Many of you read one of my recent posts where I criticized PADI’s dry suit course. About a week after that post, I received an email from Eric Albinsson an Educational Program Specialist at PADI regarding this post. Eric pointed out some inconsistencies with what I had written. Eric sent me the standards for the dry suit course. Below, I have listed what Eric sent me.
To sum up what Eric says, there are two ways to inflate a dry suit. If a diver is using a shell style suit, the preferred method is to use the suit for buoyancy compensation. If the diver is using a non-shell suit, use the BCD for buoyancy and the suit to offset the squeeze.
While I appreciate Eric pointing this out, I still don’t understand why the need for the two methods. I would seem easier if everyone taught the same skill set regardless of which type of suit is being dove. This would have consistency in the instructor ranks for this class. Eric’s official response when I questioned it was:
“PADI doesn’t stipulate a single way of controlling buoyancy while dry suit diving simply because there isn’t a single way to do so. What one instructor feels is the best technique is not what another instructor feels is the best method. PADI very rarely, if at all, stipulates a single technique or method for accomplishing any given performance requirement in a course. Instead the intended outcome is what is stipulated and the instructor is then free to choose how that outcome is accomplished.”
This explains why PADI feels it is OK to train scuba divers on their knees instead of when neutrally buoyant, but I digress. For thinking divers, there is always more than one way to skin a cat. However, I do believe in teaching best practices in scuba diving. Learning from those best practices and make an educated decision. Using a dry suit as the primary buoyancy device is not a best practice in my opinion.
Anyway, enough of my rambling. Here is what Eric sent me, unedited.
Hello Duane,
I was recently sent a link to your blog, Precision Diving, and the article about the PADI Dry Suit Diver course that you recently posted on there, http://precisiondiving.net/blog/padi-dry-suit-classes-more-dangerous-than-technical-diving/. First off I congratulate you on your blog and for the effort you are spending on ensuring there is important dialogue on training concepts and techniques. Everyone can indeed learn something from everyone and it’s important to share experiences and opinions to help training programs stay valid and current, a philosophy that PADI shares with you.
However, there were a couple of inaccurate points in your article I wanted to take an opportunity to comment on, if I may, to try and help assure you that the PADI Dry Suit Diver course is safe and valid.
First off, on the safety side, PADI has not received any information that indicates that what is taught in the PADI Dry Suit Diver course is an underlying cause for any incidents that occur. If there was, please have no doubt that the course would very quickly indeed be rewritten to address any of those concerns. The course is safe, along with the usual proviso that it needs to be taught properly and as outlined.
Next, I want to offer some clarification to your comments that PADI states that it is a “standard” that only the BCD be used for buoyancy control underwater. This is not true. What is stated (on page 42 of the instructor guide) is that buoyancy control underwater is dependent on what kind of suit is being used and what kind of diving is being done. Here’s the text for ease of reference;
“4. Adjusting your buoyancy underwater – how you use your BCD will depend upon the type of dry suit you’re using or whether you’re tec diving.
a. Shell dry suit buoyancy control underwater
1. You add air (or argon) only to the suit. Do not use your BCD until you return to the surface.
a. This avoids a suit squeeze (severe pinching due to compression as you descend).
b. You’re not having to control two systems – adding or releasing gas as you change depth.
c. It keeps the proper amount of air (or argon) in your undergarment for insulation.
2. As you descend, lower your left shoulder so gas does not vent from the exhaust valve and add gas to offset compression. This maintains buoyancy and avoids a suit squeeze. At the bottom if you’re properly weighted, you should need to make no more than a minor adjustment to your automatic exhaust valve so that your suit holds the right amount of gas to stay neutral. You can close the valve slightly so your suit holds more gas.
3. When adding gas to your suit, do so slowly – short bursts help keep the valve from freezing up in extremely cold water. As you descend, just add short bursts every so often. If you find you need to add a lot of gas during descent to maintain neutral buoyancy, you probably need less weight. 4. After starting your descent, you can shift to spread eagle position, which helps distribute added gas evenly throughout the suit.
b. Neoprene dry suit buoyancy control underwater
1. You add air (or argon) to your buoyancy compensator to control your buoyancy.
a. Neoprene compresses as you descend and you’ll end up with an uncomfortable amount of air in your suit if you offset the resulting buoyancy loss by adding air to your suit.
b. Add just enough air to your suit to prevent suit squeeze as you descend.
c. Control your buoyancy by adding air to your BCD.
2. As you descend, control your buoyancy as you normally would in a wet suit and add enough air to your dry suit to prevent suit squeeze.
c. Tec diving in a dry suit
1. Regardless of dry suit type (materials used in construction), while tec diving, you control your buoyancy with your BCD and add just enough gas to your suit to prevent suit squeeze.
a. On a typical tec dive, you’ll be 20 kilograms/9 pounds negatively buoyant if you’re properly weighted – way too much to offset by adding air to your dry suit.
b. Adding this much volume to your suit would be at best uncomfortable and at worst, hazardous by restricting your ability to move.
c. Excess gas in your suit may stress the zipper (several manufacturers specifically warn that this much stress on a dry suit zipper can cause it to fail).
2. As you descend, regardless of the type of dry suit, control your buoyancy with your BCD. Add enough air to your dry suit to prevent suit squeeze.”
Followed by a note:
“Note: Review with student divers how to add gas underwater to their particular dry suits.”
About Duane Johnson
I that’s a copy/paste from PADI text, may I suggest to Eric that they correct their units on “proper weighting for technical diving”? They are swapped.
In any case, I don’t like the mixed bag. A drysuit is a drysuit; I use then the same regardless of material.
The NAUI instructors, and now/soon PADI instructors, I DM for all teach “above the minimums” including doing skills while neutrally hovering in-trim (or at least as close to it as an OW student can be expected to be). The point is exposure – it’s amazing what a student will do when they’re patterning themselves off good role models. “It’s not the agency, it’s the instructor” has never been more true.
I agree 100% with your comments and can attest to this from personal experience. I recently dove with my cousin right after his OW course in Cancun. By the end of our dive he was hovering nicely. When asked if he learned to hover properly in his joke of an OW class, he replied. “NO. In class they were all over the bottom, but when diving with you I thought all experienced divers hovered, so that’s what I did.”
“1. Regardless of dry suit type (materials used in construction), while tec diving, you control your buoyancy with your BCD and add just enough gas to your suit to prevent suit squeeze.
a. On a typical tec dive, you’ll be 20 kilograms/9 pounds negatively buoyant if you’re properly weighted – way too much to offset by adding air to your dry suit.”
As corrected in the comment above, with the units switched on the weight, that’s 20 pounds negatively buoyant? This seems ridiculous! They’re telling you to not be properly weighted. Just further reason why you should think twice about take tec classes from PADI. :-/
I found the student manual for the Padi Dry Suit course also leans towards using the dry suit as a primary buoyancy control device while submerged. Having read the book, I thought this was the only way forward. In class one of our instructors explained that we should rather dive the suits with just enough air / argon to avoid a squeeze.
Instead of bashing Padi I would rather agree that an air bubble is easier to control in the BCD;
using a BCD for Buoyancy means I use the same motor skill irrespective of the thermal protection I am using;
air leaks (around my neck and more often arm seals) will make control a lot more difficult when relying on my dry suit for buoyancy.
Oh yes, as a fellow who learned in metric, 20 pounds = 9 kilograms.
Do understand correctly, based on this statement from PADI I can teach the course using which ever buoyancy control I choose?
“PADI doesn’t stipulate a single way of controlling buoyancy while dry suit diving simply because there isn’t a single way to do so. What one instructor feels is the best technique is not what another instructor feels is the best method. PADI very rarely, if at all, stipulates a single technique or method for accomplishing any given performance requirement in a course. Instead the intended outcome is what is stipulated and the instructor is then free to choose how that outcome is accomplished.”
I can forward you the email Steve, but that is my understanding.
Thanks Duane, forward if you don’t mind.
This just seems like way too much for a student to soak up and effectively practice under water. I really don’t like the bit about adjusting the dump valve. A new diver might close it completely and, on ascent, cork. I really cant remember the last time I dove with my valve not completely open
In addition, new students often have weighting issues and as they progress the general case is that they can drop weight. Inflating a suit to compensate is bad. Say I’m underwater. I’m a tad underweighted so my suit is very tight. My tanks drain, I get lighter and now there is no more gas to dump. I now ascend, say I’m going over a wreck on a shallow dive, my suit inflates, I dump, I descend again and the suit squeeze issue is now even worse.
Lastly, I feel very strongly that telling a diver to do things one way when diving dry and another when diving wet just leads to confusion. The less you have to think about, the more you will learn.