Weighting Problems with new Dry-suit

[Dr Stevil]

All personal opinion only but here's my "my 2 cents worth":
I've always taught new divers to use their suit only for buoyancy because a) they are goining to want to dive that way eventually so might as well start now, b) air in the suit keeps you warm and buoyant whereas air in the BCD only does the latter, c) trainees tend to get colder more quickly in my experience therefore the air is better in suit, d)sharing the buoyancy control between between suit and BCD adds to task loading which for a trainee is undesirable.
Re dumping air from suit, I find that "pumping" your arm helps to dislodge trapped air (amuses the other divers too as you look like you're celebrating coming back from a dive!)
I was taught (on my Adv Nitrox course) to wear exactly the same clothes for a given situation and log the weight required for each variation of kit/clothing.
In my instucting experience its better for trainees to be a little overweighted as nothing ruins a training dive more than not being able to sink and we all know what the dangers of a rapid ascent such as described above.
PS, having said all this if anyone sees me at "Divesite X" this weekend I'm probably not going to be the most "buoyantly controlled" diver as I've turned into a fat b****** over the summer and don't know how much weight I need because of that plus i've got a new kit config (twins), I'll be the one with a twinset pootling around in the shallows like a novice! :babycrawl:

(Edited by Steve W at 1:39 pm on Sep. 17, 2002)