3-5-07:

So, I've gotten another few specialties under my belt.

First the drysuit course.

Unfortunately, diving in North Carolina during the winter is not very enjoyable when the water temps average 40 in the quarry at Fantasy Lake. There are souls far hardier than I am that dive those waters in a wetsuit. As much as I am totally into the diving thing, I am not going into that water in a 5mil wetsuit, boots and a 3/5mil hood. I get cold too easy and that's just not fun to me.

So, getting certified to use a drysuit was a wise choice. I'd read all the horror stories about being a "cork" and all that and how the suit can compress you and yeah, I'd only had 12 dives at that point and wasn't sure how well I would do.

I think I underestimated myself on this score though. I did far better than I thought I would do considering the suit that I had wanted to buy wasn't the best fit. Larry was kind enough to let me try it out beforehand though and the only real issue was in the cut of the legs, it has built in gaiters but it was still not tight enough to fit against me properly. It was a bit too big across the chest and arms and that made the air release valve fold over and I had to straighten it out a few times to get it to vent properly.

If anyone needs a Bare Drysuit size Medium, he's going to be selling it on ebay. It does have the molded and attached boots, the gloves and the liners for the gloves, a two piece fleece set that comes with it and it's a sharp looking suit. Email me if you want more details and I'll point you in Larry's direction.

First drysuit dive:

No hood, diving Nitrox, the Bare Drysuit with the fleece underwear. Had to use a different fin too because the boots were too big to fit into my set of ScubaPros. Used the Aeris Makos.

I have been diving with 10 lb. in my BCD but added another 10.

Got into the water, started working on becoming neutral, going down and trying to do the fin pivot. Which did NOT go well as my feet kept pulling me up and keeping me off balance.

Dave added a 1 pound ankle weight to each foot and we tried again. Still no go. He got two 2 lb. weights and tried to tuck them into the gaiters. That helped for a bit until one bag worked its way out of the gaiter. Darn weights!

Before it dropped out, we started swimming through and after a few minutes I was wondering why on earth my feet were trying to cramp in the arches. Didn't put it together until after I finished the first dive it was because, duh Renee, you had an extra 6 lb. of weight on your feet, were using molded boots (which I'd never used before) AND different fins. I think it all played a factor in that but mostly the weight.

We did the first drill which was to disconnect the hose attached to the intake valve on the front of the drysuit. This is how you add the air necessary during a dive to a drysuit. You are supposed to keep just enough air in the suit so that it gives the fleece enough room to do it's "lofting" thing but not enough to make you Michelin Man.

So I disconnected it no problem and then reattached it. Easy. Then just dove working on buoyancy in the suit and getting used to it.

Second drysuit dive: I had spent some time on the first dive doing the next test in drysuit. Go down a bit, hang onto something and let your body go vertical with your feet over your head.

The purpose of this is that it forces all the air in your drysuit into your feet. What you have to do at this point, because it can happen on a regular dive, is to go into a somersault and be able to come out of it and go horizontal again without popping to the surface.

I think I did pretty well on that and didn't pop to the top like a cork AND didn't lose my boots. I think the only reason I didn't is that because they WERE the molded boots and sort of weren't going anywhere that the suit wasn't going. I know though that if I'd had rock boots on? The fins and the boots would have been off like a rocket. I felt the air really pushing everything up off my feet. Weird.

I did it though. And can't wait to try it out in the quarry this weekend. It will actually be my first time in the quarry if I can swing it. Can you believe it? I'll finally log a dive in a place other than Alexander Springs.

I'm pretty hyped to get back into the water for other reasons too. Diving forces you to put aside all the regular stresses of life (work, family, relationships, money issues) and you focus on just breathing and looking and that's it. Everything else is gone during that time.

Sometimes, it's a shame that you can't stay down there for longer.

Links:

Capital Scuba

Ncdivers.com