Back in October I took my PADI Dry Suit Specialty in preparation for diving here in Canada (it's definitely a must!) I've already written a diary entry about why I decided to switch up tropical diving for cold water, and I have also written for the Dive SAGA Magazine about the benefits to dry suit diving; so this entry is more focused on my honest feelings towards the experience as a whole and addressing specific areas which in which I both struggled and enjoyed.
Whenever trying a new specialty as a dive instructor, some professionals may feel the pressure to perform to the highest standard and to master new skills straight away. Leading up to the course, I felt anxious that I would completely embarrass myself and had visions of flailing around upside down in the pool, unable to control my buoyancy. I heard stories from friends saying how they had really struggled with the adjustment, and if the air inside your suit travels to your ankles then you'll shoot up to the surface... so as much as I was excited, I definitely had some nerves too!
[Asa and I looking like two cold eggs]
During the week of our lake dive, we drove the 90 minute route down to Calgary where the dive shop is based for our theory and confined session. Though the dive center organises weekly dive trips and open water sessions outside of the city, their retail shop, classrooms and confined facilities are based in Calgary.
As soon as we arrived, we were fitted for our undergarments, dry suits and dive kit. Aside from using our own masks and dive computers, my partner Asa and I decided not to use our personal dive gear as it's more suited to diving in warmer water; for example we both have the Scuba Pro Litehawk BCD with minimal weight systems attached, and Asa has full foot fins which he's unable to wear boots with. After trying on a 2-3 dry suits of different sizes, it's safe to say that we were tired from the get-go! Having never worn a dry suit before, I found that there was a very fine line between finding a neck seal that's tight enough to not leak, but not too tight that it becomes hard to swallow (and risks a carotid sinus reflex). There's numerous styles of suits which differ in pros and cons depending on what you're using it for. When using a rental suit, it's unlikely that you'll find a suit which fits perfectly as it hasn't been designed or tailored to you individually; you just hope that it doesn't leak! Overall, I think everyone feels somewhat claustrophobic in a dry suit at first, especially when wearing it in a dive shop feeling hot and bothered, but I didn't find the process as bad as I was expecting. I was wearing a suit with a lateral chest zip, so aside from making sure that my undergarments weren't clumped or twisted and having to squeeze my long hair and large head through the neck seal, everything else was fairly smooth. In my undergarments I felt like a racing driver, and with the suit overtop I felt like an ocean astronaut: both pretty cool!
After watching the ultra-modern and not at all cheesy PADI Dry Suit specialty video, we went through our knowledge reviews. Mine and Asa's two friends were also taking the course, so between us we were three instructors and one advanced diver. There were also two other students in the class who were taking their dry suit speciality alongside their open water certification, so we were in a big class of six! We had already completed our knowledge reviews the week prior, and for us it all made sense. I often find that for newer divers, knowledge reviews can be quite intimidating and feel overwhelming, especially if the person has never dived before nor seen any of their equipment. These new concepts and terminology can be confusing, so I could only imagine how the other two students in our class must have felt (probably similar to how I felt during my Gas Blender knowledge reviews!)
As we geared up and entered the pool for the first time, I was testing out my suit inflator and suddenly felt a rush of air breezing up past my neck. After I had tried on my suit earlier, my instructor asked for me to switch it with another student who needed it, so I hadn't yet tried this new one on. It wasn't too much of an issue, but it meant that the neck seal on this new suit was too loose for me. I did contemplate carrying on with the skills regardless and just deal with a fully flooded suit (warm pool water isn't so bad!), but I wouldn't have properly been able to practice the skills nor gotten a full idea of what it was like to be in a DRY suit. So I quickly hopped out the water and another instructor switched out my neck seal whilst I was still wearing it - very handy!
Once back in the pool, I quickly caught up with the surface skills and immediately noticed the suit squeeze on my legs as I was standing in the shallow end. It was an odd sensation, but as soon as I descended and added air into my suit, the squeeze went away. It was interesting getting used to using my suit inflator to control my buoyancy underwater, rather than my BCD's LPI. I kept catching myself instinctively reaching for my LPI, and having to reprogram my brain to use my suit instead. All in all the pool session went really well. One of the open water students in our group was clearly struggling and needed a lot of help from the instructor, so I spent most of the confined session figuring out the skills by myself and getting to grips with my buoyancy, which at times felt cramped with seven of us in the pool. At first I felt awkward with my positioning as my feet would go from being positively buoyant to negative, so I was constantly trying to level out the air in my suit.
When we got out of the pool and out of our suits, it was apparent that almost every student had unknowingly experienced a leak. I thought that I would have known straight away if there was water inside my suit, but with the feeling of compression at times and having been in warm water, it was impossible to tell. As the dive shop was approaching the end of their season, the instructor explained to us that they had a very busy summer and many of the suits had been patched and may have tiny pin-prick holes in them. Unfortunately, there weren't enough suits for everyone to bring a backup with them for the lake dive, so it was a risk we had to take, and made us all worried as we would definitely be able to feel the glacial water!
[Attempting to dry all of our gear in a small apartment bathroom!]
That weekend we drove to Two Jack Lake for our open water dives, just ten minutes from where we live in Banff. It was snowing with an air temperature of -10°C/ 14°F and a water temperature of 4°C/ 39°F, by FAR the coldest conditions I had ever been in with scuba gear beside me. Gearing up in the snow was an experience I'll never forget as it was a surreal contrast to the thousands of times I had done it before. We were all bouncing around, half from adrenaline, half to keep warm. I think we were all so apprehensive to discover just how cold the lake would be, but it was still exciting. At this point I no longer felt nervous about my buoyancy or any of the skills, and after our confined session I was confident in preventing and stopping an uncontrolled ascent if air was to shift towards my ankles.
[Our snowy dive site at Two Jack Lake, AB]
Though Lake Minnewanka is the more popular destination for divers in Banff, Two Jack Lake is much shallower and therefore was ideal for the open water diver in our group. After one of the students postponed their open water dives, we were now a group of five. As we surface swam out to where the lake bottom started to slope downwards before descending, we were all warned about the sensitive bottom type; though it seemed almost impossible that a group of six people wouldn't disturb layer upon layer of silt, so it wasn't long before we were all engulfed in a huge silt cloud.
The first dive was quite eventful, for all the wrong reasons. As we began following the instructor out to where we would conduct our skills, I saw that Asa was having issues with his fin. The heel-strap fins that we had borrowed from our kind friend were a snug fit over Asa's rental boots, and as a result his fin had come off. As he tried to put it back on he floated slightly and air quickly rushed to his feet, and it wasn't long before he was at the surface. I signalled to my buddy and we went to help, but Asa's buddy didn't see this happening and continued to follow the instructor. In vis as low as this (around five metres/ 15 feet) it only takes a few seconds to lose sight of another diver. Asa managed to descend back down where my buddy and I basically had him pinned to the bottom to get enough leverage to put his fin back on: queue another silt cloud. After a struggle and going through a fair amount of air, we somehow managed to regroup with our instructor and the open water student, but Asa's buddy wasn't there. I began to worry and signalled to Asa and my buddy that I was going to surface and look around, in hope that the missing diver would have followed protocol and surfaced after one minute. As our instructor was watching the others perform their skills, I slowly ascended the five metres and saw our buddy back on land. At this point I didn't know if he had been lost and decided to head back to shore, or if there was an issue with his gear... maybe he was just too cold? I felt better knowing that we also had someone waiting on shore for surface support watching us all in the water.
Once we had finished our skills, we hastily made our way back to shore, all of us looking forward to jumping in our cars, cranking the heater up and reaching for our thermos'. All in all our first dive came to 35 minutes (about 10 mins longer than I was expecting to stay under)!
[Surface interval in the car and gearing up for the second dive]
I was actually surprised at how much I managed to warm up before our second dive and I was counting my lucky stars that I didn't get a leak in my suit. When we came ashore we discovered that our buddy had to cut his first dive short and swim back to shore because his suit had fully flooded, and he was FROZEN. He changed into a spare suit and hoped that it would work for the next dive, which was brave; I don't think many divers would risk a second dive after that experience!
Yes, the water was indeed very cold, but after the first initial shock you're so focused on your skills and buoyancy that you get used to the temperature quickly and almost forget about the feeling... until about the 15/ 20 minute mark. That's when I personally started to lose dexterity in my fingers and toes. I remember that disconnecting my LPI was tough because I had zero strength in my fingers; even making the OK signal underwater was a challenge!
The second dive was far less eventful and we all managed to stay together this time. We even found the lake's resident gnome; apparently every lake in Alberta has one! Other than the gnome, there really wasn't anything else to see and there didn't seem to be any signs of life. Though I wouldn't choose to fun dive in that same lake again, I think it was a perfect site for a training dive; I was probably too focused on what I was doing to appreciate the topography or wildlife if there were any!
[Asa demonstrating perfect trim as always!]
I love learning new skills and always challenging myself as a diver, so I really enjoy being the student for a change. I do however sometimes find the dynamic between the instructor who is teaching the course and myself as the student who is also an instructor to be quite strange. For me, that was the only downside to this course, and so I'll try to explain this the best I can...
I appreciate that our instructor was also teaching an open water student in our group, and therefore was primarily focused on him, but at times I would have liked more of their attention and focus. If anything, I think it goes to show that myself Asa and our two friends must have adjusted well to using a dry suit which is why the instructor didn't spend a lot of time one on one with us. I also wondered if the instructor assumed that we didn't want the 'fuss' or to be critiqued on our abilities, which is actually exactly what I wanted.
Nevertheless, I would strongly recommend this specialty to any diver wanting to challenge their buoyancy and unlock their potential to explore more underwater destinations. I would say from an instructor point of view, comparing my experience of teaching in tropical waters to seeing our instructor orchestrate a dry suit course in the snow, it is extremely taxing on the instructor. There weren't any DMT's or MSDT's assisting on our course, and at times I sympathised with how much effort it takes to get everyone fitted in their gear, deal with leaks, equipment freezing (free flowing reg) as well as having to keep spirits high if students express discomfort due to the cold. It's a very tough job and I applaud our instructor for that!
[Always adventuring with my life buddy]
During this past winter I was keen to try out ice diving in Lake Minnewanka, but ideally I would have much more experience diving in a dry suit beforehand. However, I am still looking forward to visiting Vancouver Island this summer and making use of my certification!
Oh, also - my hair even froze after the dive!
Safe diving & happy dreaming,
A.
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