Foo:
Sooooo... any reports from the DUI Dog Days crowd? Please?
Here's my report:
Saturday got sized for a TLS/350 suit 100% trilam (with zipseals), with a Thinsulate 200 undergarment. Water temp at CSSP was about 69 at surface, maybe 60 or so under the thermal layer at 20 feet.
Naturally I had the bright idea to do my first drysuit experience in doubles. Bouyancy was not exactly my friend on the first dive. Suit was a squeezing machine! I didn't really enjoy it too much. I think I'm going to invent "dive cups" just for the guys for use when diving a dry suit.
I can already see the commercial..
"In diving, any squeeze is a bad squeeze - especially 'personal' ones. Introducing Dive Cups, from Daylonious...when you just don't want that 'special' squeeze in a drysuit"
Anyhow, I think I went too warm on the undergarment, I friggen boiled. I was also underweighted after we got to the dive platform, so a nice surface swim and back to get 6 measly pounds was really putting my SAC into overdrive. On the second dive I finally got neutral, and had a fairly pleasant dive for about 30 min - only the squeezing thing was still an issue.
The only other major problem I had had nothing to do with the drysuit. Since I'm not certified in drysuit we had to go out with an instructor. The most charitable way I could describe the one we were assigned to for the first set of dives is "overly cautious". In 10 minutes we had MAYBE gone 15 feet. For every 6-8 kicks, he moved maybe 3 feet. After another 8 minutes of him having a deathwatch stare at his compass, we surfaced because he was convinced we should have reached the plane at CSSP. We had traveled approximately 10 yards. Whatever the reasons were, it was frustrating. Okay, but enough on that rant.
Sunday, I went with the DUI FLX 50/50 - also used the dry gloves. I was a little skeptical of the drygloves ability to be 'precise' while doing things like clipping / unclipping lights and guages, but surprisingly they offered a great tactile response. For an undergarment, went with the Polartec Powerstretch - it's kinda like a big cozy set of pajamas rather than the sweat machine ski suit that the Thinsulate was.
I was in the water for about 3-4 hours today and was absolutely fine - never once did I get too hot or too cold. It might have been my experience from the day before, but this suit was more comfortable to dive, had less squeeze and generally was just great overall. Bouyancy was much much better, and I had much easier time controlling my ascent rate having to worry about the suit and my double wing. Also, I had the pleasure of going with a another instructor that actually KICKED and we got to move around quite a bit at different depths. This allowed me to really play with the valves in the suit, and get a good feel for it's bouyancy. MUCH MUCH happier experience.
If my TLS experience had been my only dive, I wouldn't be at all interested in a drysuit, NOW I'm actually considering buying the 50/50. Really changed my perspective.
Also, I have to send kudos out to Faith at DUI for putting together the whole weekend at CSSP. She's the hardest workin' woman in the business! The crew and the food out there were wonderful, and I really enjoyed my Drysuit demo from DUI. I think Santa may have to take up scuba diving this Christmas.
