----- Original Message -----
From: "Lee Bell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 5:13 PM
Subject: Re: [SCUBA-SE] DUI (was Re: DIR or not)


> Jim Greenlee wrote:
>
> > Well who am I to argue with someone who has "seen the DUI video"? I've
> > only been diving dry for 10 years, done a couple hundred drysuit dives,
> > and owned three different drysuits. And I'm sure there are people on
> > this list who have a LOT more experience than THAT.
>
> I sure hope you're going to tell us that you had 3 suits because you
> upgraded each time.  If it was because they only have a 3 year or so life,
> it's going to be a cold day in hell before I own one (pun intended).
>
> > It's called a "cave cut" because it was the cavers (and more
specifically
> > the WKPP-affiliated cavers) who got tired of diving with baggy,
> > ill-fitting suits and began demanding something better.
>
> Personally, the first time I saw one of the baggy rubber dry suits, I
> decided I did not need to dive in water cold enough to require one.  With
> what I now know was the newer, cave cut version, that might not be the
case.
>
> > I'd wager that as a confirmed, self-admitted Warm Water Wimp, you
probably
> > know next to nothing about diving dry, outside what little you learned
> > in your PADI specialty course - you know, the one where they teach that
> > crap about using the suit for "buoyancy control". If you buy into that
> > nonsense, well then naturally you are going to require a suit that was
> > handcrafted by Omar the Tentmaker.
>
> Frankly, I would not have expected that you would need all that space to
use
> the drysuit as a buoyancy control device.  Admitedly, I don't know much
> about it, but even the cave cut suit looked like it would hold more gas
than
> I'd ever need for buoyancy purposes.  In fact, I was under the impression
> that, even with the cave cut suit, a diver required more lead to offset
the
> buoyancy of the gas in the suit to prevent squeeze.  Was I mistaken?
>
> > But the people who actually do the dives and know what they are doing,
> > know better. And it's a real pity that more people OUTSIDE the cave
> > community don't.
>
> Now at least one does.
>
> Lee
>