I just want to repeat a point that I made earlier different words in order to emphasize it.
Some of the people in this thread live and work in areas where there is pretty good cold water diving in that vicinity. Shops in such areas will usually carry a large stock of dry suits, both for sale and for rent. For those people, it makes perfect sense for them to do what they can to get students to wear them in their training, or at least give them that option.
Some people who did not participate in this thread live in warm water locations where using a dry suit is a rare occasion. For them it would make little sense to make a dry suit part of instruction.
I and a whole lot of people living far from the ocean are in a world between those two. We have a lot of cool/cold water diving near us, but it is not the sort of diving that people are eager to do. It is mostly shallow and murky reservoir water. The people who dive those sites for pleasure are real die-hards, and they usually have dry suits. Almost all the other divers in the vicinity have no intention of diving locally--they do all their diving at warm water resorts. It is an unusual local dive shop that has dry suit inventory on hand, either for sale or for rent. If they did, those suits would sit around taking up space and ruining the shop's cash flow while the seals rotted away. The shop with which I work now can sell you a dry suit, but it will be a special order, and that makes sense to me. Consequently, the 10% of the local students who complete their training in a local cool water site do so in a 7mm suit. Many of the instructors will do the same, because many--even most--of the instructors do not dive locally, either, and they will pull a wets suit from the same rental rack the students use. The instructors who are wearing dry suits for the classes are the ones like me, the die-hards who will dive locally and who do travel to cool/cold water sites as well.
Some of the people in this thread live and work in areas where there is pretty good cold water diving in that vicinity. Shops in such areas will usually carry a large stock of dry suits, both for sale and for rent. For those people, it makes perfect sense for them to do what they can to get students to wear them in their training, or at least give them that option.
Some people who did not participate in this thread live in warm water locations where using a dry suit is a rare occasion. For them it would make little sense to make a dry suit part of instruction.
I and a whole lot of people living far from the ocean are in a world between those two. We have a lot of cool/cold water diving near us, but it is not the sort of diving that people are eager to do. It is mostly shallow and murky reservoir water. The people who dive those sites for pleasure are real die-hards, and they usually have dry suits. Almost all the other divers in the vicinity have no intention of diving locally--they do all their diving at warm water resorts. It is an unusual local dive shop that has dry suit inventory on hand, either for sale or for rent. If they did, those suits would sit around taking up space and ruining the shop's cash flow while the seals rotted away. The shop with which I work now can sell you a dry suit, but it will be a special order, and that makes sense to me. Consequently, the 10% of the local students who complete their training in a local cool water site do so in a 7mm suit. Many of the instructors will do the same, because many--even most--of the instructors do not dive locally, either, and they will pull a wets suit from the same rental rack the students use. The instructors who are wearing dry suits for the classes are the ones like me, the die-hards who will dive locally and who do travel to cool/cold water sites as well.