Finally, real diving in the dry suit!  After suffering more than enough
in low viz water with surge periods farther than I can see, I decided
it was time to get on a boat so I could get offshore from the muck.

The water seems to have been reasonably clear the past few weekends, so
I leave home at 4:30 to get on the Sunday Cypress Point.  We spend
the day in Carmel Bay.  The short version of dives 3-5 in the Mobby's
suit are as follows:  1) nice and warm.  2) hmm, getting a little nippy.
3) where is all that @#!^$ water coming from?

I had just received my Mobby's garments (labeled H20Bodyworks).  This one
piece suit seems warm and then some.  It was pretty comfy on the boat trip
out to Carmel.  I wanted to dial in the weighting now that I have
consistency in insulation, so I started with 24 (same as Gerstle Cove
run as well as my wet weight).  I added 3.75 pounds in clip on ankle
weights to the first stage to compensate for the Al tanks.  And then I
clipped on two 2 pounders to my lowest BC d-rings.  I expected that would
be enough.  And so it was.

On my first giant stride, I discovered that perhaps my legs shouldn't be
too far apart on the landing.  Boy that smarts!  But at least water wasn't
trickling down my back - the nastiest part of boat diving to me is that
initial contact with the cold water.  We were at Outer Pinnacles, so I
would actually be getting deep in a hurry on this dive.  After my last
report, quite a few people on the dry suit only side of the buoyancy
issue emerged.  (It still troubles me that everyone stands so firmly
on one side or the other.  Very few answered with a 'it can go both
ways.')  This day I decided I would go with just suit inflation initially
and see how it does.  If it felt like I was a big bubble, I was going to
switch back to the BC.  It never came to that- it went without problems.
With the exhause valve fully open, I didn't need to vent on small rises,
just when I dropped back down.  Coupled with the mild surge, I easily
took my pictures.  The second dive was at Mono Lobo wall, with all those
fun little valleys and rock faces.  I couldn't direct my body quite
as fluidly as I do in my wetsuit, but well enough not to hit coral.  The
fins may be as big a problem as the suit now - I switched from Imprex fins
to XL Jet fins.  Made of rubber, they tend to sink or at least not float
up like plastic ones.  I wonder if those wearing ankle weights do it
due to that reason.

At the end of the second dive, I had my tank at about
500 and handed off my clipon weights to the crew.  I then dropped back
down.  At 11-12 ft, I could maintain depth, but needed to help it a little
with breath control.  So proper weight is probably going to be at about
25 pounds for me with the steel tank.

My computers read 44 and 48 degrees.  Assuming the truth lay in between,
I would be suffering a bit in my wetsuit.  Several people dove wet on
this trip, but didn't do the third dive.  I started to feel the cold on
the second dive and my main interest after surfacing was getting part
way out of the suit so I could hit the head and have some lunch.  Here
something went wrong when it was time to put it on for the third.  I still
haven't reduced the neck seal all the way and it being wet may have made
it more difficult to pull on properly.  And then jumping in sans weight
belt probably didn't help - I felt an air bubble rush up.  In any case, as
I descended things quickly seemed wrong.  I could hear something behind me
as I dropped, and when I used the suit inflator I could feel water coming
down my chest.  I initially thought the hose wasn't well connected, so I
yanked it and reconnected.  Still no dice.  What I think was happening was
that as I inflated, it ran straight up to the neck seal and opened it up
for water to enter.  It then ran down the outside of my insulation (has a
water resistant exterior) down to my feet, where it started working its way
inside.  Needless to say, I didn't take this dive to the end.  Were it
more interesting perhaps I would have endured, or surfaced to fix it and
then go on.  But I was just tired.  It had already been a long day.

Part of the reason for going out on this trip was in anticipation of
a trip in LA where I'd be going a bit beyond the recreational depths.
Not the place to be settling major equipment issues.  But sadly that trip
was just cancelled, so instead I'll go back to Monterey on Sunday to
beach dive with friends.  Since these reports have generated so much
interesting conversation, I will probably make one more writeup on it.  I
think after that only practice remains to get fully proficient.  I
thought by now I'd have everyone's comments nicely included, but it just
didn't get done.  (There were a *lot* of opinions on the subjects).
I think I'll bug one of my web guys to help me compose a small survey
so we can get a quick vote on the big questions of bouyancy and
dry suit instruction.