First time diving dry...well, not quite

[JanR]

I just bought my first dry suit--an OS Systems Nautilus with front zipper. Yesterday I was was finally able to get into the pool for the confined water portion of my dry suit class. I was quite excited, even though it was only in a 12 foot pool. I quickly donned my equipment and got in the pool.

The first challenge was getting my weight right. I'm 172, in decent shape, and usually dive with 18 pounds in fresh water with a 5mil and 3/5 hooded vest. We added four pounds to my weights and attempted to submerge. Nope. Had to trade out weights to add another 2 pounds for a total of 24 pounds weight.

With the adjustment ot my weights, I went through my skills with my instructor--unattach, reattach the inflator hose, fin-pivots and flip-over dirlls (don't know what the real name of these are, but I did a lot of flipping over).

I found over a short time, that the mechanics of diving a dry suit are not that difficult at all. Although I struggled with maintaining bouyancy in the beginning (very frustrating to find yourself at the surface unexpectedly), after 1500 psi I felt very comfortable managing my bouyancy. In fact, I was able to manuever through the hula-hoops my instructor set at different depths better yesterday than I had in any other pool session I'd done with them. With a move of my trim weights, I finally was able to perfect the crosslegged-hold-your-fins-and-hover-thing (proper name?) for the first time. (Before I had a hard time keeping from rolling onto my back...)

After breathing down my tank to 500 psi, I did another bouyancy check and sure enough, the surface of the water came right to the middle of my mask lens...24 pounds seems to work.

So, feeling very spry and satisfied with myself (after all, I was that guy in the dry suit who all of the OW studets were looking at and saying, "ooohh, ahhhh"--at least in my head) I pulled myself out of the pool. What a morning in the pool. At least until I unzipped my dry suit and and found that my undergarments were nearly totally soaked.

I checked my suit--no leaks. I think I probably blew my neck seal. When I was doing the fin-hold hover-thing, I added a couple quick bursts of air to get my bouyancy and remember my neck seal blowing up like a balloon. I imagine that was where I went wrong. With my legs bent and being in a vertical position the air went straight to my neck, opened the seal and allowed water to come in. My instructor concurred this is likely what happened.

Any ideas on how to prevent this when I'm not in 80 degree pool water? Thanks.

Jan

 

[SlowRain]

Actually I have found that usually people getting into dry suits initally do sometimes have issues actually keeping dry. Usually it is from not positioning seals, especially the neck seal, correctly at the start of the dive. It will come with time.

I will put this out there...and take it for what it is worth because opinions seem to vary quite a bit on this board, however I personally feel that using the drysuit as a primary means to control buoyancy leads to more complications than it is worth. As I said...there are those who agree (virtually every tech diver I have personally talked to about this) and those that disagree (manufacter and certifying agency dogma and many here). I think it is probably a good idea to be able to demonstrate the ability to use a drysuit for buoyancy control, but only if your primary means (BC, BPW, etc) fails. I know when I went through some technical/mixed gas classes you were required to either have a dual bladder BC or BC and drysuit...and be able to demonstrate control with either system as a part of the skills requisites.

Again...strictly personal opinion but I am a proponent of using the BC or BPW for primary buoyancy control, and putting enough gas into the dry suit to keep the squeeze off. At the risk of being flamed...if you had enough air in your suit that it was burping through the seals, that is too much air in the suit and probably too much weight on you!

 

[Bill_PNW_Diver]

I've never had a drysuit seal blow out air but have had water get in through my neck seal from time to time. A few suggestions:

- Make sure that the drysuit seal lies flat on your neck and wrists and doesn't roll up. It's a good thing to have your buddy check your neck seal for you.

- "Burp" your drysuit and get as much air out as you can before jumping in the water. This is especially important if you are entering off a boat or platform.

Some people with pronounced tendons in there wrists and neck may have a difficult time getting their seals to be completely dry. My girlfriend has this problem and always has an bit of a leak through her wrist seals.

 

[Blackwood]

My suit is always wet after I dive. Actually, my suit is usually wet BEFORE I dive. In my case, it's sweat, not sea-water.

The burst of air seems a likely culprit to me as well. Fortunately, that's not a common position while diving (which begs a question I won't enumerate).

 

[Anti-Hero]

If you had to add so much air to the suit that it was belching out of the neck seal, you were probably over weighted. I did the same exact thing you described on my first dry dive in class.

I am also a BIG proponent of using your BC as a primary means of buoyancy control, and using the dry suit inflater only to eliminate squeeze.

 

[FireDiver443]

I too am a proponent of using your dry suit inflator to eliminate suit squeeze and using my BP/W for buoyancy control. On the soaked undergarment question, are you sure the water came in from the pool? I dive Lake Ontario with my dry suit fairly often and I've noticed that if water leaks in through my neck seal (or in one case, drilling "full escape", an inadvertent slightly open zipper) I notice it IMMEDIATELY (cuz it's COLD!). It might just be that, since a dry suit doesn't really breathe, your wet undergarments are caused by perspiration, depending on pool temperature, undergarments and amount of time you were in your suit.

 

[spectrum]

A few bursts of air probably did not breach the neck seal. In the posture you describe you may have raised some of the pesky neck tendons making it impossible for the seal to hold the contour.

Another vote for Buoyancy control with the BC. The suit gets just enough air for nescesary loft.

Pete

 

[Jim Lapenta]

If you were using the full set of OS undies in an 80 degree pool get ready for them to start stinkin dude. If you went thru a full tank I'm guessing the session lasted about an hour or more. That was sweat. Was your skin dry! Bet it was. Cause all the moisture wicked away to the inside of the suit. I was in 70 degree water with the heavy undies only last weekend. Below the thermocline it dropped to 56 hence the heavy undies. Spent the last 20 minutes or so above the thermocline. When I got out the outside of the undies looked as if it were hit with a hose. I had no leaks. My skin was dry except for the cotton boxers I had on. They were a tiny bit damp. Didn't pee myself but cotton does not transfer moisture it holds it. So my nether regions were a little damp but soon dried. The amount of sweat you can get in a trilam is amazing. I always hang mine upside down and sometimes can't believe the water that comes out. I think what you got was normal. Try the same thing in 50 degree water. Betcha it is all good.

 

[68raggtop]

I agree with JimLap on the sweat. I took the pool portion using polypropylene long john's only, under the dry suit. When I exited the pool and took off the suit there was so much sweat that I had to pour the "water" out of my neoprene socks. Oh, did I mention the pool water had a similar odor to sweat.

 

[ffdiver]

I have been seeing the same issue with my drysuit. I replaced the neck seal thinking that might be the problem, but I think sweat is also a contriubuting factor. What undergarments were you wearing?