Use 5mm Bare Elastic Wetsuit for Freediving, OK or Not?

FilipNilsson91 · Aug 5, 2012

I am using my bare wetsuit while scuba diving and I am planning on joining a freediving course next week.

As a beginner, can I use my Bare Wetsuit for freediving as well, or is it a huge difference between a wetsuit designed for scuba rather than freediving?

MAKO Spearguns · Aug 5, 2012

There is a pretty big difference. Freedivers use the best designed wetsuits because they have to.

Freedivers have no way to adjust their buoyancy during a dive. Even without a wetsuit (or a weightbelt) a freediver will get heavy at depth. The chest compression is significant at depths past 30-40 feet and of course they are normally exhaling air into the mask to equalize it. When a freediver wears a foam neoprene wetsuit, the suit compresses as well at depth and this change is even more significant when a thick suit is used.

This swing in buoyancy represents a huge challenge to freedivers. If they wear too little lead, they have to fight to descend (wasting energy) and if they wear too much lead, they are excessively heavy at depth ...making the ascent more arduous during the most dangerous part of their dive. As you can imagine, your freedive instructor will go to considerable trouble to help you to select the correct amount of lead for your suit and your depth. The deeper a freediver dives, the less lead they will use. Wearing just 2lbs more lead than you need will be very noticeable and will impact your performance.

Scuba divers can be much more casual about their lead, because they can just add a puff or two of air in their BC as they descend and the added drag of a small bubble of air in the BC is nothing compared to the tank and hoses and other gear.

But back to wetsuits... in order to minimize the suit compression issue, a freediver generally will try to wear the LEAST amount of wetsuit possible. They want the thinnest and most efficient suit possible for this application.

So what makes a suit "efficient"? First, a hood. Wearing a hood provides the most thermal protection with the least amount of buoyant rubber. So a freedive suit will have a hood and it will be integrated into the jacket. No water leakage around the neck. In order to construct an attached hood, the jacket is constructed with no zipper. Elimination of a zipper and addition of an attached hood provides a tremendous reduction in the potential for water to enter the suit and eliminates the potential for it to pump through the suit.

Some freedive suits use farmer john pants, other use high waisted pants (which are less warm, but have less buoyancy). Most all cold water freedive wetsuits also use a smooth rubber internal lining, while scuba suits generally have a nylon liner. Elimination of the nylon liner will significantly reduce the potential to have water pump through the suit. The smooth rubber interior seals against the skin.. some scuba suits use this kind of smooth rubber to a very limited extent: it is sometimes used on the inside edge of the face seal, wrists and ankles of a quality, cold water scuba suit.

Elimination of the internal nylon lining is a two edged sword. It makes the suit warmer and also more flexible (which is a huge benefit to freedivers) who really need to be able to breathe up and really expand their lung capacity before a dive. So this makes the suit more comfortable and the diver can relax more easily. Also, if a freediver gets cold, his metabolism will increase and this will significantly affect the ability to perform a breath hold. Getting cold means the end to a freedive session, so a warm suit is essential.

The disadvantages of the rubber interior are as follows: First, it reduces the strength of the suit and also makes it vulnerable to getting cut by sharp fingernails, for example. As you can imagine, the reduction in strength is more of an issue for thin freedive suits, while 5 or 7 mm suits are thick enough that they don’t really benefit much from a nylon lining. Also, the smooth rubber interior requires the use of a lubricant to don the suit. Divers use diluted hair conditioner, diluted baby shampoo and there are some other specially formulated products as well (such as Suit Slip).

When the suit is properly lubricated it is faster and easier to don than a nylon lined suit (even though it has no zippers). That sounds hard to believe, but it is true. The smooth rubber slides on very easily and allows the suit to be cut for a better fit.

Removal of a wetsuit jacket which has an attached hood and no zipper requires some special techniques. This video may be very useful in that regard.

[video=youtube_share;D30MesL5wcg]http://youtu.be/D30MesL5wcg[/video]

So to make a long story short, yes you can use a scuba suit for freediving, but you will be much better served by a dedicated freedive suit. Generally, we say that a 3 mm freedive suit is at least as warm as a well made 5 mm scuba suit (assuming it has zippers and is used with a hood).

Remember, scuba divers can easily compensate for a thick, bulky wetsuit by delivering a few puffs of air to the BC on descent.

The quality of any wetsuit is dependent on two primary factors: the quality of the neoprene and the quality of the construction. Wetsuit fit is also important.

MAKO Spearguns now uses Yamamoto Rubber in our freedive suits, which many people believe to be the best material on the market. Our freedive suits are used by both freedivers and scuba divers. Scuba divers will also realize a benefit from utilizing a suit that has been constructed to be as warm as possible.

MAKO (Yamamoto) 2 piece green camo wetsuits in 3mm, 5mm and 7mm

Also, you will definitely want to get a rubber weightbelt. That is a whole discussion in itself.

Enjoy the Class!

Use 5mm Bare Elastic Wetsuit for Freediving, OK or Not?

Please register or login

FilipNilsson91

New

MAKO Spearguns

ScubaBoard Business Sponsor

Similar threads