On Thu, 6 Sep 2001 10:13:23 -0500, Steven Catron <stepan-
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>From: "Huw Porter" <[log in to unmask]>
>> Back on the Breda on day two, and my buddy is Alan, a chippie (joiner)
>Glad you clarified that one, Huw!  Though I'm not quite sure what a joiner
>is, it has to be better than being a chippie.  ;-)

A (house construction) carpenter.  So guess what a sparkie is? :-)

<snips>
>Hope you won't mind a couple observations (not criticisms!) from a relative
>drysuit neophyte:

Observe away - I'm only on 11 dives in a drysuit now so anything goes. :-)

>1)  If you exclusively use your drysuit for buoyancy, you won't have to
>spend time trying to dump from your BC.  You could then shave some precious
>seconds off your reaction time.

I'd been trying to drive the suit as empty as possible and use the wing to
fine-tune buoyancy, but the thinsulate seemed to trap a lot of air, and the
cuff dump to vent slowly when it was even working - see dive one.  :-)
When I get a suit of my own, I intend to get an auto dump and set it wide
open underwater, only taking off the squeeze with the suit.  I suspect
drysuit diving (particularly deep - I havn't had any problems with shallow
dives) will be like learning buoyancy the first time - all of a sudden
it'll just come together from practice.

As regards weighting, if you emptied all the gas from BC and suit at your
safety stop, how negative would you say you were?  In a wetsuit, I'd want
to have no air in the wing at that point, but I suspect a little more
weight makes sense in a drysuit.

>2)  on dumping from your wrist seal, you could either dump from the other
>sleeve or, if equipped with gauntlet-style gloves, possibly use the
>following configuration in future:  strap the compass (computer in my case)
>lightly enough around the glove strap that it will slide back easily in
>either direction, and quickly tug down the glove a bit to expose the seal.
>I've found the 'sweet spot' where the wrist computer turns easily, but not
>freely.

My computer was on my other wrist, and if I was going to lose one of 'em
I'd rather lose the compass! :-)  I'm going to get a compass (and 'pooter)
with a long enough strap to go round the a drysuit arm rather than round
the seal for the future, but I left that compass in my pocket from then on -
 it wasn't much use round wrecks anyway, and navigation on the wall wasn't
exactly tricky. :-)

>>Alan starts to get floaty. He
>> seems to have controlled it, stops to signal OK to me, but is then off up
>> again.  I dump my wing and try to grab his fin but I'm too slow, and he
>> floats up out of sight.

>Curious:  did he just passively float up, or did he try finning down hard?
>So far in cases where the drysuit has tried to make a career change to
>elevator, I've had more success with the latter.

Hmmm - I've thought that finning down is not recommended, as you've then
sent your excess gas in the legs of your suit where it is hardest to get
out - however, I have to admit it did work for me when I thought I was
about to go Polaris on dive 3.

<snip>
>Turns
>out Mr. Safety had had a religious conversion to solo diving after looking
>around for me for a minute or so,

The Damascus Pinnacle? :-)

>and swam off in a random direction.  So I
>had to abort my dive while he continued sightseeing.  That the heavy kelp
>where I chose to hang was full of small fish, crabs, and colorful snails
>was some small consolation.  :-)

Sounds like a pleasant second best. :-)

Cheers,
Huw
--
http://www.huwporter.com
"A wise diver will refrain from written descriptions of his experiences"
- William Beebe