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There seems to be a game of "telephone" going on here, with everyone taking a DIR Fundamentals class from Andrew Georgitsis and then interpreting it a different way. In most cases this is due to lack of prior background knowledge on the student's part, and you can't expect an instructor to fix that problem in a single class. So let me take a shot at summarizing this subject, and hopefully I haven't convoluted it too badly. Keep in mind that I am not an expert on any of this. Some have gotten the idea that you always need to keep the dry suit shrink wrapped to your body, and this is just not correct. A lot of us come to the Fundamentals class with the bad habit of using the drysuit instead of the wing for buoyancy control so Andrew has to take extreme measures to get students on the right track in two short days. Sure, if you're doing a bounce dive where cold is not a problem then minimal gas in the suit makes buoyancy control much easier and decreases task loading. But with a little practice, and a properly fitted suit, you can certainly learn to maintain proper trim and control with a larger gas volume. Andrew has told me that on longer dives he carries extra weight so that he can puff the suit up during deco stops and stay warm. Trey does the same, so no disagreement there. Obviously you need to start by having the right underwear, and if you don't then no amount of argon will compensate. Conversely, if you do have the right underwear then for most short dives you can stay warm enough by adding just enough argon to give the insulation loft. This, I suspect, is where some of the confusion has arisen and why Andrew and Trey get accused of giving conflicting advice when they really are not. A slight drysuit squeeze, like what you will get if you drop to 15ft without adding any gas, should not prevent you from reaching your manifold valves. If you are having trouble with this then maybe your suit does not fit, or you have the harness too tight. On weighting with drysuits, I think a lot of people are still missing the essential concept of ocean diving with a balanced rig. The SCRET group can get away with using no ditchable weight because they run live boats and have properly trained surface crews who will be on you in seconds if you have a problem. But most of us don't have that luxury and so we end up diving from anchored charter boats where the crew is dealing with a dozen dive teams at once and may not be able to help you right away. Or we are shore diving, which amounts to the same thing. If you lose your wing with dual steel back tanks full of gas how are you going to deal with that? You may say you can just jack your drysuit up to compensate, but I think you will find that when carrying heavy tanks the drysuit doesn't have enough lift to support your whole head out of the water (the neck seal will burp first). Some of us in California have been using double 104s with a steel back plate and no ditchable weight. I am beginning to realize this is not such a smart idea, and that we might be better off with an aluminum back plate and a weight belt. As for which particular brand of drysuit and underwear is best, we all know the DUI TLS-350 works well for most diving. But Andrew has been constantly out there experimenting with new stuff from Andy's and Diving Concepts (maybe others as well, I don't know). He is trying to find us something as good or better than the DUI products, but from a manufacturer that will give us what we want with no hassles or bullshit. If he succeeds -- and he may have already done so -- then we will finally have a viable alternative to DUI and everyone wins. The latest Andy's suit I have seen looks really slick, except for the thigh pockets coming unglued. Let me also recommend that those of you who are new to the mailing lists spend some time reading through the Quest and Techdiver archives. This is an easy way to "take the cotton out of your ears" and avoids wasting everyone's time with questions that have been already been answered. And if you haven't gotten around to actually taking the Fundamentals class go ahead and sign up, you won't regret it. Now, did I get that totally wrong? Maybe Trey will have to beat some sense into me when he shows up here on the 18th. :-) -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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