new to dry suit

[eric myers 2]

I agree that the first time you use your drysuit should probably not be in Superior. I personally have not taken the drysuit certification class and I did not receive or have the chance to heed the warning about not using your drysuit at Superior for the first time but I wish I had.

On my first time out with my drysuit, at Superior, I experienced an issue where my foot pulled out of the foot pocket in the drysuit and caused me to lose a fin. Not a common occuring problem put the situation was made worse by extremely cold water etc. Without going into too much detail the situation was a little hairy there for a while. 

Now I have had some time to become more comfortable with my drysuit and its functionality and everything is under control these days but it still makes wish I would have worked all the bugs out before tyring it in a more challenging environment. Definitely consider trying your drysuit out in a less challenging environment first!

As to the question about the drysuit certification itself. I say to each his own! If you are and it sounds like you are one of those "if its worth doing its worth doing well," kind of guys then definitely take the course. Think of it this way, "it can't hurt and can only help."

With that said I have always seemingly had this issue with the plethora of certifications out there. I think it comes from the fact that I have limited financial resources but unlimited opportunities to dive! For me the question is...should I pay $175 to take the Wreck Diver specialty class when I have already completed over 39 wreck dives? I even asked that question to an instructor, whose interest is to try and sell me the course and make themselves some money, and they didn't really have an answer! Some certifications seem to be borderline and some are very important. I mean does anyone really need to take the "Boat Diver" certification offered by SSI? I don't think so...there is the boat, there is the water, get on get geared up, jump in, get out...I mean that is all there is too it!

However, I did notice you said you might like to go for your Master Scuba Diver Cert. That cert is basically a Rescue diver with 5 specialty certs and the drysuit would count torward one of those specialties.

If I were you I would take the Rescue Diver class, it was the best class I ever took, and consider the Drysuit class, then reexamine your goals after that class!