How many dives in drysuit before resuming technical diving in one?

[jadairiii]

+1

I began diving my (custom DUI) drysuit immediately after it arrived. No drysuit course, and no prior experience diving dry except for a single, long-ago quarry session, solo, shallow, wearing a friend's personal drysuit (my intro to drysuit diving!).

I began taking an IANTD Deep Air cert course (which involved drysuit, BP/W, manifolded doubles, and a single deco cylinder) a few months after my drysuit had arrived and I had completed several dry, recreational, single-cylinder dives on Great Lakes shipwrecks. No prior experience in BP/W. No doubles course. No issues whatsoever.

rx7diver

I showed up to my Cave 1 class with never having used a dry suit. Opened the box (of my custom DUI also), cut the neck and wrists and jumped into Blue Grotto the next day, with 104's (which I had never used). Quite "exciting" that first day. But day 2, I was fine. Just another "bubble" to balance.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

Of course the answer is "it depends."

That said, 20-30 dives is consistent with my experience. I upgraded my dry suit about 18 months ago. Keep in mind that I'm a dry suit instructor, so I kind of know a bit about them and used several. On the other hand, I was switching from a beloved neoprene suit to a shell style so it wasn't going to be the same. It probably took me 15-25 dives to really feel comfortable. I was never at risk of corking, but when twisting around at weird angles in shallow water to track that one student who just couldn't follow directions, it took me awhile to be really sure I wasn't going to be feet up, floating at the surface. So distracting, if not actually unsafe.

It probably took me a year of fiddling to dial in exactly how to have the autodump set to vent automatically when I wanted it to but not when I didn't want it to. (I like to have it a little tight, so I have to flex my arm to dump, but don't have to reach over and press the button.)