Lift for Drysuit diving

[Conor]

Currently I use a 5mm wetsuit and 10kg to get down in the Red Sea, but want to try UK drysuit diving at some point. There is one question that I have that in previous threads people have touched on, but never quite answered and that is how much lift do you with in a DS ?

Do you just need enough to lift the lead plus a bit spare ?

Or do you need more lift in case your suit floods and if so how much ?

Maybe there is no straight answer or maybe it has been addressed before in either case could someone tell me or point me in the right direction ?


Thanks

Conor

 

[nickjb]

I'm not quite sure what you are asking. Some people use their suit for buyancy control but it is primarily to keep you warm. If your BC has enough lift for wetsuit diving then it should be fine for drysuit diving.

I tend to keep my suit fairly tight. I use about the same amount of lead in the UK in my drysuit as in the Red Sea in a 5mm two piece wetsuit.

If the suit floods (not yet, fingers crossed) then It will lose a little lift but the BC can easily compensate for that.

 

[SubMariner]

To be contrary to the previous opinion, not EVERYONE uses a BC for buoyancy control UNDERWATER; some use the drysuit. There are pros & cons to EITHER method. Basically, it comes down to personal choice. Enough on that subject.

That being said, you should be using a BC that will give you enough lift EXCLUSIVE of whether or not you are using your drysuit for bouyancy control u/w. IOW, the amount of lift you would need PERIOD; the drysuit really does not figure into the equation.

Hope that demystifies things a bit.

~SubMariner~

 

[usil]

just dive with your dry suit and no BCD, that teaches you about proper weighting. you don't really need a BCD anyway! plus with a proper fitting drysuit you can get LOTS of lift!

 

[Conor]

Cool, so as long as I can lift the lead plus a bit with the BC alone, I would be safe if the worst happened and the drysuit flooded ?

Nick - to clarify the question, I was wondering if I would need substantially more lift diving in a drysuit as opposed to a wetsuit, regardless which I use primarily for bouyancy control. This is so that if the suit flooded I would be able to finish the dive safely and stay afloat at the surface. By the sounds of it If my BC allows me to float the amount of lead needed to get a drysuit under then it would be enough should the suit flood.

As for the amount of lead you need, I was under the impression that for UK DS diving most people ended up with almost twice as much lead compared to with a wetsuit, is this wrong ? (it wouldn't surprise me)

 

[Conor]

erm..... surely that leaves you a bit stuck if the suit did flood ?

 

[Nessie]

Hi,
your BCD should be able to lift the lead, the tank and the rest of your equipment which is negatively buoyant. ( I am not sure how much you call "a bit" ).


And I would not dive a drysuit without a BCD, because to me the risk that the suit becomes flooded (ehm, does that word exist???) is a bit too high for me.

How much weight you will need is hard to say as it depends on the material of the suit, the undergarment, how much air you like to have in your suit..., but twice as much as with a (cold-water-)wetsuit would be quite too much, I think.

 

[usil]

If your diving with only a BCD and if totally fails then what do you do?? swim your rig up!. Same in a drtsuit. you should be able to swim your rig up to the surface at all times.
With a neoprene DS you will still have some boyancy in the material so as to provide some lift , anyway, if you are diving dry and the WHOLE suit floods I don't plan on spending alot of time floating around anyway!! its cold in there!!

 

[Conor]

Bit = (what you said), sorry to be vague, but not knowing makes it happen

Usil, I see your point but wouldn't treading water with a flooded drysuit at the surface be a bit of a nightmare, although it would keep your warm I guess.

BTW, is usil your name ? Sorry to ask but it's prononced the same or similar to a couple of Irish words

 

[Nessie]

Sorry, but I think you are wrong.
When diving wetsuit and BC you are normally more or less neutrally bouyant with an empty BCD.
When diving with a drysiut you are neutrally buoyant while having some air in the suit. So when the suit becomes full of water ( I am still lacking vocabulary) you immediately become negatively buoyant and depending on the amount of air you are used to have in your drysuit you have a completely different situation here than when the BCD breaks.

That said I know quite a few people dive like you do (one of them is my best divemaster )