Several months before Maxwell turned fifteen, I asked him if he would be interested in scuba lessons as his gift. He jumped at the opportunity and as a reward I decided to bring him with me to Cozumel last May where he completed his Advanced Open Water. Like his father, he took to it like a fish to water and has since dove with me at Dutch Springs as well as in the Atlantic where he recently completed his Nitrox and Drysuit certifications.
We knew ahead of time that we wanted to keep in dive mode after a great spring and summer of diving and that we would be more comfortable in drysuits, so we rented them from our local dive shop. It was the rental DUI's that finally sold me on drysuit diving on the day the photo was taken. We got out of the water and were surprised at how warm we were even as the temp was rapidly dropping. It was one of those smack yourself on the head and say to yourself "what took you so long dummy" moments. I then began looking at White's, ScubaPro, Bare and Pinnacle, but in the end DUI offered the best suit and the best value, plus I was already sold on the CNSE with ZipSeals. It is because of the positive experiences I have had with DUI suits in the past and your stellar reputation that I naturally gravitated to, and ultimately decided, that DUI was the only way to go, thus joining DOGs.
I was certified in the US Navy back in 85' and have been diving both wet and dry for the past 26 years. Looking back, I have to now ask myself why I didn't go 100% dry sooner and the only response I can come up with is that I am an old school diver (still use spit in my mask) who was taught to just suck it up and deal with the cold. And while that frame of mind has served me well, I am now getting older and finding the cold to become a bit more noticeable these days. Diving dry has become my preferred method and lucky for me Santa decided to bring me a DUI drysuit for Christmas. Now I am looking forward to many more years of staying warm and dry while diving with Maxwell and watching him grow and mature in the sport I love.
On the day this photo was taken we decided we wanted to go diving on that weekend and had no idea that it was going to snow like it did because the weather reports were wishy-washy. They ended up with 8+ inches at Dutch Springs and after our dive we enjoyed a 2 hour drive back home in the snow (thank goodness for 4 wheel drive).
What can I say, our diving here in the Northeast tends to be in colder water and staying warm and dry is hard to beat, I still don't know why I didn't do it sooner. Once Max stops growing, I will purchase him a drysuit as well, but the kid is like a weed. He's turning 16 soon and is already taller than me at 6'1", so I am afraid that he will just outgrow it. Soooo, until he stops growing, it's going to be a rental DUI drysuits for him.
Looking are forward to the DUI Demo Tour at Dutch Springs this year.
We LOVE our DUIs.
Clayton & Maxwell Wood
West Chester, PA
Editors note: I asked Clayton if they were a bit cold and he said they were fine diving, it was after they got out with wet hands and heads and into the wind that they got cold. “Our hair froze and our hands got icy cold but our dive was nice and warm”.
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