Well, we had our first dive in our new Whites drysuits.
First let me say that I’ve been a wetsuit diver all of my life and quite comfortable in a 7mm full suit.
The sun was bright, the water flat and the temperature on Catalina Island was warm, over 80° so after getting into my new Custom fitted Catalyst 360 with the MK2 undergarment, I was ready to cool down fast.
The Dive. My initial response to the squeeze I felt on the surface was to wait until after I start to descend. I descended, feet first to 20’ and then added a short shot of air to the suit, the suit responded by gently reliving the pressure. How much? One more shot and the squeeze was fine. I descended to 40’, psst, more comfort but I’m still descending. A shot of air into my wing – perfect, trim flat and hovering at 42’. The water was a cool 57° but all I noticed was that I was not cold or too warn, it was just right.
Now lets see what this drysuit diving is all about. After dumping the air in my BC, I pumped more air into the suit. I could feel the air bubble moving around in the suit. No real improvement in the general feeling of squeeze but I started to loose control of my trim. I rolled my left shoulder up and after a short gurgle and my trim retuned, assent stopped and the squeeze was noticeable again. Puff – puff, all is fine! I tried this in several positions, head up, head down, rolled left and right. The results were the same – fine, I understand how this suit works.
Now lets see if I can make the neck seal leak, Look up, look down, hard left and hard right, only a slight trickle came when looking up. No real issue, I just stopped looking up that hard. Wrist seal were fine, no leaks at all.
General kicking, the drag difference between the wet and dry suit was noticeable but not significant. All in all, I’m still warm, dry and feeling good about the suit.
Lessons learned:
After suiting up, I was sweating like crazy. This will get better with practice and some talc or other lubricant to aid in slipping into the seals.
I was a little surprised how much my flexibility was affected. How much is due the newness of the suit? We will see.
The booties and Altera boots turned out to be too big for my fin pockets, so I had to pull the suit off again and remove the booties and put on my Thorlo socks, suit up and pull on my wetsuit boots. Try on booties, fins, socks and other combinations at home.
Overall, the suit was great, warm and easy to operate. I just hope the flexibility gets better real soon!
Leaving the dive park, low tide, another diver sitting on the entry step but with my trusty flip fins and no video camera, no problem!
See only the Red X? Right click and select show picture.
First let me say that I’ve been a wetsuit diver all of my life and quite comfortable in a 7mm full suit.
The sun was bright, the water flat and the temperature on Catalina Island was warm, over 80° so after getting into my new Custom fitted Catalyst 360 with the MK2 undergarment, I was ready to cool down fast.
The Dive. My initial response to the squeeze I felt on the surface was to wait until after I start to descend. I descended, feet first to 20’ and then added a short shot of air to the suit, the suit responded by gently reliving the pressure. How much? One more shot and the squeeze was fine. I descended to 40’, psst, more comfort but I’m still descending. A shot of air into my wing – perfect, trim flat and hovering at 42’. The water was a cool 57° but all I noticed was that I was not cold or too warn, it was just right.
Now lets see what this drysuit diving is all about. After dumping the air in my BC, I pumped more air into the suit. I could feel the air bubble moving around in the suit. No real improvement in the general feeling of squeeze but I started to loose control of my trim. I rolled my left shoulder up and after a short gurgle and my trim retuned, assent stopped and the squeeze was noticeable again. Puff – puff, all is fine! I tried this in several positions, head up, head down, rolled left and right. The results were the same – fine, I understand how this suit works.
Now lets see if I can make the neck seal leak, Look up, look down, hard left and hard right, only a slight trickle came when looking up. No real issue, I just stopped looking up that hard. Wrist seal were fine, no leaks at all.
General kicking, the drag difference between the wet and dry suit was noticeable but not significant. All in all, I’m still warm, dry and feeling good about the suit.
Lessons learned:
After suiting up, I was sweating like crazy. This will get better with practice and some talc or other lubricant to aid in slipping into the seals.
I was a little surprised how much my flexibility was affected. How much is due the newness of the suit? We will see.
The booties and Altera boots turned out to be too big for my fin pockets, so I had to pull the suit off again and remove the booties and put on my Thorlo socks, suit up and pull on my wetsuit boots. Try on booties, fins, socks and other combinations at home.
Overall, the suit was great, warm and easy to operate. I just hope the flexibility gets better real soon!
Leaving the dive park, low tide, another diver sitting on the entry step but with my trusty flip fins and no video camera, no problem!
See only the Red X? Right click and select show picture.
about flexibility too. It's one of the major reasons we're going dry. I am hoping the ds will alleviate this to some extent.
