Quote: (Originally Posted by vid)
PLUS BSAC does not state whether to use the suit or BC device for buoyancy purposes - this is just individual instructor prejudice - the important issue is that you can control your buyancy during the dive
Actually the BSAC drysuit lesson kind of does, though it's a little contradictory, stating on one slide:
Quote: (Originally Posted by BSAC Drysuit Lesson)
Although drysuits are buoyancy devices, their prime purposes are insulation and protection from the environment – not buoyancy
yet then on the very next slide:
Quote: (Originally Posted by BSAC Drysuit Lesson)
- [...] keep the BC empty underwater
- Only use BC underwater in special cases
They also keep on banging on about emergency surface bouyancy, etc and only using the BC for this - the inference is that the BC shouldn't be used for anything else, though that's not really what the material means. There's also a misplaced (in my view) emphasis within the BSAC teaching materials on having to control two sources of buoyancy being somehow too difficult for a student to manage.
However, I agree with Vid, it's mostly down to the instructor and a lot of BSAC instructors fly the suit, because they in turn were taught like this.
There is also a lot of rather pathetic, if innocent, egotism with a lot of club divers (I've found). At the point they finally buy a drysuit, it's such a "big thing", they feel that they're a proper grown-up diver now, and that somehow using this device, which a mere wetsuited diver cannot, is big and clever. I think this is subconscious (ie its the fault of the system, not the average diver). However, the phenomenum is neatly illustrated by a passing remark I remember being made by a friend of mine (a BSAC OWI) a couple of years ago on a Red Sea trip. Diving wet, and as a passing remark he (unwittingly) 'boasted' that he was so used to a drysuit that he'd almost forgotten how to use a BC. It was a facetious remark, but sadly telling nonetheless.
For me, diving just on the suit is a bit like being able to ride a unicycle. It's entirely possible and a nice skill to have, but if you've got access to a bicycle (which is easier, safer and more stable) then what's the point...
