Drysuit trouble...

[HBDiveGirl]

It was my pleasure, Steve.

You're a new diver with a lot of enthusiasm and juice, with new gear, new to a drysuit, and diving new sites.
You're on the cusp of learning so many things at once.

It was a fun and beautiful dive yesterday! If there was ever a dive for which we NEEDED good visibility, it was yesterday. The clear sunlit water gave us all the illumination we needed so I could SEE what you were doing, and you could SEE my demo's.

The first good news was that your DUI suit was venting air from the shoulder valve perfectly. Whew!! No problems with the undergarments or the valve.

The second fortunate point was that your left arm position needed only a small tweak to allow the air to vent better. You made the change immediately, and it was smooth venting from then on. Great that you could make the change and sustain it.

The rest of the dive was a success because you were patient and willing to work hard at the practice.

• An hour of horizontal buoyancy practice between 15 and 55fsw is exhausting... and you stuck to it relentlessly.
• Learning to control your breathing effectively is a crucial part of drysuit management, and of better diving all around.
• Awareness and control of your body position only comes through experience and practice.

You invested a lot yesterday and it worked.

The icing on the Cake of Good News was the buoyancy check at the end of the dive which confirmed that your weighting is correct. You WERE hugely overweighted on the dive that launched this thread, and you had correctly adjusted your weighting on the dives since then.

Yesterday's dive was fun, pretty, and successful.

Welcome to The Dry Side, and have fun!

~~~~
Claudette

 

[NJ Wreckster]

" Contrary to an extreme view point offered earlier, it's OK to use both your wing/BC and your drysuit for buoyancy. You'll learn what works for you. There is no one right answer for all divers in all situations. " -Claudette

Claudette,

I don't mean to belabor the issue but this is pretty serious stuff.

I assume by the prior entry that you are a drysuit dive instructor. Since you consider the view that bouyancy should be controlled primarily with the drysuit to be an extreme view despite that all drysuit manufacturers support this view, can you explain why you believe a drysuit diver would use the wing/bc rather than the drysuit to control bouyancy unless they are overweighted?

In all due respect, I am not an instructor. However, if you are teaching your students something that is not necessarily borne out by experience, it could cost lives.

 

[dannobee]

In all due respect, I am not an instructor. However, if you are teaching your students something that is not necessarily borne out by experience, it could cost lives.

That is complete BS. The reason that the agencies preach using only the drysuit for buoyancy is task loading. They seem to feel that using only the drysuit for buoyancy will somehow be easier. All of my regular dive buddies (with a combined total of over 10,000 drysuit dives) use a combination of both drysuit and BC/Wing for buoyancy. Even those who were taught the agency's way end up gravitating that way.

It's complete BS to even hint that we would teach something dangerous or potentially deadly.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Since you consider the view that bouyancy should be controlled primarily with the drysuit to be an extreme view despite that all drysuit manufacturers support this view, can you explain why you believe a drysuit diver would use the wing/bc rather than the drysuit to control bouyancy unless they are overweighted?

I did already.

In all due respect, I am not an instructor. However, if you are teaching your students something that is not necessarily borne out by experience, it could cost lives.

It's well borne out by both personal experience and education from an internationally recognized and respected certifying agency.

Your experience may vary. Rock on.

 

[NJ Wreckster]

Dannobee,

A. I never mentioned the agencies. You claim agencies preach only using the drysuit for bouyancy control. Claudette says a certifying agency educates using both drysuit and wing. Who is right?
B. You didn't answer the question. Why would you use a wing to control bouyancy? In other words, what added advantage is there to using a wing for bouyancy over using the drysuit?
C. If you can't answer the question, it doesn't make it BS.

Rock on.

 

[dannobee]

Dannobee,

A. I never mentioned the agencies. You claim agencies preach only using the drysuit for bouyancy control. Claudette says a certifying agency educates using both drysuit and wing. Who is right?
B. You didn't answer the question. Why would you use a wing to control bouyancy? In other words, what added advantage is there to using a wing for bouyancy over using the drysuit?
C. If you can't answer the question, it doesn't make it BS.

Rock on.

I thought from your initial question that you have experience diving dry. Maybe I assumed incorrectly.

It's all about managing the air bubble in the drysuit. If you frequently dive in different positions, it might be a LOT more comfortable to add enough air to reduce the squeeze, then use the BC/Wing for buoyancy. And depending on your dump valve and undergarments, the air might not dump fast enough for a proper ascent. All else equal, using only the drysuit for buoyancy will tend to try to roll the diver over. Using the BC/Wing will reduce that tendency as well.

And for you to imply that it could cost a life IS complete BS.

 

[TSandM]

I'm not sure anybody's "right". There are, as in so many things in diving, two approaches. Each has its benefits. Using the suit alone works best with lighter single tanks (so less swing to compensate) and simplifies the decision-making for buoyancy control. Using the suit and wing makes it a little more complicated to manage air spaces when ascending, but prevents having a big, unstable bubble in the suit if you are diving a lot of gas that must be compensated for.

 

[muddiver]

I learned to use a dry suit while doing working dives. We did not have BC (see avitar picture, and no that's not a dry suit) so we used the dry suit as our buoyancy control device. It spilled over into SCUBA quite eaisly and it is the method introduced in the PADI dry suit diver manual and the Viking dry suit use manual. Because I do some underwater photagraphy I am not a big fan of task loading if it can be minimized. Therefore, I don't use the BC when diving dry and I can dump my dry suit just as fast as my BC if I need to. It is all a matter of preference as I see it.

I also have noted that a lot of dry suit divers wear a lot more weight diving dry than a wet suit. I find that if I minimize the amout of weight I carry I can minimize the amount of gas in the suit that I need to get my insullation without becoming a management intensive bubble.

 

[LG Diver]

(snip) Why would you use a wing to control bouyancy? In other words, what added advantage is there to using a wing for bouyancy over using the drysuit?

BAUE Dynamic Instability FAQ

 

[RJP]

Why would you use a wing to control bouyancy? In other words, what added advantage is there to using a wing for bouyancy over using the drysuit?

Let's see...

The air in the wing is right about where the weight that needs to be compensated for is - tanks, BP, rest of gear.

Multiple spots to vent from, allowing simpler venting without needing to contort body as much. (I guess you could add wrist dumps and have even heard of ankle dumps.)

Ability to orally inflate wing, should that be needed.

Inflator and deflator in the same spot, so easier to manage "single-handedly"

Lastly, the air in the wing never migrates to your legs, or anywhere else for that matter.

That's all I could think of for now. I'm sure someone will add a few, and some folks will shoot some down. I agree with others that there's probably no "right" answer, but will add that I'm in the "drysuit is for exposure protection, the wing is for bouyancy control" camp.