Need for drysuit speciality?

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Go trilam, many female diver struggles with the neoprene neckseals. You could also maybe have the silicone seals fitted, many dry divers like them.

You have plenty diving under your belt, skip the course and find someone that dives dry to mentor you. Diving with a dry suit is easy if you have good buoyancy control and good common sense.
 
I'm thinking about buying a drysuit. Do I need a drysuit speciality? Should I do this speciality before buying a drysuit?

Please keep us informed on your decisions and experiences with this; I am also looking at possibly diving dry (thread coming soon).

:coffee:
 
For full disclosure I did not take a drysuit course, however, the majority of my diving has been in a drysuit. I have spoken to a few people who did take the course who did not even learn what I would consider basics of drysuit diving (allthough obviously that will depend on the instructor).

In my case I was told that I "could" take the course (read $$$) but the instructor recommended I join one of his pool sessions for OW students, jump in with the drysuit and he would give me the knowledge I needed no charge (other than $15 for pool time/air). Didn't even charge for the drysuit rental. A similar situation happened when I tried to sign my wife up with a different instructor (while on vacation this time). Now maybe this can be called taking the course, but I see drysuit (like a few other specialties) as ridiculously expensive for the rather small bit of knowledge gained.

If you are renting drysuits it may be a requirement though. Before I bought my drysuit I was refused a rental at a particluar LDS due to not having the cert, even though I had >20 OW dive in a drysuit (at that time). While it is their right not to rent me a suit, I also no longer deal with that LDS, as is my right.

If you can't get the class free, I would get a good mentor, but that just my 2psi.
 
Not really... the savvy shop owner will offer a discount on a dry suit purchase equal to the course cost if you buy from him/her.
Ei

So here is a good negotiation tactic. Since the specialty has a confined water component and two open water dives, if the shop has a trilam and a neoprene in the rental stock in your size, it would be worthwhile to ask if you could try them back-to-back.

Also, several drysuit manufactures have "demo days" where they will come out and allow consumers to test dive their product. I have no idea whether that is an option.

Re: the class, I did not take the class & hated my drysuit for the first 25 or 30 dives--a class would have covered the basics far more quickly & I would enjoyed diving the suit sooner.
 
Usually the price of the specialty course is built into the drysuit, at least that's how I've seen at several shops.

Do you need to take the course? Nope. The PADI Police isn't going to come and confiscate your drysuit and the shop isn't going to not sell you a suit without forcing you to take the course.

Do you really need to take the course? Depends on your experience. Also, if you have a drysuit diving buddy, he or she can definitely tells you more about the in and out of drysuit diving better than any truncated class.

I took the drysuit course even though I have no plan in the near or far future to buy a drysuit. Why? It's to support the LDS and just to see what the big whoopdedoo is all about, oh and for ice diving too. 40-F is colder than I can handle in my 7mm wetsuit.

Donning was a challenge until you get used to the suit and then it was a non-issue. Diving with the suit is also not a big deal either, but by then I already had nearly 200-dives under my belt. Had I taken the drysuit class with about maybe 20-dives or 50-dives under my belt, I might have to struggle a bit. However by that time with 192-dives in and while using my own gears, the additional task load was not a biggie at all.
 
I'll mention this incident and you can take it for what it is worth. It is not intended as advice.

I know a guy who is a Dive Master and he is also a certifed Tech Diver. He was interested in using a drysuit, and got one on loan from a dive shop, sort of a "try it and see if you like it" deal. Anyway, he went down to about 200 ft. at a local lake. When making his ascent, he had no visual reference points. He lost control of his buoyancy because he was unfamiliar with the drysuit, but was not aware he was ascending too fast (I don't know all the details, but basically that is what happened). He got severely bent, paralyzed from the waist down for quite a while. He was told he would never dive again, and got rid of all his gear.

However, a few years passed, and he more or less made a full recovery. He is now diving again, but in a wetsuit.
 
Anybody that would go to 200' for a first dive for their first ever drysuit dive deserves to get bent. That story has no relevance in this thread because the OP has the brains to question what instruction makes sense. Your DM/tech friend is a cowboy with no common sense (if the story is even true)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just my opinion,

Put your energy in buying you suit, otions, fit, comfort, fit, color, fit, did i mention fit. any way, when you get ont that fits you right many issues of the suit go away. Then when you get some instruction, you can focus it on the actual suit you are wearing. I did the instruction from the DUI folks as a part of their demo dives. I also took the course to have a book and a cert card for the times that someone may require me to have one. I agree with othres that the bcd is for bouyancy and the suit inflation is for comfort. i also know that various agencies teach the opposite. I know that when i tried my first one at a demo event i ended up upside down. with my suit (custom) that does not happen , because it fits. fit is the key. after that its plumbing and adding weight.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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