Drysuit trouble...

[davidwolfe2]

im on my 7th dive with a dry suit, i also strugled with ascents the first two dives, i was anxios and slighty nervous of becoming a rocket to the surface which made matters worse, so i slightly overweighted myself, this was really counter productive because then you have a larger volume of air to deal with as you ascend, the less weight i dive, the easier it is to vent, i found if i was calm and didnt squirm so much and just get in a heads up position and concentrate on ascending super slow and just shake the valve a bit to make sure i was empty i was able to ascend much easier, once i got paniced on earlier dives i realized i was doing more flailing around being nervious than concentrating on venting, i would say from the point of view of just solving my own dry suit problems its easiest to do a shallow boat dive and try to ascend on an anchor line so that you can just grab it if you need to slow your self down and get under control, or take a float out with you and a buddy to bring up the anchor off a beach dive so you can just feel more at ease when your ascending....and do a real weight check that will solve most your problems i think, after you make a few successful ascents and realize what it should feel like you will be more successful, it gets easier ever time.

 

[diver_pirate]

The diver wearing the micropreen suite with ankle dumps dives cold water about 8 dives a month year round. He by no means is undertrained. He also told me that the suit he was using was the general attire for the Japan where cold water is standard and where he purchased it when he was stationed there.

I agree that more gear is susceptable to fail because of more potential points of failure. This is especially true if it is not taken care of and inspected regularly. But since I have been diving (I geese here) a second reg (octo) has been added to the basic gear configuration and the argument that "gear solution to a skill problem" could have been used for that increase in gear.

As to "well designed" that is my opinion. I have an American made trilam with one dump valve and do not call it a dry suit mearly a moist suit. The other guy always comes back dry. That is my basis for "well designed" . My next Dry suit will consider all options.
DP

 

[Jack Hammer]

Nobody seemed to ask about how his weight was balanced. Was the tank too high in the bc causing him to swim in a head down position? That could have also made it easier for the air to all flow to his feet. He could have also been wearing an extra layer on his lower half, trapping more air in his legs.

Jack

 

[NJ Wreckster]

I would agree with the comments made by Webmonkey.

With the proper weighting, which is just enough to stay down, have a minimal amount of air volume in your drysuit. As you descend, add air to maintain the same volume. As you ascend, release air to maintain the same volume. The right amount of volume would be if you stand vertically and raise your right arm, a bubble of air up to about your elbow and no more would be about the right amount of volume. This was explained to me by Dick Long of DUI many years ago when I bought my first drysuit and after an inversion mishap similar to yours. No one knows more about drysuits than Dick Long.

Do not, I repeat, do not use your BC for bouyancy control. The BC is a bouyancy control device only if you are in a wetsuit. In a drysuit, you use the drysuit for bouyancy control. Use your BC only on the surface to float or in an emergency. If you use both the drysuit and BC for bouyancy control, you will be over taxed and probably get suit squeeze.

As a rule, I always keep my legs slightly lower than my chest to help avoid inversion. I don't use ankle weights but I find gator wraps most helpful in keeping air out of my lower legs and for more streamlined kicking. Always bend your left elbow when venting from your left shoulder valve.

Sometimes when working on a wreck, i.e., hammering or prying, it helps to be a little overweighted to help stay down on the wreck.

If you can get some time in a pool, practice getting out of an inversion. Have some weights or something you can hold onto at the bottom of the pool. While holding onto the weights, put too much air in your drysuit so you become inverted. Then let go of the weights and somersault out of the inversion. This one skill will save your ass if you ever get inverted.

 

[Luis H]

DUI has a great manual that you can download under this link:
http://www.dui-online.com/pdf/drysuitmanual.pdf

DUI makes great suits and a great manual.

The manual has great information for anyone diving any drysuit. The information about diving a drysuit applies to all dry suits (maybe a bit less to full thickness neoprene suit) and there is also great information about caring, storing, etc…etc.

The section of diving with your drysuit starts in page 43.

Here is just a small quote from the DUI manual:

MAINTAINING BUOYANCY CONTROL DURING
THE DIVE
Diving with a drysuit requires both buoyancy and trim control. Both of these
require controlling the drysuit’s free-air-volume. The free-air-volume is the
bubble of air which can freely move around inside the drysuit. This volume of
air is not part of the air trapped in the undergarments. The free air volume
contributes little or nothing to the overall insulation value. However, this
roving bubble is always moving to the highest point of the drysuit as you
change your attitude in the water. If the roving bubble is too big, it can lead to
trim problems such as the feeling your feet are floating up. The diver can
measure the size of this bubble by rotating the body to a vertical position and
holding one arm up over the head thus allowing the free air to move up this
arm. The drysuit will be collapsed around the arm up to the bottom of the
bubble. When the bubble is larger then half the length of the forearm it is
getting too big. It is best to keep the bubble small and, if it starts to grow, vent
the excess volume off and add air to the BCD to attain neutral buoyancy.

Once on the surface in a vertical posture with your head out of the water, you
will notice that there is more pressure on your legs than on your chest. This is
normal any time you are in the water and have your head higher than your
feet. The drysuit should feel as though it is squeezing you gently all over your
body. Though the sensation is quite different than that experienced when
wearing a wetsuit, you won’t notice it after a few dives or when you are in a
horizontal position.

Here is a partial Table of Contents:


Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Connecting the Drysuit Hose to your Regulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Before Your First Drysuit Dive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Preparing to Dive with your DUI Drysuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Pre-Dive Inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Putting Your Drysuit On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
QuickZip™ Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
Classic-Style Self-Donning Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Shoulder-Entry Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
RockBoots™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Turbo Sole Boot Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Diving with your DUI Drysuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Preparing to Dive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Entering the Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Achieving Neutral Buoyancy at the Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Estimated Changes in Cylinder Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Maintaining Buoyancy Control During the Dive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Diving With a Single Tank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Diving With More Than a Single Tank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Starting Your Dive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Descending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Obtaining Neutral Buoyancy at Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Ascending in Your Drysuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Surface Swimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Emergency Procedure Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Inverted Position (Air in Feet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Inflator Valve Stuck Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Inflator Valve Stuck Closed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Leaking Exhaust Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Exhaust Valve Stuck Closed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Slow Air Leak in Inflator Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Loss/Interruption of Air Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Flooded Drysuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Dropped/Lost Weight Belt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Adjusting you DUI Drysuit Between Dives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Taking Off Your DUI Drysuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
QuickZip™ and Original Self-Donning Drysuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Shoulder-Entry Drysuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Removing the Drysuit from your Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Care and Maintenance of your DUI Drysuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Drysuit Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Folding your DUI Drysuit in Drysuit Bag for Transporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Hanging Drysuit For Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Long Term Storage (Longer than two months) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

 

[horsediver1]

Another thing is call DUI they have changed valves due to some problems and if the suit you bought had been on the shelf it might have missed the recall. Let me reiterate what several others have said air in a dry suit is for insulating, and squeeze purposes only not for bouyancy.

Just a friendly tip do a lot of shallow dive practices to get confidence in the suit back up I have dove DUI for 27 years and are a quality product you can trust.

TG

 

[NJ Wreckster]

Sorry to disagree. Did you read the above directions posted by Luis H?

"Diving with a drysuit requires both buoyancy and trim control. Both of these require controlling the drysuit’s free-air-volume."

In other words, maintaining the constant volume of air in the drysuit is required for bouyancy control. Of course the air prevents suit squeeze and the air trapped in the undergarment provides insulation, but also the free air volume in the drysuit has everything to do with bouyancy control. The "bubble" of free air must be exactly the same size no matter what depth.

 

[Daxter]

One more thing slow down!! When you get to a sand bar or anything that you must acend over slow down let the air vent as it expands. I make a point to go even slower when I am going up over something. To many people think that the suit will vent as quickly as you go up but go up to fast and the air in your feet and legs will not have time to expand and move to the vent.

 

[scblade27]

This has been a very helpful thread as I just got a new drysuit myself. I have used it in the pool a couple of times now, and the tips on how much air to keep in the suit really helped. All my problems came from having too much air in the suit.

I do have another question for those of you experienced dry divers. I noticed a get a good squeeze all over my body which is normal, the suit would pinch my legs when I didnt wear any pants under it (just bathing suit). Wearing sweat pants fixed that. I am however getting a bit of pinching on my groin area (if you get what i mean) which is uncomfortable. Is this something you just get used to, or is there a way to relieve some of the pressure so sensitive body parts dont feel like they are in a vice?

Would a proper drysuit undergarment help with this?

 

[Luis H]

Sorry to disagree. Did you read the above directions posted by Luis H?

"Diving with a drysuit requires both buoyancy and trim control. Both of these require controlling the drysuit’s free-air-volume."

In other words, maintaining the constant volume of air in the drysuit is required for bouyancy control. Of course the air prevents suit squeeze and the air trapped in the undergarment provides insulation, but also the free air volume in the drysuit has everything to do with bouyancy control. The "bubble" of free air must be exactly the same size no matter what depth.

Well, if you read further in the same paragraph from the DUI manual you will see the following two sentences:

When the bubble is larger then half the length of the forearm it is
getting too big. It is best to keep the bubble small and, if it starts to grow, vent
the excess volume off and add air to the BCD to attain neutral buoyancy.

Again, let me recommend reading the rest of the manual as well, it has a lot more good information.