Just finished PADI Dry Suit Specialty

[PvtStash]

Thats because if the class was just about what you needed to know about actually Diving the Drysuit you'd say... " what I needed a Class to learn that? " and feel like you got Ripped Off, hence the Filler... (stuff you could probably have picked up from reading the materials you got with your Drysuit Purchase, ie the manual).

 

[D_B]

Maybe for some but that's not how my class was

 

[RJP]

So I just finished up my PADI Dry Suit specialty and was surprised by how much of this course is related to dry suit materials and maintenance versus actually diving in a dry suit. I suppose that in order to include enough material to make a whole specialty course of this it was necessary to go into this much detail and make me knowledgeable about dry suits rather than just train me how to dive but about 3/4 of this course isn't particularly relevant to actually diving with a dry suit. I'm curious if this is common in the PADI specialties? I've only taken Nitrox and that was almost wholely focused on the physiology and diving with Nitrox.

When you say "3/4 of the course" was about materials and maintenance, do you mean 3/4 of the classroom time, 3/4 of the reading, or 3/4 of the whole course?

My course had about 1.5hrs of classroom, another 1.5hrs in the pool, and two open water dives. Total time spent on materials and maintenance was about 1/2hr.

 

[Brian Sharpe]

RJP - your drysuit course sounds a lot like mine was. My LDS includes it when you buy a drysuit from them.

 

[D_B]

Mine was about an hour of reviewing the questions/answers and going over possible scenarios and about 6 hours of pool time (3 sessions) plus 2 OW dives

 

[emoreira]

This is the content of the SSI Drysuit book :

Chapter 1 : Why Drysuit ? : 4 pages
Chapter 2 : Types of Drysuits : 11 pages
Chapter 3 : Drysuit's valves : 5 pages
Chapter 4 : Selecting thermal undergarmets : 6 pages
Chapter 5 : Drysuit accesories : 6 pages
Chapter 6 : Drysuit technics : 14 pages
Chapter 7 : Drysuit maintenance : 5 pages
Chapter 8 : Drysuit repair : 7 pages

The longest chapter in related to drysuit technic.

 

[Kingpatzer]

If someone is taking the specialty course prior to buying one, having a good deal of information about what the differences in dry suits are is very useful. If someone has already purchased a suit, having that information is still part of really understanding the options one has when choosing dry suits so the next purchase can be more informed.

In no case should the class room material be the focus of the course, however. Pool time and OW dives are there to teach people how to be safe and comfortable in a dry suit, regardless of the material it is made out of.

 

[emoreira]

For SSI there is no pool practice for drysuit.
However, the school where I took the course, we did a deep pool practice (10 mts - 33 feet) so as to be used to the drysuit prior to the sea checkout dives.
With this we knew how to don and doff the DS, how to flush the extra air inside the DS, how to bend the neck seal, how to adjust the wrist seals, how to close the zipper, which movements should be avoided underwater to prevent water intrusion, and little details needed prior to the first dive.

 

[on_two_wheels]

Thank goodness for good mentors. I never took the course, nor will. I will only take specialties that do require diving and that can't much be taught on dry ground. Nitrox, of course, is an exception. Nav I might do. Beyond that, it's just gonna be DM.

 

[TSandM]

Hmm. As someone who has gone on to learn a great deal about dry suits the hard way, I WISH my dry suit training had included information about materials, maintenance, storage and repair, rather than simply how to do somersaults to get the air out of my feet.