within reason of course) is a danger. I challenge this advice as well as the comment below.
This from dive website. A snug fitting suit and undersuit will tend to have less air in it and therefore less to move around while a baggier suit may have more in it to give the extra insulation
Someone tune me in.