Drysuit Adventure at Breakwater

Goal of the Dive:
My goal for this dive was to get acquainted with drysuit diving in the ocean before I head down to Catalina next week. Unfortunately, we have not yet completed our ocean drysuit dives with our instructor because he has been on a business trip. So my goal for this dive was to familiarize myself with drysuit diving without any instruction.

We chose the Breakwater as our dive spot, because we know Breakwater well, and because it is shallow enough so that an uncontrolled ascent due to drysuit diving would not be as dangerous. As usual, we dove along the wall.

Details of the Dive:
Dive #: 149
Dive Buddy: Mark
Exposure Suit: Drysuit, Bare Hi-Loft undergarment, with fleece undershirt and yoga pants
Weight: 20lbs, all in weight integrated pockets
Max Depth: 44 feet
Visibility: 20 feet
Temperature: Oceanic 48 deg. F
Time: 50 minutes
Tank: High Pressure Steel 80 cu. ft (PST)

Moon Jelly

Sealife:

Everytime I go to the Breakwater, I see a different story unfolding. This time, there were numerous dead or dying moon jellies in the water, often being consumed by sea stars. This could mean that we are in the midst of the moon jelly breeding season. It is believed that the moon jelly dies after reproducing.

While looking closely at a cabezon, we were briefly inspected by a couple of juvenile sea lions, curious to see what we were looking at.

Later, a harbor seal (similar to the one pictured above) glided by. These are some of my favorite species, because they are so incredibly cute, and fat. This one was quite large, probably about as long as me, but 5 times as big around, of course.

Mina's Observations of Drysuit Diving:
(1) I exerted way too much energy preventing my feet from floating up. I am extremely reluctant to wear ankle weights due to the extra effort this gives to kicking, but this may be my only resort, other than getting an expensive DUI weight harness. Why hasn't someone figured out a better solution for this? Floaty feet seems to afflict everyone moving from wetsuit to drysuit.
(2) I am slightly underweighted at 20 lbs. Adding one pounders on each foot may do it. I will be 8 pounds heavier than what I am used to diving with a wetsuit.
(3) I was toasty warm. Okay, maybe toasty is exaggerating. I did not register temperature either cold or warm even after almost an hour underwater. The temperature at Breakwater is usually 54 deg. F. This means when I do more exposed boat dives at 50 deg. F, I should feel fairly comfortable!
(4) Feeling an urge to pee was not an issue.

Mark's Observations of Drysuit Diving:
Mark had a much less positive experience with his first open water drysuit dive:
(1) He had a severe leak in his wrist seal and felt wetness all the way down to his knees.
(2) He was also underweighted, and his integrated weight pouch was barely hanging on to his BCD by a single rivet.
(3) He was slightly cold in his drysuit. This was most likely due to the fact that his drysuit was leaking, and because he was shrinkwrapped in his suit.

With Mark's equipment issues, we thought it wise not to continue with a second dive.