Drysuit skills

[Suzanne]

i haven't laughed so hard in ages......I now have mascara down my face!!!!

soooo funny!!!!!!!!!!!   Did you take the photo???

[Conor]

Dominic....thats a classic!!!

[Dominic]

Yep - about five years ago.

She's a lot better at it these days..

[MATTBIN]

Glad to see the old 'get the camera and take the piss before rescuing diver' is still very much to the fore.

Connor, the Flexia is a nice suit (I have the earlier model Flex 2000) just be aware that the shoulder dump can be a bit slow to dump, for that reason I changed mine, but if you use the bcd for main bouyancy you should be fine.

Matt

[Conor]

Thanks for the tip Matt

They had two suits at LIDs, one was the Flex and the other the FLexia and although they seemed pretty much the same, one of the changes were the valves. I'll keep an eye on it....although it may be an inverted eye.

Not sure which I would be using for buoyancy, will probably try both and see what suits

Cheers

Conor

[Snash]

That photo is priceless, Dom!

Although if it had been me, I doubt I would have shown my face down the dive club after that  

Simon

[daz]

Well there was the time I tried to get out of my front entry suit and I had not undone the zip all the way.

Not to mention the time I tried to get out of my back entry suit and had not undone the zip at all.

When asked what I thought I was doing,  the phrase "Just looking for my keys was all I could think of"

Fortunately, no one had a camera

Daz

[Reeve]

<font color='#000F22'>

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Dominic @ April 02 2004,14:30)]How to get out of being inverted.

How to do all buoyancy control on the suit.

How to do all buoyancy control on the BCD.

The one skill I would recommend you master is to re-invert yourself by a combination of BCD / wing inflation &amp; use of legs followed by a quick dumping of your air. It takes a little bit of practice to get the hang off, but is something you'll be glad you tried - trust me  

[Dave Crampton]

<font color='#000080'>Hi Camdiver,

I find that using my suit exclusively for bouyancy helps. managing boyancy with BCD and Suit inflated seams easy at first but if you have to dump air fast you'll struggle as you've two dump methods to think about. I personally use mu suit exclusively for boyancy. I don't dive that deep at the moment 20 - 25m max and the suit can handle that much boyant air in it. Obviously is your diving anything heavy like a twin set you'll require air in the wing as the suit won't be enough, but I'm assuming here that like me you dive a single (and pony)?

To retrive your posture under water from air in your feet causing a feet first accent, asyou feel your feet expanding with air, and your body rocking forward, tuck into a forward roll and try flipping yourself over and back right again. This way you use the momentum of you tipping forward to continue on round head over heels (not literally) and back round to the right way up. Don't be scared of using your arms to help right yourself. Also when we were taught to drysuit dive we were told to swim along with the body slighty higher than your legs. This way air will naturally migrate up, away from your ankles and feet.

Goodluck and enjoy the warmth of your new suit.

Dave C

[ClaireDJ]

<font color='#008080'>We were taught to use just the dry suit for buoyancy, but this had its down side when we started diving deeper- too much air in the suit which led to air migration to the feet. Not very nice. Luckily no buoyant feet-first ascents!
We have since started using both wing/BCD for buoyancy and find that it works much better. I have no problem dumping air in an emergency, I can raise the dump on the wing/BCD and air will dump from the cuff dump on the dry suit at the same time.