Greetings,
Like so many before me, I was stuck asking the question of whether I wanted to take a drysuit class or save $200 (actually $400 if I count my wife as well). I was leaning towards taking a class, but Covid-19 happened which shut down all of the area pools our dive shop used. I also thought back to our peak performance buoyancy course which was a waste of money. By the time we got to the course, we had practiced what I learned from Scubaboard. We were both able to complete the skills without any issues. In the end, our instructor spent all of his time with another student who had a lot of troubles while we just watched.
In the end, I opted to purchase a new PADI manual and DVD (2016 crew pack) from eBay for $23.00 and forgo formal training. I in no means am arguing this is the best choice nor do I want to start a debate about whether the class is needed or not as I already know the wide spectrum of opinions on the subject after reading through many of the threads discussing the subject. We chose to skip the class and this is my experience.
After reading the PADI drysuit manual and watching the what seemed to be an ancient drysuit video, I was confident that I could practice the skills without an instructor. In all honesty, there wasn't really anything in the manual that I hadn't already learned from scubaboard. We did know to ignore the following line "Underwater, you'll use only your suit to control your buoyancy if you are wearing a shell dry suit." Our shop talked about this when we did our AOW as well. They stated with steel tanks they never teach to use the drysuit for buoyancy.
The first thing that both my wife Lisa and I did was the practice in our backyard pool. It is not deep. I posted the video on this tread called Shelter in Place Diving . We did weight checks with our undergarments the best we could with the shallow pool. We practiced removing and replacing the inflator hose. We worked on buoyancy while playing with how much air we needed in the drysuit to be comfortable. We played with our dump valve. I noticed mine leaked a bit. We practiced lifting our elbow from a trim position. Here is Lisa in the pool for the first time. She is wearing a made to measure USIA Aqua Deluxe drysuit.
On July 4th, we were finally able to get Lisa's sister to watch our children so we could go diving. We decided to go out to Wazee Lake in Wisconsin since we know the quarry well and there are several dive platform to work off of if needed. We left the underwater camera behind because we knew it would be unwise to worry about video while learning the drysuits.
We loaded up our gear into my ford focus. We brought our wetsuits just in case. It was a bit tight, especially with our new EZup Canopy.
When we arrived at Wazee I was surprised by the lack of divers. We pulled up to an area called bluegill alley which has a 30 foot platform straight from shore and a compass course to the right of the shore. There is also a 100 foot line to time/measure kick cycle. We set up our tent and unloaded our gear. We discussed what we were going to work on and where we were going to go. As I noted before we know this dive site very well. In fact this is the place we went to hash out our non-existent navigation skills after leaving our open water class underwhelmed by what we were taught and had to demonstrate.
It was hot outside and I must admit, it seemed very strange to put on warm undergarments when we were sweating before we started doing anything. While donning our drysuit, both Lisa and I forgot to watch the suspenders. I had to start over but Lisa was able to un-velcro the suspenders and reposition them. My neck seal slid on easily with how much sweat was dripping from my head. Lisa cursed her long hair a few times swearing she will cut it all off (I always wanted her to get a short haircut). I had trouble getting my dive computer on with the permanent dry gloves. I also realized I couldn't get my compass over the ring so I ended up wearing it on my hand which worked well.
We got our BCD on, did our buddy checks, and waded into the water. Lisa had trouble getting her fins on but managed to get them on. We will need to buy her bigger fins. We began our descent and we slowly added air to our drysuit and wing.
The first half-hour of the dive was uneventful. I felt my buoyancy was spot on. All the pool practice had paid off. Diving the drysuit seemed no different than diving wet. Besides needing to add a little air here and there for comfort, I did not notice any difference. Lisa had a little more trouble, but she also did not spend as much time in the pool as I did. We swam around, under, and over the platform. We changed our depth and practice venting our drysuit and wing as needed. (on a side note, instead of using my kidney dump valve I defaulted back to the inflator/deflator. It felt off but at the time but I couldn't figure out why).
I motioned Lisa to follow me towards the compass course. Each of the sunken attractions are at different depths. I added more air to my drysuit. I really started to wonder how much air is comfortable enough. Every press of the inflator valve provided more comfort. Things were going well, but I started to feel a weird feeling in my legs. Finning was getting more difficult. I couldn't place my finger on what was happening. My first thought was I was just out of shape. As we followed our heading to what is known as the compass head the water became shallower. I think we went from around 30 feet to 15 feet. Before I knew it I could feel myself losing control of my buoyancy. I fought to make myself natural but before I knew it I was already at 5 feet. Lisa gestured what happened. We both surfaced and talked about what happened.
I concluded I put too much air in my drysuit. We also noted how much longer it takes to vent our drysuits compared to the BCD. We both descended and finished the dive without incident. At our safety stop, I worked on my back fining which is slowly getting better. After surfacing, we dumped some air to get our tanks down to 500 psi. I was able to drop 4 pounds. Lisa thought she could drop a couple of pounds but decided it was close enough. During the surface interval, we did not fully doff our drysuits instead opting just drop the top and remove our upper undergarments. I notice my undergarment seemed quite wet. My wife thought it was sweat. We also talked about the feeling of getting footlight. We discussed what we would do if we had a foot first ascent.
Like so many before me, I was stuck asking the question of whether I wanted to take a drysuit class or save $200 (actually $400 if I count my wife as well). I was leaning towards taking a class, but Covid-19 happened which shut down all of the area pools our dive shop used. I also thought back to our peak performance buoyancy course which was a waste of money. By the time we got to the course, we had practiced what I learned from Scubaboard. We were both able to complete the skills without any issues. In the end, our instructor spent all of his time with another student who had a lot of troubles while we just watched.
In the end, I opted to purchase a new PADI manual and DVD (2016 crew pack) from eBay for $23.00 and forgo formal training. I in no means am arguing this is the best choice nor do I want to start a debate about whether the class is needed or not as I already know the wide spectrum of opinions on the subject after reading through many of the threads discussing the subject. We chose to skip the class and this is my experience.
After reading the PADI drysuit manual and watching the what seemed to be an ancient drysuit video, I was confident that I could practice the skills without an instructor. In all honesty, there wasn't really anything in the manual that I hadn't already learned from scubaboard. We did know to ignore the following line "Underwater, you'll use only your suit to control your buoyancy if you are wearing a shell dry suit." Our shop talked about this when we did our AOW as well. They stated with steel tanks they never teach to use the drysuit for buoyancy.
The first thing that both my wife Lisa and I did was the practice in our backyard pool. It is not deep. I posted the video on this tread called Shelter in Place Diving . We did weight checks with our undergarments the best we could with the shallow pool. We practiced removing and replacing the inflator hose. We worked on buoyancy while playing with how much air we needed in the drysuit to be comfortable. We played with our dump valve. I noticed mine leaked a bit. We practiced lifting our elbow from a trim position. Here is Lisa in the pool for the first time. She is wearing a made to measure USIA Aqua Deluxe drysuit.
On July 4th, we were finally able to get Lisa's sister to watch our children so we could go diving. We decided to go out to Wazee Lake in Wisconsin since we know the quarry well and there are several dive platform to work off of if needed. We left the underwater camera behind because we knew it would be unwise to worry about video while learning the drysuits.
We loaded up our gear into my ford focus. We brought our wetsuits just in case. It was a bit tight, especially with our new EZup Canopy.
When we arrived at Wazee I was surprised by the lack of divers. We pulled up to an area called bluegill alley which has a 30 foot platform straight from shore and a compass course to the right of the shore. There is also a 100 foot line to time/measure kick cycle. We set up our tent and unloaded our gear. We discussed what we were going to work on and where we were going to go. As I noted before we know this dive site very well. In fact this is the place we went to hash out our non-existent navigation skills after leaving our open water class underwhelmed by what we were taught and had to demonstrate.
It was hot outside and I must admit, it seemed very strange to put on warm undergarments when we were sweating before we started doing anything. While donning our drysuit, both Lisa and I forgot to watch the suspenders. I had to start over but Lisa was able to un-velcro the suspenders and reposition them. My neck seal slid on easily with how much sweat was dripping from my head. Lisa cursed her long hair a few times swearing she will cut it all off (I always wanted her to get a short haircut). I had trouble getting my dive computer on with the permanent dry gloves. I also realized I couldn't get my compass over the ring so I ended up wearing it on my hand which worked well.
We got our BCD on, did our buddy checks, and waded into the water. Lisa had trouble getting her fins on but managed to get them on. We will need to buy her bigger fins. We began our descent and we slowly added air to our drysuit and wing.
The first half-hour of the dive was uneventful. I felt my buoyancy was spot on. All the pool practice had paid off. Diving the drysuit seemed no different than diving wet. Besides needing to add a little air here and there for comfort, I did not notice any difference. Lisa had a little more trouble, but she also did not spend as much time in the pool as I did. We swam around, under, and over the platform. We changed our depth and practice venting our drysuit and wing as needed. (on a side note, instead of using my kidney dump valve I defaulted back to the inflator/deflator. It felt off but at the time but I couldn't figure out why).
I motioned Lisa to follow me towards the compass course. Each of the sunken attractions are at different depths. I added more air to my drysuit. I really started to wonder how much air is comfortable enough. Every press of the inflator valve provided more comfort. Things were going well, but I started to feel a weird feeling in my legs. Finning was getting more difficult. I couldn't place my finger on what was happening. My first thought was I was just out of shape. As we followed our heading to what is known as the compass head the water became shallower. I think we went from around 30 feet to 15 feet. Before I knew it I could feel myself losing control of my buoyancy. I fought to make myself natural but before I knew it I was already at 5 feet. Lisa gestured what happened. We both surfaced and talked about what happened.
I concluded I put too much air in my drysuit. We also noted how much longer it takes to vent our drysuits compared to the BCD. We both descended and finished the dive without incident. At our safety stop, I worked on my back fining which is slowly getting better. After surfacing, we dumped some air to get our tanks down to 500 psi. I was able to drop 4 pounds. Lisa thought she could drop a couple of pounds but decided it was close enough. During the surface interval, we did not fully doff our drysuits instead opting just drop the top and remove our upper undergarments. I notice my undergarment seemed quite wet. My wife thought it was sweat. We also talked about the feeling of getting footlight. We discussed what we would do if we had a foot first ascent.
If you don't have 'some air' in the suit/BCD then controlling buoyancy becomes more difficult.
