Gaiter wraps

Good morning to all. I know its Monday but the weekend isnt too far off. I have a query regarding gaiter wraps. I dive dry and although new to dry suits, find the air around ankles when surfacing an issue. do what i can, due to suit squeeze when in the upright position to try and dislodge the air from around the ankles, I cant seem to remove the air that would have trickled down to the ankles. This does affect buoyancy and would like to shed some of the weight i have to carry. Do gaiter wraps help in reducing the air accumulation around the ankles? my only thought regarding wraps is that should air get through then it would be even harder to remove. anyone using them or have any feedback on their use, it would be greatly appreciated. have a nice day.

What kind of undersuit are you wearing? I'm guessing a smooth fabric quilted type? The reason I say that is in experience the same when I wear my one piece undersuit. The problem went away with xerotherm arctics. I have seen set of gaiters that I no longer use.

Thanks for the reply. Today i have tried using my wing more than drysuit for buoyancy control, using the suit inflator to control squeeze. This naturally resulted in me inflating the suit less which had a positive effect in that i virtually had no air around the ankles that would have migrated during the dive. I use an o three undersuit, two pieces, long johns and sweater. fleece material. Ill keep experimenting with using the wing over the drysuit for buaoyancy control and see if this has an improved overall effect. so far so good anyway. i originally only used the drysuit for buoyancy control so as to limit dumping of air to one item, with inflating the wing, two bits of equipment to control, however although not as straight forward as suing only the dry suit, it was simple enough. i also noticed better trim and comfort using the wing as this has the effect of lifting the twin set off your back. more dives and we should be better tuned. thanks again for your feedback.

Ah yes, I had forgotten that some prefer to use a drysuit for buoyancy. What you should also find is if diving in normal trim then the drysuit should pretty much take care of itself. As an added benefit, inverting yourself is far less of an issue and is in fact, quite enjoyable. But that may be just me

Dunno why the agencies continue to preach buoyancy control via the drysit.

On mine I have a very plain and simple dump valve on my left forearm. (not even a fancy auto dump, despite my kit fetish)

Raise arm to dump BCC, suit joins in if needed.


Harry

I was taught, suit just enough to stop the squeeze and BCD/Wing for overall buoyancy.

as jenkins pointed out, controlling buoyancy simpler when you only have one piece of equipment to consider. having now about 30 dry suit dives and having gained a bit of confidence, only yesterday tried using the suit inflator to manage squeeze and the wing to manage buoyancy. much much better, least of all the fact that i had virtually no air around the ankles. in addition having the wing inflated tends to take the weight of the cylinder off your back. controlling ascent more complex as suit dumping handled through the shoulder dump, in my case the auto dump which i close once i start my deep stops and manually dump should i need and the wing dump/s. i would agree that once confident the wing should be used and the drysuit used only to control squeeze, however starting diving a dry suit and wing, i would recommend using the suit until you understand how the dumps perform. after that, throw in the wind and learn the wings dump performance. at the end of the day like everything else, practice makes perfect as long as being done under controlled situations. thanks for your advice and hope you all have a good day.

Why would you close your autodump and thus negating its primary function? As I'm sure you're aware, it's on the ascent that the gas in the drysuit will start expanding, the whole point of the autodump is to automatically release this gas. There is no need for user intervention at this point, other than rolling to the right shoulder to ensure the gas migrates go the highest point.
Sorry, I don't see the point in closing it, especially at the point you describe as you are most definitely ascending from there on.
The only time I could envisage closing the dump valve being useful is when you are stable at 6m for a long deco hang in cold water.

F##K me who has loged on as Suggsy he will be pissed when he finds out

Once I start my deep stops, I tend to close the auto dump as every movement that includes tilting the body to the right results in air being dumped automatically. Therefore having achieved equilibrium at the deep stop would require minimum movement to avoid spilling air unnecessarily. Simple things like turning around to check on buddy etc., could result in spilling air unnecessarily. The auto dump left fully open ascending from say 60m, but once at 18m or 21m depending on first deepstop, I tend to start closing it in, with it being certainly closed at 9m and shallower where deco stops longer. Hope this clarifies.

Sounds like you have too much gas in your suit, but I'm not clear if you're talking about drysuit for buoyancy here or wing. What trim position are you when doing these stops?
You seem to champion simple buoyancy control yet make it unnecessarily difficult by close the one item of equipment that should function automatically.
I find it helps to have my buddies infront of me during deco, makes charades so much easier
Dumping gas from a wing, winding in a reel/spool and depressing the autodump valve seems a bit too much unnecessary faff to me but hey ho, if it works for you.

I get you Suggsy. from my earlier posts you might have gathered i am new to dry suit and twin sets hence my post to gather useful information. your last post got me to see things from a different angle which I do like. trim position as with all my diving is horizontal. simple is good in many areas, however, practising new more complex techniques until they are simple is an improvement in ones diving technique. my use of the auto dump on the dry suit was something i practised when i only used the dry suit, but with using the wing over dumping from the suit no really an issue any more so hey ho, i guess next dive, once i start ascending auto dump fully open and buoyancy ascent control through the wing. thanks for your feedback.

Your welcome, I look forward to your next dive report.

BTW, where are you in the world as there is little info on your profile nor an intro, be nice to know a bit more about whom one is chatting to.

See his intro in the new members introduction thread.

http://ukdivers.com/community/threads/hello-to-all.11427/

Malta when he wrote his introduction.

Bologna, Italy in his last post in that thread.

All at sea would seem to be the most reasonable description of his location, as uninformative as that would seem.


Cheers Harry

Profile updated.

Plan on using the required air for dry suit squeeze and use wing for buoyancy so this should cut down on air in suit, plus it might help me shed a kilo or two off my current set up.

If you are getting better trim using the wing "as this has the effect of lifting the twin set off your back" and you are basically 'hanging under the wing' then it would suggest to me that you may be well overweighted. Thus more air required in the wing for good bouyancy etc.
If that makes sense!