You release the air from the BCD to compensate.

Yes! You use your BCD to compensate for changes in buoyancy. This contradicts what you wrote previously (and your last sentence above):

It’s simple, don’t use your stab jacket when wearing a dry suit, then you only have one device.

Yes! You use your BCD to compensate for changes in buoyancy. This contradicts what you wrote previously (and your last sentence above):

See my edit above. 🙂

With a dry suit, you release the excess air to compensate as you ascend.

There is no need to use a BCD to do this.

At no point should it be necessary to have excessive air in your suit to compensate or to have use the BCD as well.

So where is the 3kg you lose per tank? Its either in your suit or in your BCD, and there’s no way I’d want it in my suit. A drysuit stays neutral the entire dive. You compensate for squeeze which keeps it neutral. BCD does the variable stuff – compressed neoprene, gas loss and dsmb, drysuit stays the same volume (and hence buoyancy). You have to do less BCD adjustment when diving in a drysuit but you still need to use it.

With a dry suit, you release the excess air to compensate as you ascend.

Yes, to compensate for own increase in volume and keep you neutral

There is no need to use a BCD to do this.

You still need to keep neutral. The air that is in there will still expand as you ascend and will still need dumping (unless it is completely empty, in which case you are under-weighted )

@durhambiker 🙂

OP as I hinted I decided it wasn’t for me but one argument I heard which was very compelling was that we are sadly killing our Oceans so dive now and experience things you probably won’t be able to in the future.

However, particularly with PADI, skills that everyone should have are “extras”. The rescue diver being the obvious one. Then you have stuff like “Equipment Specialist”, everyone should be able to change and an o ring and check their kit.

What’s on the BSAC Ocean Diver syllabus?

IIRC rescues are on the Sport Diver course but I’ve done all my work through PAID* so not 100% sure.

* this is actually a typo, but it’s funny so I left it in…

So where is the 3kg you lose per tank? Its either in your suit or in your BCD, and there’s no way I’d want it in my suit.

Why would you want it in your suit?

It’s only 3 litres of air.

You going to have 1 or 2 litres to prevent squeeze anyway.

The air that is there will still expand and will still need dumping.

Dump all your air from the BCD at the surface.

Anyway lets agree to disagree. Dive how you feel comfortable.

My original points were:

Dive training in the UK was a good idea as it easier to make the change from UK conditions to warm water.
Dry suits aren’t that complicated and don’t add much to a divers workload if managed correctly.
Dry suits make year round UK diving perfectly comfortable.
UK diving can be fantastic. I have dived all over the World and the best days I have ever had have been at the Farne Islands and Scapa Flow.

IMO if you can’t cope with doing drills in 5m visibility, then you shouldn’t be diving at all. Diving has become a little too accessible and some people are just not comfortable underwater. Too many tales of people who take days to learn how to clear a mask in the pool but still get their Open Water certificate. What will happen when they get their mask knocked off at 15m?

I’m doing PADI OWD course in Lanzarote starting on Monday.

will post up experience once done. I bought the PADI Touch IOS course and have done the theory in advance – it was well laid out and seemed pretty thorough – I have nothing to compare it to though.

Software was £135, course minus theory is 199Euros. Course with theory is 299Euros so i reckoned it was worth avoiding a couple of days in the classroom on holiday.

What’s on the BSAC Ocean Diver syllabus?

From their website.

SAFETY SKILLS
Consolidate AS ascent as both donor and recipient
Recover an unconscious buddy to the surface using a Controlled Buoyant Lift (CBL), secure at the surface, signal for help and tow the casualty

That Ocean Diver qual seems to be a halfway house from what used to be Novice and Sports. A response to PADI I suppose.

Well that sidetracked a bit!
Thanks for the pointers – I was thinking a weeks course maybe with some starters in the uk, these padi ‘referrer’ courses seem decent where you do class work and confined water at home then open on holiday. Food for thought… I might just go whole hog and do it all somewhere cheap on hols, I’ve got a week to take and it’s that or biking in Scotland!

Well that sidetracked a bit!

It is STW 🙂

Doing at least some of the course at home maximises holiday dive time, why fly to (say) Egypt and spend 2-3 days in a pool when you could be doing real dives ?

I’m trying to decide where to do this. My dad currently runs a dive school (BSAC and PADI) in Spain but is looking to sell up and come home next year. We’re out there next week and he suggested learning while I can do it for free.

I’m not actually that bothered (have done a try dive or two but have never felt the need to do more than that in the 14 years he’s been there) but equally it’s probably the best opportunity to get it done.

We’re out there next week and he suggested learning while I can do it for free.

God yeah. It’s not that cheap a course, and if you can get it for free what on earth are you waiting for???

It can be a pain if you learn to dive then only do it on holiday as the dive places often need you to do a refresher before they let you loose in the sea. Unless you’re doing a few dives on your hols imo it’s not worth it. I don’t dive in the uk apart from work so it keeps my log book up so I can dive on holiday but my gf needs a refresher every time 🙁

It can be a pain if you learn to dive then only do it on holiday as the dive places often need you to do a refresher before they let you loose in the sea. Unless you’re doing a few dives on your hols imo it’s not worth it. I don’t dive in the uk apart from work so it keeps my log book up so I can dive on holiday but my gf needs a refresher every time

I’ve never seen this, and only do at most 5 or 6 dives / year, but I only ever dive in Spain… What does the refresher entail and where have you seen this?

I’ve never seen this, and only do at most 5 or 6 dives / year, but I only ever dive in Spain… What does the refresher entail and where have you seen this?

Depends where you go. Some places are pretty slack, don’t check log books and just let you dive, others require a basic refresher (eg go in the shallows and do a mask clear and a fin pivot), some make you do a full refresher course. Usually a brief chat with the guide is enough to make aware of your likely capabilities

I’ve never seen this, and only do at most 5 or 6 dives / year, but I only ever dive in Spain… What does the refresher entail and where have you seen this?

https://www.padi.com/padi-courses/scuba-review-program

…Usually a brief chat with the guide is enough to make aware of your likely capabilities.

Exactly, I think people base it on what you claim your experience is – if you’ve only every done a couple of dives a year after doing your OW they are going to want you to do a refresher.

If (like me) you’ve got 100+ dives and a Rescue Card but still only dive a couple of times a year they might get you to do a mask clear and a shallow dive to get back into it – which I’d be doing myself on the first dive anyway.

It can be a pain if you learn to dive then only do it on holiday as the dive places often need you to do a refresher before they let you loose in the sea.

I’ve never had that. If you’ve not dived for a few years it usually means theres a gentle first dive for you to get your bearings again.

Doing at least some of the course at home maximises holiday dive time, why fly to (say) Egypt and spend 2-3 days in a pool when you could be doing real dives ?

I’ve done a few hundred dives over 20 years. None of it in the UK.

It will almost certainly be cheaper in total to do your whole course while you’re away. If you go to a big school somewhere like Cairns Australia, yes, you’ll spend two days half in a classroom, half in a pool

If you do your course in a tiny school on a Caye in Belize you’ll do your ‘wet’ lessons in the lagoon off the beach and your classroom session sitting on your instructors terrace watching the sun set.

It really depends how long you’re going away for. If you can go for longer than a week (and you’re somewhere theres other stuff to do) then do it all when you’re away.

Ok so a weeks course over the next couple of months – where to do it?

I’m on my own so decent inclusive atmosphere, I want somewhere warm and sunny, don’t mind going somewhere too shooty as long as it’s not against FCO advise or has other insurance implications.

I suppose a nice all inclusive beach side hotel in the Bahamas….. 😀 but can’t be too spendy!

GF and myself had a good few dives in Egypt a couple of years ago, she was by far the least experienced in our group of 8 but imo just about the best diver. The rest of the “experienced” divers skills were atrocious, bumping into each other, hitting the coral, swimming away from each other not taking a blind bit of notice where their buddy was, poor bouyancy control, poor air consumption. The guide was tearing his hair out trying to keep control of these lot. So just cos people have loads of dives under their belts doesn’t mean they’re any good under water.
GF and me were getting at least 1hr underwater every dive when the rest had sucked their tanks dry and were sitting on the boat 😀

Egypt will have cold water at this time of year.

Over the next few months (Nov to Feb) you need to go a bit further afield. You could look at –

Thailand (east of the peninsula). Has good conditions in Jan/Feb
The Caribbean (I think – after hurricane season?). I don’t think I’ve been in uk winter but pretty sure it’s a good time to go.
Indonesia – we’ve dived off Pulao Weh in December and off Bali

Katie was looking at very cheap flights to Philippines for January with Air China. Diving conditions looked good then.

None of those need be speedy -I travel either very cheap or livesboad when diving.

I know there’s a few divers on here, so what’s the best way of getting into it for a novice? I’ve got a weeks holiday I’m struggling to use so I quite fancy learning to dive in a week somewhere warm and interesting. Is it better to learn the basics first in a pool or something before wasting a nice week doing nothing, or can I get out and enjoy learning for a week somewhere cool?

Not read rest of posts, so apologise if I’m re-covering ground.

I learnt in the West Indies (Grenada) and went through a Brit/US school teaching PADI. I did my Open Water and Advanced Open Water, penetrated wrecks, dived with nurse sharks and did some deep reef drifts. Water and vis was incredible – would love to go back.

PADI and BSAC are (or certainly were) quite different and I have been led to believe BSAC is ultimately the better system. However it is British as opposed to American/global, so your teaching sites may be more limited.

Hurricane season is a thing, but tends to be during the wet/summer season. I was working there from November – May, during the dry season so can’t really comment on it. If this piques interest a friend of mine still teaches out there (she set-up her own school) and has been there for around 14 years. They have a couple of dive boats and I would whole-heartedly and unreservedly recommend her. Grenada is also an awesome island – it is (or certainly was) a lot less commercialised than other islands in the Caribbean.

Regarding learning, I did a fairly intensive course that started in the pool and quickly moved into the sea. The water in the pool and the sea was a similar temp though, so it wasn’t really a hardship!

East and west confused on Thailand – you want the west side in Jan/Feb. Poor Vis on the east.

IMO if you can’t cope with doing drills in 5m visibility, then you shouldn’t be diving at all. Diving has become a little too accessible and some people are just not comfortable underwater. Too many tales of people who take days to learn how to clear a mask in the pool but still get their Open Water certificate. What will happen when they get their mask knocked off at 15m?

I agree, I did my training many years ago. Being a Leicester based club we did all our training in the Cove. Mask clearing in February feeling like you’d been smacked in the face with a shovel or trying to see in the summer with 2m vis. I’d learn abroad!

Resurrecting this, I ended up with doing the half way house of the padi scuba diver course in the canaries this week. 2 ow dives and the three confined water sessions done as one in a sea pool. Just need to finish my reading/knowledge reviews before I go home.

Realistically I’m unlikely to do anything other than diving on holiday through a dive centre with kit hire etc so this is probably enough for now and leaves more holiday for other stuff.