My first drysuit dive, at Coast Guard Breakwater May 24, 2018

Yesterday I did a drysuit checkout dive with Adam, the manager of Monterey's Bamboo Reef Dive Shop.  Also, some surface pictures of Otter Cove's Giant Kelp Bed and Purse Seine boats off Hopkin's Marine Lab harvesting "market" squid.

First, the pictures.  I drove down to Pacific Grove to stay at our rental home for the night so that I could get started early prepping for my drysuit dive the next morning.  I went for a walk and was pleased to see that Otter Cove, close to shore, has about 25% of its normal kelp forest.  Since we've early on the kelp growing season I'm hoping the kelp bed will grow in size through the summer and early fall.

   Near shore kelp beds stretching from the west side of Lover's Point to Otter's Cove

     Kelp Beds from the West side of Lover's Point to Otter Cove

Also while walking on the Monterey/Carmel recreation trail, I saw that quite a few of the purse seiners that are harvesting squid that Greg and I saw on our dive trip last week are still at it.

     Purse seiners looking east from Lover's Point

                                Purse Seiners looking NW from near Hopkin's Marine Lab

I met Adam at Bamboo Reef to show him my drysuit and underlayer before we set off for the Coast Guard Breakwater to do my drysuit checkout dive.  Adam reviewed with me what he'd have me do on our dive, which we covered again after suiting up in the Breakwater parking lot.

Once suited up I was pleased with the flexibility that I had in the DUI drysuit compared to my heavy extra thick custom wetsuit from Otter Bay Wetsuits and Drysuits.  Wading into the water at the beach it was very strange for my feet and legs to stay dry, followed swiftly by being completely immersed and still dry except for my head.  We spent several minutes at the dive float Adam had brought so that we could trim my weight to be only very slightly negative with BC and suit fully deflated (I was pleased at how easily I could deflate my suit so that I felt "shrink wrapped".  I had added 3 lbs of lead to my weight belt before the dive and I also had a pair of light ankle weights (less than 2 lbs total) that Donna has used for years to try to prevent "light feet" since my Scubapro Nova wing fins are very lightweight.  To trim my weight we ended up taking 5 lbs of lead out of the back pockets on my BC.  I happily found that, as weighted, I was very stable and balanced in buoyancy during the dive.  I'll need to trim a little differently for my next dive with my dive camera since it is 3 to 4 lbs negative buoyancy and will be at my upper body.
Adam had me stand on my head to force air up into my feet and then do rolls to correct, then practice attaching and detaching my suit's inflator hose to make sure that I can swiftly disconnect in case of a stuck inflator hose.  I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I felt perfectly relaxed and comfortable in a drysuit instead of a heavy wetsuit.  I was amazed at how warm I stayed though I could tell the the insulation of the drysuit undergarment is critical to being warm.  My dry feet and hands were very warm, too.  I was surprised at the dexterity I had with the built in dry gloves on the drysuit.

I'm now a drysuit diver, now I've got to pay Guy for it!  Guy just got his new drysuit and we're hoping to dive with the Sanctuary tomorrow, though the wind forecast has just became poor for tomorrow...