My first drysuit experience ...

[SeaHound]

It was like someone tried to kill me by sealing me in a garbage bag and throwing me into the pool.

Just like a wetsuit becomes part of your body and you become ONE with the ocean, that was not the "Zen" of a dry suit. It was like swimming around in a trash bag that thinks its an air balloon! In extremely frozen waters that Yin Yang may be acceptable but other than that .....

My initial instinct was LEMME OUT OF THIS SO THAT I MAY SWIM AROUND! WTF???

After sometime I started to get comfortable with the feel of it but that comfort seems more of a psychological compromise on my part. The weight needed to sink was still a lot more than what I am used to in a wetsuit.

After my pool session I am waiting for my Open Water dive tomorrow but this is what is going on in my mind:

Is this stuff worth it? Once I master the drysuit buoyancy, would I miss my wetsuit? I mean you compromise mobility and freedom for thermal comfort. Unless you are ice diving, wouldn't a 7mm wetsuit (or semi dry etc) be a better choice?

Any tips and suggestions would also be appreciated.

Cheers -

S H

 

[evil_xander]

In a nutshell - yes, it is worth it.

You'll learn to control it and consider it not so much of a fuss comparing to a wetsuit, give it 10 dives or so.

The benefits outweigh the crappy feeling, from warmth factor on longer dives at low temperatures to surface feeling on freezing, windy conditions not caring about it too much in order to do a 2nd dive...

 

[Jax]

Ouch! What kind of suit do you have?

Read DB's thread http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/advanced-scuba-discussions/260824-padi-dry-suit-class.html. It's pretty good.

After asking questions for over a year, I finally bought a White's Fusion. However, it feels very comfortable and mobile. I will get in the pool this weekend. Everyone says I won't ever want to go back to wet (and as a warm water wuss, I believe it!).

 

[hypertech]

If your suit fits right and it isn't overinflated, it should be quite comfortable. What you describe sounds like a fit problem or a bouyancy problem with too much air in the suit.

 

[flots am]

It was like someone tried to kill me by sealing me in a garbage bag and throwing me into the pool.

Just like a wetsuit becomes part of your body and you become ONE with the ocean, that was not the "Zen" of a dry suit. It was like swimming around in a trash bag that thinks its an air balloon! In extremely frozen waters that Yin Yang may be acceptable but other than that .....

You were apparenly sold an expensive suit and cheated out of the class . . .

As critical as weighting is in a wetsuit, it's even more critical in a drysuit.

I'd suggest going back to the pool with the underwear of your choice, a weight harness, bunch of small weights and a few big weights.

• Put on the underwear and suit and make sure the exhaust valve is compeltely open.
• Put on the weight harness and load it with about 5% of your body weight
• Put on your BC/etc.
• Squat down and squeeze out whatever air you can from the suit and jump in the pool.
• Add weight a couple of pounds at a time until you just sink. Now add another 6 pounds to compensate for the air in your tank.
• This should put you right on the money for weighting and leave you with a minimal amount of air in the suit. It won't be inflated, you won't feel like the Michelin Man and you should have a great dive.
• Once you have your magic number, you can put the weight anywhere you want (although I really like the weight harness).

When underwater, venting the drysuit is best done like voting: "Do it early and often."

As you ascend, the air in the suit will expand, making you more buoyant. You'll need to keep an eye on this and if you feel you're becoming even slightly buoyant, raise your left arm so the exhaust valve is the highest part on your body. This generally invoves making a "chicken wing" shape with your left arm and raising it.

If you're weighted properly and diving a single tank, you probably won't need to use your BC underwater. If you're diving heavy doubles, you might.

flots.

 

[SeaHound]

Ouch! What kind of suit do you have?

Read DB's thread http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/advanced-scuba-discussions/260824-padi-dry-suit-class.html. It's pretty good.

After asking questions for over a year, I finally bought a White's Fusion. However, it feels very comfortable and mobile. I will get in the pool this weekend. Everyone says I won't ever want to go back to wet (and as a warm water wuss, I believe it!).

I was diving in a rented Whites Fusion. To be honest, I hated that suit. The reason... it has a stretchy lingerie type material called Bullet skin that squeezes the folds of the suit against your body to make it look and act like a wetsuit. Whether it makes it more streamlined, I don't know. But it did a pretty good job of making me not wanting to be inside it. But you should not worry because a lot of people dont mind that feeling and actually love that suit. my dive buddy loved it so much she purchased the rental! Personally, if I ever buy a suit, it would be a simple shell suit. No layers or skins on top of the suit, just one simple shell.

 

[cheeko8080]

I felt similarly to you when I first tried a tri-lam on in the pool. When I did my open water dives I did it in a crushed neoprene. I loved diving in the crushed neoprene suit. I felt like I was diving in a wetsuit and not a plastic bag. Now that I've become more comfortable in my drysuit I'd like to try a tri-lam again and see if it was just a matter of getting used to the differences between the lighter and thinner materials buoyancy properties or if I just plain don't like tri-lam.

 

[BabyDuck]

how in the world did you get that much air in a fusion to feel you were in a bag? your description was so funny!

were you using your bc or your suit for buoyancy?

 

[TSandM]

A wetsuit, by design, moves and flexes as part of you. No dry suit will do that; by design, there is a small air space between you and the suit. But the Fusion, with the elastic outer skin, comes closer to feeling like a wetsuit than any other sort of dry suit I have dived. In other words, the other types are worse . . .

Dry suits will generally need more weight, because they "trap" more air. The added weight is the price you pay for warmth.

Once you become facile with a dry suit, you won't be as annoyed with it -- I have actually reached the point where I don't dive wet ANYWHERE any more.

 

[Bogie]

Drysuit class is well worth it especially from a GUE or tech instructor.

Warmth is a key limiting factor if you dive longer than an hour in 40's or 50's degree water.

I use the same weight in a 7mm or drysuit.

I only dive dry in cold water. You will get used to it and will enjoy the benefits.