If you are over-weighted do you need to adjust your drysuit exhaust valve?

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So for those who dislike buoyancy control with the suit, if you find at the same time that you reduce squeeze and get enough loft for warmth you find some buoyancy that is optimal, do you add weight just so you can use the b/c? Asking for a friend :wink:

if you are diving a balanced rig and are single tank diving there shouldn't be much gas in there at all. Doubles is a different story
 
if you are diving a balanced rig and are single tank diving there shouldn't be much gas in there at all. Doubles is a different story
Or if your diving cold water, if the rig is balanced and you are warm and not squeezed and can control buoyancy with breathing technique why add air to the b/c?
 
Or if your diving cold water, if the rig is balanced and you are warm and not squeezed and can control buoyancy with breathing technique why add air to the b/c?
I used heavy neoprene dry suits for years with no BC and heavy steel doubles and they trimmed out nicely. Wouldn’t do it with a bag suit, I put a 3 ins rip in the leg of one working in a wreck and was glad I had a wing.
 
The problem is that PADI (at least, maybe others) teaches using the DS for controlling buoyancy in Rec diving. The rationale seems to be reducing task-loading.

Reading a ton on here and thinking it through, I decided that sticking with my BC as primary control, consistently, regardless of exposure protection, made the most sense. Also means no fussing with the DS dump valve except maybe one click either way to tune loft maintenance.

It's more than just PADI. NAUI teaches using the dysuit as the primary source of buoyancy. Though not a training agency, DAN is in favor of the drysuit as the buoyancy source: Medical Considerations for Drysuit Divers

When you are doing single tank stuff with proper weighting, the amount of air needed to "remove the squeeze" and the amount of air needed to maintain buoyancy seem like they are about the same.

Nobody advocates having a large air bubble in the suit... NAUI, PADI, DAN, etc all suggest avoiding that by having proper weighting.

When having enough air to eliminate the squeeze gets you neutral and you can use lungs to adjust from there - both the "use BC" camp and the "use dysuit" camp are in agreement.

The disagreement seems to come when the amount of air needed to maintain buoyancy would require a lot of air in the suit. PADI, NAUI, etc would say: "Well... don't do that. eliminate weight" and there are obviously cases where that's not feasible so you have the choice of puffing up like the michelin man or using your BC.

Most on here advocate that BC is safer than being a michelin man in a drysuit because that large air bubble moving around a drysuit requires more thought and effort than maintaining two air bubbles.
 
It's more than just PADI. NAUI teaches using the dysuit as the primary source of buoyancy. Though not a training agency, DAN is in favor of the drysuit as the buoyancy source: Medical Considerations for Drysuit Divers

When you are doing single tank stuff with proper weighting, the amount of air needed to "remove the squeeze" and the amount of air needed to maintain buoyancy seeme like they are about the same.

Nobody advocates having a large air bubble in the suit... NAUI, PADI, DAN, etc all suggest avoiding that by having proper weighting.

When having enough air to eliminate the squeeze gets you neutral and you can use lungs to adjust from there - both the "use BC" camp and the "use dysuit" camp are in agreement.

The disagreement seems to come when the amount of air needed to maintain buoyancy would require a lot of air in the suit. PADI, NAUI, etc would say: "Well... don't do that. eliminate weight" and there are obviously cases where that's not feasible so you have the choice of puffing up like the michelin man or using your BC.

Most on here advocate that BC is safer than being a michelin main in a drysuit because that large air bubble moving around a drysuit requires more thought and effort than maintaining two air bubbles.
Now you have it, don’t be a Michelin man.
 
It's more than just PADI. NAUI teaches using the dysuit as the primary source of buoyancy. Though not a training agency, DAN is in favor of the drysuit as the buoyancy source: Medical Considerations for Drysuit Divers

When you are doing single tank stuff with proper weighting, the amount of air needed to "remove the squeeze" and the amount of air needed to maintain buoyancy seem like they are about the same.

Nobody advocates having a large air bubble in the suit... NAUI, PADI, DAN, etc all suggest avoiding that by having proper weighting.

When having enough air to eliminate the squeeze gets you neutral and you can use lungs to adjust from there - both the "use BC" camp and the "use dysuit" camp are in agreement.

The disagreement seems to come when the amount of air needed to maintain buoyancy would require a lot of air in the suit. PADI, NAUI, etc would say: "Well... don't do that. eliminate weight" and there are obviously cases where that's not feasible so you have the choice of puffing up like the michelin man or using your BC.

Most on here advocate that BC is safer than being a michelin man in a drysuit because that large air bubble moving around a drysuit requires more thought and effort than maintaining two air bubbles.
Which brings us back full circle to your original question, the answer is yes but don’t be overweighted. Using the suit for buoyancy is a technique as is using the b/c do what’s best for you. You may want to weight for the end of the dive, you can put up with more squeeze and cold if it’s only for a short time, bobbing to the surface is not good and neither is being unable to surface without putting air in something, balanced is the key.
 
if you are using your drysuit to compensate for buoyancy
Just taking off the squeeze will compensate a lot for your buoyancy swing.

A DS/undergarment combo with the appropriate gas to compensate for the squeeze will keep your volume - and thus your buoyancy - pretty constant. So your buoyancy will be pretty constant. For me, as a rec DS diver, just taking off the squeeze will keep me pretty close to neutral without having to touch my wing inflator. Excepting buoyancy swings due to gas consumption, though.

I use my DS gas to compensate for depth-related buoyancy swings and my wing gas to compensate for gas consumption-related buoyancy swings.
 
So for those who dislike buoyancy control with the suit, if you find at the same time that you reduce squeeze and get enough loft for warmth you find some buoyancy that is optimal, do you add weight just so you can use the b/c? Asking for a friend :wink:
You want to be weighted correctly at 50 bar regardless so you can hold your stop. So yea you would add some weight, but it’s just so that you can still sink at 50bar with more loft, I think it’s independent of the buoyancy method ?

(IMHO you are better off using a thicker undersuit, that will have the same effect but you’ll be able to leave the valve open)
 

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