DIR- GUE Fundies on rental gear?

[kierentec]

It's also worth noting that you do not NEED to take fundies in a drysuit for a tech pass. If you are not extremely comfortable in a drysuit, you may be better off diving wet for the course. You can always do a drysuit primer later in the year when you are ready to make the purchase to prepare for Cave 1.

 

[seeker242]

Is there a trilaminated suit brand that will hold up but isn't breaking the bank expensive?

I passed on Santi and went Rofos. It's a nice suit!

 

[eelnoraa]

It's also worth noting that you do not NEED to take fundies in a drysuit for a tech pass. If you are not extremely comfortable in a drysuit, you may be better off diving wet for the course. You can always do a drysuit primer later in the year when you are ready to make the purchase to prepare for Cave 1.

I think getting a drysuit and do primer before going into C1 is not a good idea either. C1 is an expansive and difficult course, you dont want to test out your drysuit skill there. Better to save and get a drysuit, dive with it so in C1, you can operate it without even thinking about it. It will be a much more enjoyable class.

 

[KevinNM]

If

I am going to be doing my fundies course in January with an emphasis on leaning towards a tech pass. I want to start toward Cave 1 late in 2020 and am slowly beginning to put my gear together. So far I have everything I need sans primary light and drysuit.

My question is, is renting a drysuit and primary light acceptable for the course? I will eventually be purchasing these but with upcoming wedding costs its just not in the budget.

Thanks!

If you don’t have a reasonable number of dives in a drysuit, you are crazy to take fundies in it.

What I was told is that a tech pass means you are ready to take tech 1 or cave 1 tomorrow. So if you don’t routinely demonstrate that level of buoyancy and trim you are not going to get a tech pass. And dry suits add a lot of complexity. You really have to able to run the drysuit without thinking about it much during drills. Consider an air share while running an SMB during an ascent drill from depth. Are you going to be able to stop at and hold that 20’ and 10’ stop, while also maintaining the ascent rate?

 

[Dann0]

Thank you all for the amazing replies. The more I think about it yalI are right...doing it in a rental not the best idea. I have have about 7-8 dives in a rental drysuit that honestly didn't fit great. It's my birthday this weekend...maybe a drive up to EE is in the books. If I got one now I would have time to get comfortable in it before fundies in Jan.

 

[rddvet]

Thank you all for the amazing replies. The more I think about it yalI are right...doing it in a rental not the best idea. I have have about 7-8 dives in a rental drysuit that honestly didn't fit great. It's my birthday this weekend...maybe a drive up to EE is in the books. If I got one now I would have time to get comfortable in it before fundies in Jan.

Kyle is the main person for drysuits at EE. The others can help, but he's the one that does all the measuring and ordering, so has the most info. He's not there every weekend. Wouldn't be a bad idea to call first and ask for him and tell him you may be interested in a suit. He's very accomodating and will sometimes adjust his schedule to help if he doesn't have a ton of classes.

 

[KevinNM]

You can also rent a normal size suit from EE before you buy. Kyle was trying to maintain a complete range of suits in his rental range. And I was told that, in general, if a standard size suit will fit right you shouldn’t go with custom. Custom suits should be used when the standard sizes don’t work.

But once they find your size you can rent that suit and see if that works. Or even go out with Kyle with that suit and do a dive and work with him on that, he was pretty helpful to me on fixing some buoyancy issues. (Long story short - less air in the suit than you think you need).

 

[BlueTrin]

Thank you all for the amazing replies. The more I think about it yalI are right...doing it in a rental not the best idea. I have have about 7-8 dives in a rental drysuit that honestly didn't fit great. It's my birthday this weekend...maybe a drive up to EE is in the books. If I got one now I would have time to get comfortable in it before fundies in Jan.

One thing I struggled was to be able to reach the manifold.

my arctic expedition undersuit was too thick and I couldn’t bend my arm at the elbow and reach the manifold

maybe check that you can touch the valve ?

definitely agree with the others that you need to be able to be comfortable in your drysuit before to take fundies: ideally you should be able to hover at 6m in your drysuit without moving.