Built In Drysuit Hood

[cummings66]

I love my latex dryhood as well, best thing since sliced bread IMO. It takes time to get things right and you might need to do a little trimming on it to get it just right. Too much in some areas is as bad as too little.

You absolutly must have some sort of insulation under it for it to work properly, and sometimes you can pull the lower part of the hood down under your chin. Viking's older dive manual says to do that with a normal mask, a FFM on the other hand goes on top of it and your entire head is dry. I find I only get a little wet, normally not enough to really dampen the hood padding under it. Nothing pours out most of the time unless I make a mistake and have something other than a latex/skin seal.

PS, my mask and hood seal best with the mask under it. I had more leaks with it on top in contrast to others. Try it both ways.

If you cut it you may end up regretting it, but you can easily remove the hood if you wish.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

When you have your mask on top of the hood you have to make sure the beanie edges don't interfere with the mask skirt. When I first started putting my mask over the latex my mask flooded until I realized the beanie was a little to far forward under the latex and it was pressing against the skirt. Now I make sure the beanie edge is farther back so I can feel a space between it (under the latex) and the mask skirt (over the latex).
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Dive1Dennis]

I can put my mask skirt over the hood edges and my hair doesn't even get wet. Ber :lilbunny:

Ber, does this cause any problems with equalization? Seems that if the hood sealed that tight you would have a problem. I just dive the old standard neoprene hood.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Ber, does this cause any problems with equalization? Seems that if the hood sealed that tight you would have a problem. I just dive the old standard neoprene hood.

No problems at all, it's not actually a tight seal even with a neoprene hood over the latex hood. I exhale regularly into my mask and some of the bubbles make their way into the hood and seem to keep it equalized. I usually have to burp the hood a couple times during the dive but it's worth it to have a warm dry head. A tiny bit of water passes by my cheek or chin and the tips of my hair get damp but not enough to make me cold. I'm normally a slow equalizer but I usually don't have any problems now that I've made the switch.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[cummings66]

For me I make a point when I relieve mask squeeze on the way down to insure the air I blow in there goes into the hood. That prevents the dreaded icepick in the ear feeling if you fail to do that.

I get very little water in my hood doing it my way, I got a bit more water in it doing it the way Ber does. The new hood liners by the way are smaller than the old ones and so it's much easier to insure the thing isn't too close to the edge.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I get very little water in my hood doing it my way, I got a bit more water in it doing it the way Ber does. The new hood liners by the way are smaller than the old ones and so it's much easier to insure the thing isn't too close to the edge.

See Hybrid, drysuits are a very individual piece of equipment. Cummings gets "a bit more" water with my method but when I use his method my head is completely soaked and the water is dripping from my beanie when I remove it. It takes some experimenting to get the hang of keeping your head dry with an attached hood but with some perseverance it can be done. Keep trying different methods until you find the one, or the combination of several, that works for you.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[RPanick]

I had a latex dry hood installed on my suit, I cut it off the second dive. The reason was that the hood was just a shade too big, not much just enough that it leaked quite a bit.

I've found a viking hood that seems to fit better, I'll find out how it works tomorrow.

My only issue is I can't find my polar fleece beanie. I'm going to try using one of my caribean neoprene beanie with the chin strap to see if that will work. Hope so, if not it will be a short dive. Good part is if gets wet it won't loose all its insulation like the polar fleece did.

 

[cummings66]

One time I flooded my polar fleece beanie and let me tell you it was cold, but after a short time it got better because either I lost all feeling or the wet beanie started soaking up heat from my head. Temps were around 40 at the time and it wasn't fun to start with. If that had been my first dive with a latex dryhood I might have called it quits and cut it off, luckily I have many and know them for what they are.

As Ber said, it's individual and everybody is different in how to best wear something. The key is to experiment with it and see how it goes.