Is dry suit specialty reccomended?

[sasdasdaf]

String once bubbled...
"Doing it wrong" !?

Unless you're diving twins and/or stages a dry suit is perfectly adequate for controlling buoyancy and provided you arent overweighted you dont have a huge bubble.
It greatly reduces task loading (especially with manual or cuff dumps) meaning you only have to mess with 1 expanding air source on ascent.

If you shoulder auto dump is working the way it should and you have good trim, you don't really have to mess with your drysuit at all to get it to dump on the ascent. You have manual or cuff dump? Well change it for an auto dump.

Why should I learn to use my drysuit for buoyancy when diving a single and then learn to use my BC to control my buoyancy when I start diving doubles and stages? Why not use a consistent method that is proven to work?

Whether it is a big bubble or small bubble in my drysuit, I prefer to have no bubble at all and have just enough gas in my suit to counteract the squeeze.

 

[Uncle Pug]

ERP once bubbled...
It took me two or three dives to get a feel for it and 10 or 11 for it to be natural feeling.

...and on your second drysuit as well.

One that actually fits you.

 

[ERP]

Yep....

And I can't convey enough how much nicer it is to dive a drysuit that fits. I did the buy something cheap to get by for a while thing, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. A suit that fits is well worth any extra money.

My DUI was having the dump valve replaced while I did my Rec Triox over last weekend and I was diving my (bag o gas) USIA, I had forgotten how much extra work diving a suit that doesn't fit is.

 

[6474286]

I have just asked the same question and my instructor replied honestly with:

Quote:

Well, the specialty is not obligatory, however, some practice is!!!
But when you have the suit go diving with me and Fred and we will teach you the finesses............first swimmingpool is very advisable!!!


I hope this helps

P.S. Just bought an otter Brittania Skin suit

 

[dbulmer]

6474286,

(by god that was hard to type!)

Anyway, what's the suit like ? I am thinking of getting this suit myself.

 

[6474286]

I chose the Skin suit from otter as below

http://www.drysuits.co.uk/membrane.html

Basically I decided to buy a trilaminate suite rather than a neoprene one for two reasons.

1. The are harder wearing

and

2. You can easily change the amount of insulation you use under them, thus allowing you to use it all year round.

I chose otter suits because they were highly recommended from my diving instructor along with Polar Bear suits.

I hope this helps

Paul

 

[String]

sasdasdaf once bubbled...


If you shoulder auto dump is working the way it should and you have good trim, you don't really have to mess with your drysuit at all to get it to dump on the ascent. You have manual or cuff dump? Well change it for an auto dump.

Why should I learn to use my drysuit for buoyancy when diving a single and then learn to use my BC to control my buoyancy when I start diving doubles and stages? Why not use a consistent method that is proven to work?

Whether it is a big bubble or small bubble in my drysuit, I prefer to have no bubble at all and have just enough gas in my suit to counteract the squeeze.

Firstly i prefer my manual cuff dump. Several others in my club have had shoulder auto dumps removed and replaced with cuff dumps. They prefer the ease and control it gives them. Thats personal preference.

You dont need to "learn" to use it for buoyancy any more than learning a BC. You press a button. There. Learnt.

If like here diving all year round is dry there are no new skill sets to learn.

As for the bubble, any bubble means overweighted. Removing squeeze makes me near enough neutral, a tiny bit of fine tuning with no NOTICABLE difference in the air in the suit is all it needs. If you need more than a tiny amount of air on singles to get neutral you're overweighted.

This reduces the runaway ascent risk, especially in high workload or novice situations by having to concentrate dumping 2 independent and expanding sources of air.

There is no right/wrong way of doing this.

 

[kaliban]

Well, my drysuit got her maiden dive this weekend at the dui dog and demo days. I got there pretty late on Sat, so there was only time to do one dive. I got a few good tips on how to properly handle and maintain the suit for extended wear of the seals, etc. An expert helped me to trim my seals properly, which was great. I got some very minimal instruction on diving dry (thankfully I read the owners manual before I went out there), and then we went out.

I was very lucky in that I quickly got control of my two close calls with feet first ascents. Having had about 20 seconds of advice on how to manage diving dry, plus what the owners manual offered, and having just received my ow cert the week before, it turned out that on this first dive I felt task loaded enough with the drysuit, that I didn't attempt to use my bc for bouancy. At the same time, I think I was over-weighted and thus probably compensated for this with extra air in the divesuit, which in turn kept me from being able to maintain my safety stop, since I couldn't dump the air fast enough once I realized what was happening.

All in all, it doesn't seem overly difficult for me to dive dry. I did enjoy my dive and I'm sure if I had been able to play with my weight and technique I would have progressed quite a bit in another couple of dives. I'll probably switch to using my bc for bouancy control on my next dive or two, and then I'll know which way I'll stay with from then on. I expect I will stick with the latter, but we'll see. Practice is definitely what I need most of, though a specialty class certainly might prove worthwhile anyway.

-k

 

[Dryglove]

String once bubbled...


This reduces the runaway ascent risk, especially in high workload or novice situations by having to concentrate dumping 2 independent and expanding sources of air.

I also use a forearm dump and leave it fully open during the dive. The great thing is as i am making my ascent and raise the wing inflator/deflator to vent expanding gas my wing, i am also venting expanding gas from my drysuit at the the same time. Kinda kills two birds with one stone and doesnt involve over task loading by dealing with trying to dump two independant sources at the same time.

 

[String]

I was very lucky in that I quickly got control of my two close calls with feet first ascents. Having had about 20 seconds of advice on how to manage diving dry

Thats not really enough practice at this sort of thing.

Id recommend a pool or shallow OW (say 6m) and deliberately inverting yourself and practicing a lot how to get out of the inversions. Get a buddy to help flip you.

With the aid of a buddy you can carefully get him to simulate a stuck inflator valve and the recovery and so on. Put at least an hour or 2 practice in.