Before the flood

[bargeman]

Hi folks, Tired of being cold! Its time to dive DRY! been on this forum gathering info and i keep seeing the word flood in many discussions, How often dose this happen? How dose it happen? and how do you prevent it? Thanks in advance.

 

[Bopper]

A drysuit flood is not as devastating as it may sound. In fact, given the choice of diving a drysuit w. a small leak or diving a wetsuit, I'd probably still dive the drysuit. One thing I strongly suggest all drysuit divers to do is to learn how to repair their own suits. I think one of the implicit fears of diving a drysuit is that you're at the mercy of a repair shop if something does leak or break. But if you become the master of your suit, a leak is just a minor inconvenience that requires an hour or two of your time to address.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

I've flooded my drysuit due to folding the back of the neck seal over. The other common ways are to not pull the zipper up all the way or to tuck your hood under the neck seal or to have the seals not fit well. Latex seals do stretch out over time and will need periodic replacement and may leak some at end of life. Neoprene seals do not seem to stretch out but there is more fussing around getting the fit right initially. Having a buddy check you over is a good way to go since you cannot see all of your own seals. Dry gloves can leak too, and punctures there are more common since you grab things with your gloves. Fortunately they are inexpensive to replace. Do get dry gloves you will be glad you did.

How often do floods happen? I've had a flood and seen more than one other diver with a greater or lesser floods. Accedotally less than one time per hundred dives.

 

[swimmer_spe]

If you take your time to make sure the suit is on properly, you will never have a flood.

 

[Peter_C]

I have hundreds upon hundreds of dives in a drysuit and have had severe leaks, but never a full flood. The only way I would dive around Seattle is in a drysuit, with an Otter Bay hood, dry gloves, and a thick high quality undergarment. Of course that is the same setup I dive here.

 

[bargeman]

I feel better already, I love to repair things myself and will take the advise to learn to repair the suit! sounds like taking your time with pre dive set up pays off. thanks everyone.

 

[TSandM]

I've got over a thousand dry suit dives. I've had fewer than ten total floods. One was as a result of falling off a dive boat in Florida and ripping a two inch rent in the back of my suit. Another was having a total zipper failure at the beginning of a Mexico cave diving trip, and I did two days of diving before I gave up on that one I've failed to zip the suit, had an inexplicable misarrangement of my neck seal drench me upon getting off the boat, had a neck seal fold or do something that flooded my suit at the far side of Edmonds (the worst of all my wet dives), and the one time I didn't settle my wrist seal under my dry glove, my glove of course leaked, and I ended up pouring water out of my feet.

Wet dives aren't rare, but most of them are limited -- a wet arm, or leg, or some water down your front from a neck seal that is getting tired. Full, complete floods are, thank goodness, rare.

 

[Phil_C]

I've only ever had partial floods - more an enthusiastic leak actually. And every time it has happened it has been my fault, forgotten to tuck the thumb loop back inside the suit, changed seals (silicone) and not checked they were properly seated and so on.

My last leak was when I fitted dry gloves and slightly misaligned the wrist seals, I noticed a slight trickle during the dive but nothing else. When I got out I had a pint or so of liquid in the arm of the suit. Didn't know it was that much and I wasn't cold, it hardly affected the dive. The water was about 9 degrees celsius so it was cold both in and out, but I wasn't.

So as others have said drysuit leaks do occur but they are usually no big deal. Take your time and set up carefully and you will not have a problem - P

 

[James R]

The only big leak I have had was internal...my p-valve plumbing came unplugged and I filled my leg rather than adding to the lake. Hooray hydration. Good times.

 

[Tigerman]

Floods are not as common as the discussions might make it sound, but sometimes we brainfart and dont check the seals properly or dont zip up properly..
You learn pretty damn quickly when it comes to making such mistakes tho