Question for Pacific Northwest Divers

[Biodiversity_guy]

Learning to dive in a dry suit is not necessarily something you have to have lots of prior diving experience to do successfully. As TS&M indicated, a lot of folks up in the PNW move into dry suits at or shortly after their OW classes.

 

[Flatliner]

Hi all,

Well, I did it and I am SO glad that I did. It was MUCH easier than I had feared. I just finished the pool sessions today and I will be doing my open water dives in a Dry Suit next weekend.

Now, if you will indulge me, can I ask another question. Do any of you know of a shop that I might be able to dive with during the week near Palo Alto. As I newly minted OW diver, I will need something fairly easy.

Thanks
"Flat" aka Robert

 

[gcbryan]

Hi all,

Well, I did it and I am SO glad that I did. It was MUCH easier than I had feared. I just finished the pool sessions today and I will be doing my open water dives in a Dry Suit next weekend.

Now, if you will indulge me, can I ask another question. Do any of you know of a shop that I might be able to dive with during the week near Palo Alto. As I newly minted OW diver, I will need something fairly easy.

Thanks
"Flat" aka Robert

You'll have better luck with that question by posting in the "California Kelp Divers" sub forum. Most people reading this forum are from the Seattle area.

 

[thelawgoddess]

Hi all,

I am brand new to diving. I am signed up to take both my Open Water and my Dry Suit classes this month. After reading the Dry Suit class material, I am feeling like I shouldn't be doing the Dry Suit class until I have had the chance to master some of the basic skills. The reason that I signed up for both is that I want to dive in the San Francisco and Seattle areas this Oct/Nov when I am there on business.

Here is my question, is it reasonable to dive in your area that time of year (once per day at the most) in a wetsuit? If I could I think I will save the Dry Suit class for later in the year.

Thanks in advance for your answers,

Robert

hi robert, people definitely do both at the same time. i think it partly depends on how comfortable you are in the water. i was going to take both at the same time, but i ended up just doing my dive course in a wetsuit. i hate being cold like you wouldn't believe, so i was very apprehensive ... but in the end it wasn't so bad. i was very cold by the end of each dive, but that didn't stop me from wanting to dive again once i'd warmed back up enough. i am also very uncomfortable in water, though, and had never even snorkeled before, so i think i had enough going on without adding the drysuit component at the time. (someone like my boyfriend, who is very comfortable in the water and has snorkeled quite a bit wouldn't have stressed about it at all.) i did about a dozen dives wet before i ended up switching over to a drysuit. for me personally i think it was good to have some time to work on my buoyancy via bc before throwing in the drysuit. i absolutely love diving dry, but i keep my 7+7mm wetsuit in my save-a-dive kit ... so i can still go diving if something happens to the drysuit. for someone that really hates being wet and cold, i can honestly say that diving here wet (at least right now) is not really that bad in short spurts.

if you do both at the same time, i would just try make sure that your instructor(s) will give you the opportunity for more time in the water to get your skills down if you need it.

 

[Flatliner]

You'll have better luck with that question by posting in the "California Kelp Divers" sub forum. Most people reading this forum are from the Seattle area.

Thanks, I should have realized that. I will also be in Seattle soon but I don't know my work schedule yet. Any recommendations for Seattle would be appreciated too.

Robert