How soon to buy a drysuit?

[Ben Prusinski]

Folks,

I am a new cold water diver and have been diving past few Monterey California dives in an 8mm wetsuit with hood, gloves, and boots with a Lava rock undergarment. I don't get cold and temperatures have been between 48-52 degrees on the dives. However, I do get wet including the undergarments which is a pain for repetitive dives. How soon should I switch to learning, using and buying a drysuit for Monterey?

 

[Tigerman]

If you intend to use a drysuit, you may as well do it sooner rather than later.
You could infact have done your OW cert in drysuit, but thats too late now..

 

[fdog]

Switch now. You'll get more enjoyment from your dives, by easily doing repetitive dives, longer exposures and just hanging around watching small elusive critters.

More enjoyment means learning more and sticking with the sport.


All the best, James

 

[meierdierck]

Our shop in Tahoe gives OW students the option to use dry suits for certification, so my quick answer would be "whenever you are ready".
I switched to Dry for a number of reasons, one of them being I was over heating in 7 mm wetsuits, with dry suit I can adjusts to the local conditions b y adding or removing a layer or 2. I also like the drysuit because it is much more comfortable, esp for repetitive dives.

 

[Peter_C]

My partner, who was certified locally, started diving in a drysuit, 400g undies, with dry gloves from the very first day in the 52 degree swimming pool. Her first post certification dive at Van Damme was 48 degrees. The next dive dropped to 43 at one point. She is still willing to go diving, as long as she is warm, and the ocean conditions are favorable. She would have never dove with me again, if she had certified in a wetsuit.

You will enjoy your dives a lot more being warm, and a drysuit will make that second dive be welcomed. Plus as you grow with diving, you might find you sit idle more, and not swimming around as much. This will extend your dives since your air consumption will drop, and all of it means you will start becoming colder.

 

[Cyprian]

I agree with James completely.

I just re-joined the dive world this past October after a 12+ year lay-off. I completed a refresher and 5 dives wet and then switched to dry and haven't looked back since. I'm afriad if I had not switched to dry that I may have slipped back out of the sport by waiting 4-5 months before diving again if diving wet.

Go dry and good luck.

Cyp

Switch now. You'll get more enjoyment from your dives, by easily doing repetitive dives, longer exposures and just hanging around watching small elusive critters.

More enjoyment means learning more and sticking with the sport.


All the best, James

 

[Ben Prusinski]

Yeah being able to dive dry and slip off the wet gear with nice warm dry clothes underneath eliminates the embarrasing matter of changing in situations that make it tough like say the restroom is closed at a night dive. On my last few dives in Monterey, all of the experienced divers except for one were in drysuits. They admitted that they cost $$$ but like being dry and also a pain to deal with versus diving with a wetsuit. Buoyancy control is trickier than in a wetsuit but thats why there is a dry suit class from PADI. I like the DUI drysuits and hear good things about them also about Whites but DUI costs 2-3k for a suit plus another $300-500 for the underware. If I scored a major deal like $500-900 off the suit, it would be possible for me to get one. I'll keep my eyes open as buying a used one is a pain.

 

[SwimJim]

Monterey California. Cold water??? Really??? Come join me in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan for mid 30's stuff. Now thats cold water that will make piston regs free flow. Dry suits? Lots of options. You can go full neoprene, less money, trilam, a little more or compressed/crushed neoprene full boat. Do you do 10 dives a year? Neoprene. 100 dives a year? Crushed/ compressed. Some where in the middle if you willing to invest big bucks in under garments you can do a bag suit or trilam. I dove a Dive Concepts Z-Flex trilam for two years. Good quality suit, but cold as heck. REALLY under garment dependant. I dove an original 8mm Poseidon Unisuit for a couple seasons. You could dive that sucker in your undies and be fine in an icecube. You needed a s**** load of lead to get you down, but it was a warm suit. I now use a DUI CF200. I bought it because it's crushed neoprene which offers several advantages and it has a track record for longevity. As I do 75+ dives a year, that's important. I've had this suit 4 years and I expect many more years of service out of it. Years service divided by cost is an issue for me. I could have bought a cheaper suit, but in the end, because I dive so much, I would wind up replacing it many times. There in lies the savings.

 

[elan]

Folks,

I am a new cold water diver and have been diving past few Monterey California dives in an 8mm wetsuit with hood, gloves, and boots with a Lava rock undergarment. I don't get cold and temperatures have been between 48-52 degrees on the dives. However, I do get wet including the undergarments which is a pain for repetitive dives. How soon should I switch to learning, using and buying a drysuit for Monterey?

Switch now, as you learn to dive, get comfortable and relax you will not make a lot of unnecessary movement that you do when you just start to dive. You consumption will improve and your muscles will not generate as much heat. You will start feeling colder much earlier in the dive. Besides if you start using nitrox you can do longer dives. Say EAN32 will give you 60 mins at 70ft according to the PADI table. It can be tricky to do in 8mil.

---------- Post added April 8th, 2012 at 11:24 PM ----------

Yeah being able to dive dry and slip off the wet gear with nice warm dry clothes underneath eliminates the embarrasing matter of changing in situations that make it tough like say the restroom is closed at a night dive. On my last few dives in Monterey, all of the experienced divers except for one were in drysuits. They admitted that they cost $$$ but like being dry and also a pain to deal with versus diving with a wetsuit. Buoyancy control is trickier than in a wetsuit but thats why there is a dry suit class from PADI. I like the DUI drysuits and hear good things about them also about Whites but DUI costs 2-3k for a suit plus another $300-500 for the underware. If I scored a major deal like $500-900 off the suit, it would be possible for me to get one. I'll keep my eyes open as buying a used one is a pain.

You can look at Bare NextGen. It 's a good inexpensive suit and I know some guys that tweaked it and still use for tech dives. It can be tricky to put the pockets on though..

---------- Post added April 8th, 2012 at 11:30 PM ----------

If you decide to do a dry suit course I would highly recommend you to pick an instructor or find a mentor that has experience diving different suits and have some UTD/GUE training. I found those people have better understanding of dry suit diving. AFAIK you have a lot of those people in your area. I would pass on a regular PADI course as I have found those being quite limited and in general do not give you enough details.

 

[Ben Prusinski]

Well besides cost, the biggest issue diving a drysuit is getting used to buoyancy control to avoid the dreaded out of control feet first ascent. Will take a look at GUE courses on drysuits and instructor experience.