[BobK]

If you read this you may understand why, I do not agree !

A long long time ago in a place far, far away ......................... well Malta actually :-)

At the time 'everybody' did their initial open water training in wetsuits. My diving, upto this point had consisted of
freshwater diving in Coniston, Eccelston Delph, Kirby Lonsdale, Hodge Close, and the salty stuff at St Abbs, and Oban.
I had just over 30 dives under my belt, and had just qualified as a Sports Diver. Out of 25ish members in my club, only 4 or so had drysuits. Stab jackets were pretty new on the market, and most people, were using ABLJ's (horse collars) for buoyancy control.

I think it was probably our 4th diving day. Up to this point, it had been a fantastic holiday. The high point had been
the dive starting from the 'inland sea' on Gozo, out through the 'crack/tunnel' to the open sea down to 35m for the
first time.

It was February and the temperature was like a British Summer. The wetsuit was ok, but Phil our instructor had
brought his drysuit and his wifes with him. Phil suggested that I might like to have a go in a drysuit ! I had not really had much to do with drysuits up to that point. Nearly all of my kit was secondhand, and drysuits were pretty expensive. So I thought I decided to give it a go, my instructor said it would be Ok :-)

The suit was not a perfect fit, so there was probably some 'extra' room for air. As the suit had its 'inflate' right in the
centre of the chest, I also had to borrow a stab jacket (BC) that I had never used before either. The briefing from memory, was reasonably thorough, and the suit had a 'cuff' dump. So if I had any problems with ascending to fast, just stick my arm up, and air would dump. No problem - What could go wrong ? The BC was just for surface use, so do not put air it I was told. We did a 'weight check in a few metres of water, and then added a few pounds to my weight belt.

Three of us, then went off for a dive to 25m, on a gently sloping bottom. The descent and bottom phase were uneventful, I just added air to keep me 'comfortable' and off the bottom. I was a little 'apprehensive', but the dive was going fine, nothing to worry about at all.

We turned around with about 100 bar left in my tank. I started of back up the slope. I felt myself getting light, and
dumped a raft of air by sticking my arm up as instructed, without going to far up ! I think we had got to 20m, and then
I had another unintended 'ascent', this time I did not feel anywhere near under control, again I dumped a load of air,
and got back to the bottom. However my breathing rate had started to soar. I was VERY uncomfortable, and not at all happy. All those lectures about rapid acents and burst lung started to race through my mind.

Phil checked my gauge, I had about 70 bar. No problem, still well within the 'No stop' limits. We carried on with the
ascent and reached about 15m, when my 'boots' went light. I started to ascend 'feet first'. 'Oh Shit, oh shit, oh shit !!!!'.
Somehow I managed to get out of the inversion, and stuck my arm up, I had shot up at least 8 metres, before I came crashing back down again.

Then I felt my reg go tight, I managed to get half a breath and realised I had run out of air ! 'Oh f*ck, oh f*ck, oh F*ck',
but my training kicked in, and I gave a classic out of air signal to my two 'ASTONISHED' buddies, both of whom it later
turned out thought I was taking the P$ss.

At this time, out of air training was all 'buddy breathing'. Luckily for me Phil, always had the latest kit, and I
was offered one those new fangled scubapro Air-II's (combined BC inflator & 2nd stage). After I had calmed down a little
we made a direct ascent to the surface, with Phil controlling my suit buoyancy in a CBL. We sheephishly got dekitted, as we had been 'spotted' by some other divers, but I will never forget that day.

So what did I learn :-
1) Get some drysuit training.
2) Never try more than one piece of new kit at a time (stab & drysuit)
3) Never go deeper than a few metres, when trying out a drysuit for the first time.
4) Build your experience slowly.