Posted by JRM on July 24, 2001 at 11:00:56:
In Reply to: more pointers thanks posted by CalAbDiver on July 24, 2001 at 10:03:46:
This goes in the somewhat humerous category. I wont mention that the person in this story is a PADI instructor ;-)
My friend and I were diving in Monterey, and he had just gotten a new neck seal put on his drysuit. He has the Viking Commercial Rubber drysuit, with all the trimmings. The big think fatty rubber one that can go through a leaf shredder undamaged. Well, he was a touch overweight, and dropped a little faster than he was anticipating. He got a goodly squeeze, and was just barely able to get his hand back to the inflator before his arm got pinned out. You know it's good when you can see someone's facial expression through there mask.
After the dive, we were discussing drysuits, and he told me that one time he was with a class, and something similar happened, except he was descending too quickly and got pinned before he could inflate. The OW students didn't really know what to do, and it was a major CF. I laughed my tail off, and kindly I've never mentioned it again (yeah right). So, being the moron I am, I had to try it for myself...
So when I was diving a shell suit (the kevlar looking one from Oceanic), I messed around a bit with the whole squeeze thing, just to see what it was like. Let it get too far and it gets hard to move. I haven't really had any problem in my 'compressed' neoprene suit however. The only problem I'm having with that is why someone my size would require size 17 boots (they're too big to fit into XL jetfin pockets by a large margin).
While I'm on the subject of that, I would like to solicit comments for my plan to solve the sasquatch boot issue. I was thinking of taking the shears to the suit right above the boots, and then glueing in a pair of neoprene socks (like I wear under my full foot pocket freediving fins), and then just using my wetsuit booties over them. As a note, I was planning on trimming the top 4 inches off the socks (to make a ring), glueing the socks inside the suit, and then glueing the remaining ring on the outside, to form sort of a "seal". OK, even I'm confused by that description, but does anyone have any experience with making their own drysuit mods?
JRM
-- I got a short drysuit course from someone who will remain nameless. 22nd street landing at 1:am. "Just put a little air in going down, and let it out comming up." Splash. I didn't get a patch, but it wasn't $200 either. ;-)