Drysuits - Worth the Money?

[Northeastwrecks]

nt

 

[jobowker]

Does this mean I should cancel the order for my new fuschia and lime green suit?

 

[Uncle Pug]

Originally posted by Northeastwrecks
As I recall, it was around $1,300.00 for a 2XLT DS3. It included two bellows pockets, removable dry gloves, heavy duty "tech" boots, a dry suit hood, Andy's heaviest duty underwear and the drysuit specialty course at my LDS. Best of all, I got to pick the colors.

That is an excellent price!!!
I got hosed:upset: :upset: :upset:
I Paid that much at 5thD for just the suit!!!
And I took it off the rack and it doesn't really fit ....
But I was in a hurry....
So....

 

[Northeastwrecks]

nt

 

[budgy]

I use a dry suit. The first time I dived I got the inflated feet up syndrome, since then, I don't know why, but I never get that problem. I have seen a suit inflator valve stick open, which resulted in an uncontrolled rapid ascent and I have experienced the same problem with an auto inflator valve on my bcd. At the time I considered going retro, and changing back to a wet suit, and disconnecting the auto inflate on a bcd. If you use this equipment without paying attention to the valve cleaning and servicing, expect trouble, and practice how to disconnect your inflator hoses and open your neck seal in a hurry. Most people are a bit overweighted when they start using a dry suit, they put too much air in their suit to compensate and bounce up and down, and struggle to control their buoyancy. Compressed neoprene can give you savage hicky's if you don't get enough air into your suit, I got weals on the back of my knee's when I started. I prefer the tri-laminate or shell suit, but make sure it is tough enough to withstand abrasion, I didn't, and I am still slagging the distributor. Get the weighting right first, you only need enough ballast to be able stay negative at the minimum deco safety stop depth, with about 40 bar. If you increase what you wear under the suit, you will need more ballast, changes in tank size can also effect you. The more you can relax, the less ballast you need. Try and do everything slowly, add a little air at a time. Most people will teach you to only use the suit to regulate the buoyancy, and keep the bcd for surface and back up, I think you should not consider using both the suit and bcd together until you are well accomplished with the suit dump system, there are dry suit divers with thousands of dives who only use their suit to regulate their buoyancy. This of course is not possible if you are tech diving with multiple cylinders. The rest is regular practice, good luck.