DUI Drysuit Day at Gilboa

[marshallkarp]

I just got back from Gilboa, rinsed my gear, and am writing this report. I had a great day at Gilboa today and yesterday, too.

Yesterday, I got to Gilboa around 5:00 and it was good to see Mike and Jody again. We chatted for a few minutes. Jamie came in to the shop and I cold called him about dive buddying with him. He said sure. Turns out he is Busdriver on this Board and has this green VW pop top van that went to Woodstock with his uncle. Much history with the van. I dove with him and Bob, wetsuit, for 25 minutes and that was enough. Got cold.

Busdriver and Bob left to go home and with the rain starting, I cold called Rodger and we did an evening dive. Only lasted 20 minutes, though, wetsuit.

Got to Gilboa today bright and early for DUI Day and met up with Kevin, who invited me along. I am glad he did. DUI staff and dive shop professionals have this down cold, no pun intended. You register, take your reg to Station One and get the air hose put on, Station Two is seal fitting, Station Three is thermal underwear, and Station Four is dry suit selection and donning. Jessica was really helpful with me and explained everything as I put things on.

First impressions, if you are not comfortable wearing a seven mil wetsuit, I found the drysuit to be even more uncomfortable. It was 82 today and I wanted to get in the water, but I had to take my time and think carefully about my equipment donning and such. Over to the dock and I went alone with an instructor. It was good that I made two dives yesterday for comparison sake. I started off cold, but not as cold as wet diving. The more I moved and swam, the warmer I got. Did about a 20 minute dive to the helicopter and plane and back. Only once did my suit "start to get away from me." I grabbed onto a tree when I felt inversion starting and my dive buddy got my feet back down and I did the "chicken wing thing."

Nice lunch provided of hot dogs, burgers, chips and drink. Very pleasant.

Second dive of the day was amazing. All told, I was in the water a whopping forty some minutes! Probably could of done more, but suit got away from me twice on the way back and I hung onto the rope and a dock. My instructor dive buddy righted me both times. Seems like as I used more air, my tank was more buoyant, so I went from about right weighting to underweighted. Oh well, learn something new on every dive.

To sum up:

1. If you have never been to DUI Drysuit Day, I would encourage you to attend the event. It is a cheap and easy way to get drysuit exposure, though it is not a class or a workshop. You are learning on the job.

2. Mission accomplished. I have gone from never buying a dry suit to I don't know, maybe, could be, depends, weigh the pros and cons. Probably I will go next year and do this again to make up my mind. This is a big investment and I have to balance the cost and the use.

3. My thanks to the staff and instructors. Everyone treated me first rate and were so helpful. Customer service is a lost art these days, but not today at Gilboa.

 

[Paintballpsyco2369]

Just out of curiosity, what time did you leave today? (Saturday) And is your screen name your real name (pm me if you don't want the answer revealed to the public). I ask because at the dinner tonight, they called that name for a prize. I laughed and said that is the guy from scubaboard! LOL. I would have said I can let you know about it, but you had to be present to win the stuff. Well, talk to you later.

Paintball

 

[diver_paula]

I ask because at the dinner tonight, they called that name for a prize. I laughed and said that is the guy from scubaboard! LOL. I would have said I can let you know about it, but you had to be present to win the stuff. Well, talk to you later.

Paintball

Way to ruin Marshall's great day of diving! LOL

Paula

 

[marshallkarp]

Just out of sheer morbid curiosity, what is it that I would have won?

And, I posted the pictures of DUI Day on my blog:

Marshall Karp's Blog

 

[Paintballpsyco2369]

Well, If I remember correctly, it would have been a DUI "drysuit" divers towel, and a DUI Koozie. Nothing too big, but would have been nice had you been able to stay for dinner. LOL. What time did you end up leaving? I was hoping to get a chance to dive with you. I was just happy, today I went with 3 other divers from our Dive Team, and we all went on the deep side. WITH APPROVAL OF COURSE!! So I had my deepest dive to a depth of 103 feet!!!! AWESOME DIVE!!!!!!!!! And awesome guys on the team.

Paula I figured I would let him know so he makes sure to stay next year. LOL. Well, talk to you all later.

Paint

 

[marshallkarp]

Well, If I remember correctly, it would have been a DUI "drysuit" divers towel, and a DUI Koozie. Nothing too big, but would have been nice had you been able to stay for dinner. LOL. What time did you end up leaving? I was hoping to get a chance to dive with you.

Paint

Paint, you had me going there. I thought it might have been the dry suit or a trip to Bonaire or something.

I left about 2:30 and got home about 6:00. Perhaps another time.

 

[Diver Lori]

Small world, I was on the Gilboa deep side today too.

 

[brutus_scuba]

I was at Gilboa Sunday and did the DUI Demo days, I have a dry suit now, but it's no DUI. I have a neoprene dry suit and the shell was a lil' different but I was warm as all get out. I know the two fellows I dove with both plan on buying DUI now. It was a great experience.

 

[Paintballpsyco2369]

I like the DUI suits, at least last year. I am not sure what exactly it was this year, but I was just getting overheated a lot, had bad headaches from it (I get that heat sickness, and usually I get it bad when I get it) and just was not able to enjoy it like I did last year. Which is unfortunate because I really like the suits. I own a viking, and I love it. The main thing there though was it was the right price, and the only used available suit in my size in my area. And I checked it out in person, and I could tell for sure he had never used it in open water, just in the pool for 2 dives like he said, which was confirmed by the dealer who sold it to him 3 years earlier!! Brand new suit, which had a alteration making it 4 inches shorter (which was fine because it was a bit too tall anyways) for way less then half the cost of the same suit brand new!!!!


I hated to do this to DUI, but on Saturday I got in one dive on the DUI suit, and turned it in. I hated doing that though, not just because they were there and it was their weekend, but because the ticket cost, and I had to wait like 2 hours for the my suit size to come in for the suit I wanted to try. Then I was using insulation half as thick as the day before, and the suit still did not fit right. Which made for a miserable first dive of the day. But for my second dive on Saturday, I switched over to my Suit, and my nice new dry gloves... Well..... My "dry" hood flooded because I messed up my seal on my hood and mask AGAIN, and I had just installed a hood purge valve to get rid of the inflate a hood problem. The valve worked though so... But the nice new "dry" gloves I had literally just gotten that day, and installed, well I was not sure it if was a sharp edge on the plane, or a zebra muscle or whatever, but I tore 2 holes in one of my gloves which flooded my hand, and proceeded to travel through the tube under my wrist seal, up my arm, across my chest to my other arm, down my side and back, and completely soaked my bottom insulation and top insulation. That all happened half way through the dive. But the funny thing, I felt great after that dive, I was able to move in my suit unlike the 2 DUI suits I had tried that day and the day before, my headache went away, and I was nice and cool then, but that was because the "dry" part of the "drysuit" kind of failed on me. LOL.

The next day was awesome as hell though, well the first dive. Did a 31 minute dive to 103 feet My first time in triple digits First let me clarify 2 things, 1) I DID FILE A DEEP PLAN WITH THE OFFICE AND THE REST OF OUR LITTLE BUDDY TEAM WHICH WAS APPROVED, 2) I know that 31 minutes violates SSI no-deco dive tables, however a lot of that time was extra time I elected to add during our safety stop because I knew I blew the tables, also we were at half depth for like 5 mins anyway's, so we did all the required stuff to still be safe. Great dive though, my favorite thus far. The second dive, not as good though, which really sucked. I went with another 2 friends to the tubes and back. About half way through that damn heat headache came back, got a leak in a dry glove, small and not too noticeable though so I dealt with it and the hood flooded when I cleared my mask, but at that point I had expected that. But my headache stayed with me for another 1.5 hours, so I was unfortunately not able to do another dive which would have brought my total to 40. So I was really disappointed, as were my buddies who really wanted to dive again. (I just realized I already wrote a bit about the deep dive, but right now [very late for me LOL] I just don't feel like deleting it, so it stays).

Overall an awesome fun weekend, It was nice to meet the 2 of you who I briefly met, hope to see you again. I definately will be there again next year, and as much this summer as I can.

On a few side notes:
Sorry about that Marshall, Just thought you might have liked to know. LOL. I don't know if you have ever done DUI before, but the dinner is really cool. They obviously have the dinner, then they do a presentation about how their suits are made and such, then they talk about the trips and stuff they do, then they do giveaways, which there are just like door prize stuff, shirts, that weird divers tea stuff; just FYI, it does prevent Russian mice from becoming bent, so if you are ever diving with a Russian mouse, give it some of the divers tea to prevent it getting bent, and yes from what I was told that is printed on the box). But it was nothing big. The big stuff like the suit, or trip and all that (not sure if they do the trip still) but it is all done back at DUI in San Diego when they are all done with the Demo Days.

Diver Lori, where abouts on the deep side? We went over the wall by the bus, down to depth, then began a slow ascent up by the Aloha near the tower, I was happy though, I got to see the bottom, from what I could see of it, it looked uneventful, but cool. Entirely possible I was narced a bit when I saw it, but I still thought it looked cool.

Brutus_scuba, When I eventually get the money, I would like to get a DUI, I love the suits, just that weekend for some reason the suits seemed to not like me. A lot of fun though. My suit was the right price, so I got it, If I had found the DUI I wanted at that price, would have gotten it for sure. Hope to see you there next year.


Well, that is my 0.02 cents worth, more like a dollars worth, but you get the point. I probably have a lot of spelling and other errors, or other stuff that does not make too much sense. That is a result of lack of sleep. So I apologize. LOL. Thanks again, talk to you soon.

Paintball.

 

[Diver Lori]

Diver Lori, where abouts on the deep side? We went over the wall by the bus, down to depth, then began a slow ascent up by the Aloha near the tower, I was happy though, I got to see the bottom, from what I could see of it, it looked uneventful, but cool. Entirely possible I was narced a bit when I saw it, but I still thought it looked cool.
Paintball.

We were parked on the deep side most of the day on Sunday. We did two dives from the deep dock, tho they were not deep dives.