Requirements for dry suit diving

[lozadora]

I am about to do my PADI Open Water Referral Course this weekend and will complete my dives out in Greece whilst on holiday.

I would love to do some diving in the UK with seals, but will need to wear a dry suit for this. My buddy believes that you need to take additional training courses to dive in a dry suit, is this true?

 

[Diver0001]

I would recommend additional training. It's not rocket science but it's best to learn in control circumstances.

R..

 

[Mike2Fst]

Strongly recommend the training for safety sake. It's what you don't know that can hurt you and trying to figure something out during an uncontrolled feet first ascent is the the wrong learning environment. Had this happen to an aquaintance when he had racked up some deco time, 6 chamber rides later and he never fully recovered. He decided on the "it's not rocket science, what could possibly happen?" approach.

 

[Searcaigh]

Get training first, it is definitely different from wetsuit diving.

I used to dive UK in a semi-dry many years ago when I was a lot younger but would not consider diving wet any more and usually rent a dry suit when I dive in Scotland.

As Mike mentioned above, without training it could be the end of your short dive career, and given that you have very little experience you will have nothing to rely on to react to sudden changing circumstances if something goes wrong.

However if you have some "natural" neoprene, and can stand low temps of around 14C in water for 30-40 minutes without getting hypothermia, you might get away with a 6/7mm wetsuit or better a semi-dry.

 

[Grover48]

Get training first, it is definitely different from wetsuit diving.



However if you have some "natural" neoprene, and can stand low temps of around 14C in water for 30-40 minutes without getting hypothermia, you might get away with a 6/7mm wetsuit or better a semi-dry.

"natural neoprene" is also known as bioprene.

 

[Crush]

I know very little about "bioprene" but to me it seems to be a new marketing tool designed to sell an inferior product. On SB Thal often recommends Rubatex neoprene and I defer to his vast experience. If you want to buy a good neoprene wetsuit search: "site:scubaboard.com Thal* rubatex" and see what he has recommended in the past. I think that it is Rubatex 231N.

-Crush

 

[Searcaigh]

I know very little about "bioprene" but to me it seems to be a new marketing tool designed to sell an inferior product. On SB Thal often recommends Rubatex neoprene and I defer to his vast experience. If you want to buy a good neoprene wetsuit search: "site:scubaboard.com Thal* rubatex" and see what he has recommended in the past. I think that it is Rubatex 231N.

-Crush

Actually Grover was referring to FAT

 

[Angry Turtle]

I know very little about "bioprene" but to me it seems to be a new marketing tool designed to sell an inferior product. On SB Thal often recommends Rubatex neoprene and I defer to his vast experience. If you want to buy a good neoprene wetsuit search: "site:scubaboard.com Thal* rubatex" and see what he has recommended in the past. I think that it is Rubatex 231N.

-Crush

marketing tool?!

"bioprene" is a tongue in cheek reference to ones own fat. People say they can use less neoprene because they have enough of their own "bioprene"



ups, Searcaigh beat me to it...

 

[Crush]

Oops. You know, there is a "bioprene" (non-adipose) product out there...

Sorry for my confusion.

 

[Doppler]

Put down one more vote for taking a course.

You'll find your diving much more enjoyable when the water temps are below 18-20 degrees (my personal threashold is much higher before I will jump into a wetsuit).

ALSO, and about as important if you wanna dive in the UK, a drysuit will make your surface intervals warmer. A damp wetsuit and those English breezes... gives me chills just thinking about it.

You also have a lot of excellent instructors over there and several quality suit manufacturers... for what it's worth, I dive an O'Three.