bubble-head
Contributor
Who all is planning to hit Rawlings on Jan. 27th for their Polar Plunge?
Jan. 27 Rawlings Polar Plunge
- Thread starter bubble-head
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BobbyT22
Contributor
I might be up for it.... I was a good boy this year, and Santa will be leaving a new Bare XCD2 Tech drysuit for me which I know I will be just itching to get wet. I'm brand new to drysuits and I'm looking for a dive buddy who doesn't mind showing someone the ropes.
Rob
Rob
bvmjethead
Contributor
Good thing I've got a semi-dry.
What's the water temps in Rawlings that late in January?
Is this some sort of charity gathering?
What's the water temps in Rawlings that late in January?
Is this some sort of charity gathering?
RAD Diver
Contributor
Unfortunately I will be coming home from Texas on that day so I will not be able to make it.
Bobby; I would love to dive dry with you & help out, try to PM Drewski (Andy) & see if he might be up for a dive that day. I'm sure he needs more dive models for his video camera.
I don't know about temps in Jan. , but I went in March 2 years ago & found 42 & did dive it in my Semi-dry. But now that I have a drysuit I wonder about previous decisions I've made.
Bobby; I would love to dive dry with you & help out, try to PM Drewski (Andy) & see if he might be up for a dive that day. I'm sure he needs more dive models for his video camera.
I don't know about temps in Jan. , but I went in March 2 years ago & found 42 & did dive it in my Semi-dry. But now that I have a drysuit I wonder about previous decisions I've made.
It is very possible that I will be there. Hopefully I will be switching shifts at work. Not sure which one I will be going to. That will determine if I can attend or not.
BobbyT22
Contributor
Hey Rad, good to see you. I know you have been diving your butt off this past year from following your exploits on the board. Maybe we can meet up earlier in the year if Rawlings is open. I have a bunch of time off between Dec 28-Jan 8. I'm sure there will be other folks like me who want to get their xmas goodies wet. I need 4 more dives to get to 50, which is pretty good for me considering I started 2007 with 9.
BVM- I dove Rawlings in Feb last year with a surface temp of 46, 40 down at depth, in a 7mm semi dry. I was cold, but bearable, just barely. I am very much looking forward to learning the dry side of things.
BVM- I dove Rawlings in Feb last year with a surface temp of 46, 40 down at depth, in a 7mm semi dry. I was cold, but bearable, just barely. I am very much looking forward to learning the dry side of things.
OP
bubble-head
Contributor
Rob, I will be glad to dive with you as well. I'll be going in my 7mil, as a new dry suit is not yet in the budget....hopefully soon.
WOW!
You guys are both manly MEN for diving in THAT cold of water WET! I used to do that in my 20s, but NOT now, LOL...
Bobby, I'd suggest hopping into a pool with that new drysuit before taking it to Rawlings. It will take some getting used to and you REALLY need to learn the "drysuit procedure" before getting to depth.
So, here's some ADVICE that MAY help. This is the way I dive dry, it may or may not work for others:
Don the suit, check the seals, zip up. Have someone else who dives a drysuit assist with zipping up. Only THEY know HOW to do it. Make certain your neck seal is snug and NOT rolled.
Vent all your suit air by squatting and venting the neck seal. Put a finger under the seal and down into the suit. The air should rush out in a big "woosh." Remove your finger while still squatting. When you stand up, the suit should "suck down" on you. If not, you probably have a seal leak.
Don your gear. OPEN the arm valve completely. Before entering the water, add air to your BCD to prevent going negative.
Once in water, press on the arm valve to manually vent excess air. At this point, you should be floating using your BCD. CLOSE the arm valve MOST of the way (several turns, learn and COUNT them for "full" close). Go negative by dumping BCD air.
As you descend, "squirt" air into the drysuit using the inflator. I add just enough to make it comfortable (no "squeeze"). In this respect, my method is NOT the same as what PADI teaches. PADI teaches using the drysuit for buoyancy control because they don't think you are smart enough to work two buoyancy devices (BCD and drysuit). If you gotta be a PADI diver, by all means follow their advice.
If, on the other hand, PADI doesn't float your boat (or in this case, body), use the BCD for buoyancy and the drysuit for warmth. Adjust your buoyancy using the BCD as needed until you get near the bottom. When you get to the bottom, OPEN the arm valve MORE, but NOT all the way, so that the valve will vent air slightly if you rise more than 10 FT (this is an adjustment you learn by experience and is unique to each suit). If you OPEN the arm valve ALL the way at the bottom, you will constantly be adding air to the suit each time you go up and down because the valve will continue to vent ALL of the air you add. If you CLOSE the arm valve ALL the way at the bottom, you could encounter a RAPID and UNCONTROLLED ascent if you had an emergency and didn't very quickly get your wits about you prior to heading to the surface.
When you are ready to ascend, OPEN the valve completely and manually vent almost ALL your air. This will change as you gain experience, but when starting out this is a good safety check. When you first start using your drysuit, make CERTAIN you maintain a "heads up" position during ascent and REMEMBER to vent BOTH your drysuit and BCD. If you invert and go positive, you WILL quickly experience a RAPID and UNCONTROLLED feet first ascent that is VERY difficult to stop. I always recommend that new drysuit divers use an ascent line the first few times just to get the "feel" of the suit and prevent BAD stuff from happening.
The "critical" depth for drysuits is about 15 FT. For whatever reason, most major "buoyancy shifts" occur at this depth. Be PREPARED for this. Pause at about 20 FT and make certain all drysuit air is manually vented. You may even need to do the "funky chicken" underwater to get the air out. Also, REMEMBER your BCD! New drysuit divers sometimes focus entirely on the suit and FORGET the BCD. If you didn't weight negative enough at the beginning of the dive, THIS is where you will KNOW it. Doing a safety stop inverted hanging upward by your arms is a SURE sign of a NEW drysuit diver! Hopefully, someone will take pity on you and render assitance.
Assuming you made it to this point, continue to the surface. Once on the surface, CLOSE the valve completely and ADD some air. If you DON'T do this and you are boat diving, you might find it VERY difficult to lift your legs up the ladder because the suit "sucks down" on you and it's almost impossible to climb.
After getting out, RELAX! Take your time getting out of the suit. Walk around and give sympathetic looks to all the poor wetsuit divers shivering in the cold air. Ask them if they are going to do a second dive, or could you borrow their camera?
Ahh, yes! Once you dive dry, you never go back....
Hope this helps! :14:
You guys are both manly MEN for diving in THAT cold of water WET! I used to do that in my 20s, but NOT now, LOL...
Bobby, I'd suggest hopping into a pool with that new drysuit before taking it to Rawlings. It will take some getting used to and you REALLY need to learn the "drysuit procedure" before getting to depth.
So, here's some ADVICE that MAY help. This is the way I dive dry, it may or may not work for others:
Don the suit, check the seals, zip up. Have someone else who dives a drysuit assist with zipping up. Only THEY know HOW to do it. Make certain your neck seal is snug and NOT rolled.
Vent all your suit air by squatting and venting the neck seal. Put a finger under the seal and down into the suit. The air should rush out in a big "woosh." Remove your finger while still squatting. When you stand up, the suit should "suck down" on you. If not, you probably have a seal leak.
Don your gear. OPEN the arm valve completely. Before entering the water, add air to your BCD to prevent going negative.
Once in water, press on the arm valve to manually vent excess air. At this point, you should be floating using your BCD. CLOSE the arm valve MOST of the way (several turns, learn and COUNT them for "full" close). Go negative by dumping BCD air.
As you descend, "squirt" air into the drysuit using the inflator. I add just enough to make it comfortable (no "squeeze"). In this respect, my method is NOT the same as what PADI teaches. PADI teaches using the drysuit for buoyancy control because they don't think you are smart enough to work two buoyancy devices (BCD and drysuit). If you gotta be a PADI diver, by all means follow their advice.
If, on the other hand, PADI doesn't float your boat (or in this case, body), use the BCD for buoyancy and the drysuit for warmth. Adjust your buoyancy using the BCD as needed until you get near the bottom. When you get to the bottom, OPEN the arm valve MORE, but NOT all the way, so that the valve will vent air slightly if you rise more than 10 FT (this is an adjustment you learn by experience and is unique to each suit). If you OPEN the arm valve ALL the way at the bottom, you will constantly be adding air to the suit each time you go up and down because the valve will continue to vent ALL of the air you add. If you CLOSE the arm valve ALL the way at the bottom, you could encounter a RAPID and UNCONTROLLED ascent if you had an emergency and didn't very quickly get your wits about you prior to heading to the surface.
When you are ready to ascend, OPEN the valve completely and manually vent almost ALL your air. This will change as you gain experience, but when starting out this is a good safety check. When you first start using your drysuit, make CERTAIN you maintain a "heads up" position during ascent and REMEMBER to vent BOTH your drysuit and BCD. If you invert and go positive, you WILL quickly experience a RAPID and UNCONTROLLED feet first ascent that is VERY difficult to stop. I always recommend that new drysuit divers use an ascent line the first few times just to get the "feel" of the suit and prevent BAD stuff from happening.
The "critical" depth for drysuits is about 15 FT. For whatever reason, most major "buoyancy shifts" occur at this depth. Be PREPARED for this. Pause at about 20 FT and make certain all drysuit air is manually vented. You may even need to do the "funky chicken" underwater to get the air out. Also, REMEMBER your BCD! New drysuit divers sometimes focus entirely on the suit and FORGET the BCD. If you didn't weight negative enough at the beginning of the dive, THIS is where you will KNOW it. Doing a safety stop inverted hanging upward by your arms is a SURE sign of a NEW drysuit diver! Hopefully, someone will take pity on you and render assitance.
Assuming you made it to this point, continue to the surface. Once on the surface, CLOSE the valve completely and ADD some air. If you DON'T do this and you are boat diving, you might find it VERY difficult to lift your legs up the ladder because the suit "sucks down" on you and it's almost impossible to climb.
After getting out, RELAX! Take your time getting out of the suit. Walk around and give sympathetic looks to all the poor wetsuit divers shivering in the cold air. Ask them if they are going to do a second dive, or could you borrow their camera?
Ahh, yes! Once you dive dry, you never go back....
Hope this helps! :14:
cmalinowski
Contributor
BobbyT22
Contributor
Drewski,
Wow, thanks for the great post. Very informative, and echoes most of what I have read in and older SSI drysuit maunal I picked up on ebay. I ordered the suit from Divetank over the phone, and while I know the drawbacks of not buying the suit locally (i.e. no pool for a test dive) the cost savings was significant enough to make it worth it. I bought the best suit I possibly could afford (the XCD2 Tech is bare's "flagship" model), which was some common advice I read here on the board. So, I got a great deal, but alas, no pool is available for me to try it out. Since I am active duty, maybe I can get into one of the pools on one of the local bases, but I think they frown on scuba experiments in their pools. But I will look hard, as I agree a pool really would be the place to start. Rawlings, especially the shallow parts, is pretty pool-like though, except it will be friggin cold.
It's funny, but as I was reading the SSI manual I had the same thought you expressed here, which is that it makes no sense not to use your BCD for bouyancy control. SSI preaches the same line as PADI I guess, which is to use the drysuit for bouyancy control, and the BCD only in an emergency such as I suit flood. I seemed like an awful waste to carry those big bouyancy chambers around on your back and not use them, but I see their reasoning too. My intutitive thought was to put a minimum of air in the suit, and then use the BCD as designed. Your description of the use of the arm valve was very helpful.
I love your description of the poor shivering wetsuit divers on the boat during the surface interval...that was/is me! I was doing a boat dive in San Diego in September, water temp mid 60's/upper 50's at depth. The cold kicked my ikidneys/bladder into high gear so of course I had to pee between dives, but I so exhausted myself trying to get my 7mm semi dry off, then back on, that I almost cancelled the second dive. It was a little choppy, and between the rockin of the boat compounded by the titanic wrestling match against the suit, I felt awful. I said NO MORE, and suddenly the thought of plunking a grand plus down for a suit seemed perfectly reasonable.....and here I am!
....I'll try to find access to a pool and do some familiarization there first, but still want to go to rawlings. I'll drop you and Robert a note when I can go, hopefully earlier than the 27th, and maybe I'll see you there. Thanks for the great info.
I'd love to dive with you sometime. I got out with Robert (RAD) once this year and it was a good dive. But I'm always travelling with my job and have to focus my diving when away, since when I am home my wife/kids come first. But I am always looking for opportunities and with a drysuit the season never ends, right?
Rob
Wow, thanks for the great post. Very informative, and echoes most of what I have read in and older SSI drysuit maunal I picked up on ebay. I ordered the suit from Divetank over the phone, and while I know the drawbacks of not buying the suit locally (i.e. no pool for a test dive) the cost savings was significant enough to make it worth it. I bought the best suit I possibly could afford (the XCD2 Tech is bare's "flagship" model), which was some common advice I read here on the board. So, I got a great deal, but alas, no pool is available for me to try it out. Since I am active duty, maybe I can get into one of the pools on one of the local bases, but I think they frown on scuba experiments in their pools. But I will look hard, as I agree a pool really would be the place to start. Rawlings, especially the shallow parts, is pretty pool-like though, except it will be friggin cold.
It's funny, but as I was reading the SSI manual I had the same thought you expressed here, which is that it makes no sense not to use your BCD for bouyancy control. SSI preaches the same line as PADI I guess, which is to use the drysuit for bouyancy control, and the BCD only in an emergency such as I suit flood. I seemed like an awful waste to carry those big bouyancy chambers around on your back and not use them, but I see their reasoning too. My intutitive thought was to put a minimum of air in the suit, and then use the BCD as designed. Your description of the use of the arm valve was very helpful.
I love your description of the poor shivering wetsuit divers on the boat during the surface interval...that was/is me! I was doing a boat dive in San Diego in September, water temp mid 60's/upper 50's at depth. The cold kicked my ikidneys/bladder into high gear so of course I had to pee between dives, but I so exhausted myself trying to get my 7mm semi dry off, then back on, that I almost cancelled the second dive. It was a little choppy, and between the rockin of the boat compounded by the titanic wrestling match against the suit, I felt awful. I said NO MORE, and suddenly the thought of plunking a grand plus down for a suit seemed perfectly reasonable.....and here I am!
....I'll try to find access to a pool and do some familiarization there first, but still want to go to rawlings. I'll drop you and Robert a note when I can go, hopefully earlier than the 27th, and maybe I'll see you there. Thanks for the great info.
I'd love to dive with you sometime. I got out with Robert (RAD) once this year and it was a good dive. But I'm always travelling with my job and have to focus my diving when away, since when I am home my wife/kids come first. But I am always looking for opportunities and with a drysuit the season never ends, right?
Rob
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