Where to get NAUI Certified for Drysuit Diving?

[boulderjohn]

I have never used gaiters. I have only known two people who have used them regularly. One of them forgot to bring them on one dive trip, and he was shocked to see that he did not need them at all.

It takes a while to learn to achieve good trim with a drysuit, and that primarily means learning to control the location of the air in the suit. Beginning drysuit divers frequently have problems with this, and they may end up with floaty feet. Gaiters will help with that. So will experience.

 

[shurite7]

They don't prevent gas from getting to your feet. That misunderstanding is probably because by your own admission, you don't use them. It just slows the travel of gas. If you couldn't get gas to your feet, they wouldn't just be cold, they'd be crushed.

I never implied gaitors don't prevent gas from getting into your feet. They simply restrict the flow as you stated. My point is I would not want all drysuits to come with them. For some, who have the boots attached to their drysuit, the gaitors can be nice to keep large amounts of gas going into their feet which can allow the boot slip off. For others, using ankle weights helps to overcome the buoyancy of the fins or when they are learning to control the amount of gas that flows towards their feet. Usually over time, those people stop using the ankle weights. Part of learning to use the drysuit is learning how to shift the gas inside it.

 

[Pedro Burrito]

I received my certification through NAUI. I've never used gaiters. My instructor was thorough and we spent lots of time hanging upside down at a platform at 10 meters deep, filling up my suit and then practicing the tuck/roll maneuver. Then we spent more time going down, leveling off, going up a few meters, leveling off then up a few more meters until we either surfaced or I lost control and surfaced when I did not want to surface.

I lived in Japan for a few years and every drysuit that I saw a Japanese diver wear had valves on each ankle. That was a surprise, not the least of which is if I had time to reach down to my ankles to purge air then I should have just done a tuck/roll and vented from my shoulder.

 

[divezonescuba]

See PM

 

[kelemvor]

See PM

There ya go, a local shop with both PADI and NAUI folks on staff!

 

[michael-fisch]

So when are we going to require you to take and pass a course in order to use a P-Valve?
How about separate courses for skins, thin wetsuits, thick wetsuits and semidry wetsuits too?
Lets get real.
I'm afraid that the constantly growing number of possible courses is due to the excessive number of instructors which makes it very hard to ever make the money back that they paid for their instructor training.
More than OWD, a shitload of dives, and basic training for decompression dives including a gas switch is overkill for everybody who has no interest in becoming a tecdiver or cavediver. Everything else can be learned with a competent buddy and a few dives.

Michael

 

[Stoo]

It might be worth buying a pair that don't attach to the suit and bringing them to Iceland with you. That way you've got them in the even the rental suits don't come with gaiters.

Virtually everyone that dives in Tobermory) other than newer divers or infrequent divers, wear drysuits. I can't honestly recall ever seeing anyone wearing them. Of course I haven't seen every drysuit diver that passes through here.

Proper skills and some practice pretty much eliminates the need for them, but that assumes the suit fits well. If it's too big, or too long, (as a rental suit could be) then gaiters might very well be worth it.

Also, taking a drysuit course from an instructor who rarely wears one, seems ill-advised.

 

[Stoo]

So when are we going to require you to take and pass a course in order to use a P-Valve?

Honestly, that's one course I might take, given my success rate with the damn things.

But you're right. The PADIfication of diving has taken on a level of silliness that I never would have anticipated.

 

[rhwestfall]

Of course I haven't seen every drysuit diver that passes through here.

 

[kelemvor]

Virtually everyone that dives in Tobermory) other than newer divers or infrequent divers, wear drysuits. I can't honestly recall ever seeing anyone wearing them. Of course I haven't seen every drysuit diver that passes through here.

Proper skills and some practice pretty much eliminates the need for them, but that assumes the suit fits well. If it's too big, or too long, (as a rental suit could be) then gaiters might very well be worth it.

Also, taking a drysuit course from an instructor who rarely wears one, seems ill-advised.

Other than the cost, is there any drawback to using one? I'm not aware of any, but maybe there is something I'm not aware of.