I hate cold water. However, learning to dive in a dry suit soon changed everything and I had some fantastic diving experiences and now hope to go ice diving at some point in the future.

With winter approaching, many divers think it’s time to put their gear back in the closet until next summer. In fact, there’s no need to because there are some great reasons to dive in the winter. Some dive sites, especially land-based ones, are often better, meaning they can be much cheaper, and the more popular dive sites tend to be quieter.

Even though the water temperature is cooler in the winter months, that doesn’t mean you have to be cold. A decent dry suit and we can go diving!

The PADI dry suit course includes a briefing on how to use a dry suit as well as some confined water safety skills. Even though it may be fun for some people to watch a diver come to the surface for the first time, it’s not the safest thing in the world!

There is some theory that takes a few hours and also a video to watch. Your instructor will review the knowledge in the manual with you to make sure you understand it all.

Once you are comfortable in your dry suit and have completed the theory, you will complete 2 open water dives. These include some training skills, but most of the dive is about enjoying the underwater world around you.

One of the great things about the drysuit course is that it can be integrated with other courses such as the PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses.