Tec Courses in Dry Suit (or not?)

[suricatasuricata]

My GUE instructor apparently uses JetFins even during tropical diving. He made some very sensible comments about how eventually your dives might become deeper (colder) and with doubles that it very often makes sense to use JetFins consistently even in the tropics to counteract the weight of the front portion of your setup. He apparently also just adjusts his body by extending the fins if diving single tank + wetsuit to maintain trim.
Kinda wish I had heard that before buying the OMS Slipstreams for tropical diving.

 

[Boarderguy]

My GUE instructor apparently uses JetFins even during tropical diving. He made some very sensible comments about how eventually your dives might become deeper (colder) and with doubles that it very often makes sense to use JetFins consistently even in the tropics to counteract the weight of the front portion of your setup. He apparently also just adjusts his body by extending the fins if diving single tank + wetsuit to maintain trim.
Kinda wish I had heard that before buying the OMS Slipstreams for tropical diving.

There is no one size fits all fin. Jets are great but if you have options that allow for easier trim and diving why not use them? Having to adjust your basic diving form to make heavy/neg fins work in warm water just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[formernuke]

I've used a trilam drysuit in the keys. I just wore merino base layer under. For this definitely merino.

Bring some ice water with you once your in the suit and zipped pour it over your head if you have a wait to jump in. If on SI just take the top of drysuit off.

I believe in train how you dive, if your usually dive a drysuit, train in a drysuit.

For shore diving pratice in doubles I got a set of lp50's. They quickly became my favorite rec diving tanks, they just trim out like a dream.

As for larger doubles region does affect this decision.

 

[sebastiaan]

Train the way you dive for the dives you want to make. Everything is easier in a thin wetsuit in warm waters. Then when you're back home and start to dive in a drysuit with drygloves etc. you'll quickly find out you have difficulty reaching places you easily could in your wetsuit. When trained in a drysuit in fridged waters with poor visibility the dives in places like Bonaire are a walk in the park. Doesn't work like that the other way around.

I'm not very familiar with GUE's system but aren't you getting the fundies on a Rec level instead of Tec level when diving singles? If you ever want to go further with their tec courses you'll first need to upgrade your fundies to tec level even if you've done TDI's Intro to tech. Might save you some trouble and money by doing fundies on tec level from the start.

I had my first dives for TDI's Intro to tech, Advanced nitrox and Deco procedures courses yesterday and found out the hard way that things are a lot harder in 7C water wearing a drysuit and thick dry gloves. Diving side mount at least my valve drills were easier

If you want to dive using a dry suit in tropical waters there are thinner dry suits made of breathable material that are more suitable for those conditions. Having dived in a dry suit on Malta during summer in a suit I also use in cold waters I say it's possible. Just prepare all your gear before putting on the dry suit and then get in the water asap.