Drysuit recommendations

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DivingGal

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I'm open for suggestions here. I've decided that I'm going to add the pleasure of diving "dry". I'm after recommendations to all aspects of getting a drysuit. You know:

- manufacturer
- custom or rack
- position of zipper(s)
- position of vents
- etc, etc

I've signed up for a course in April, so have lots of time to decide ~ I'll probably rent for the early part of this season, but plan to buy towards the fall.

Anything to avoid?
 
I'm new to drysuit diving, have about 20 dives in mine since mid December. I did a lot of research. I ended up getting a USIA aquapro with the undergarment because it fit my needs, the price was right and I liked the look of it.

-manufacturer. From my understanding two of the best names for durable professional quality drysuits are Viking and DUI. I'm sure others are great too but these names kept popping up among the experienced divers I've spoken with.

-custom or rack. Custom is nice if you have any physical features out of the norm but if you are a standard size why spend the money? I had to get larger size boots put on mine but USIA did not charge extra for that.

zipper- Mine is in the back. The only downside is that you have to get your buddy to zip you shut but that's no big deal. I don't know of any negative points to a front zipper.

vents- I believe one vent on the left arm is all you need. The only other places I've seen have been the ankles but trapped air in the feet isn't a problem and even if you do experience this it's easy to correct. Just one more item to fail if you ask me. But to each his own, perhaps you would like ankle vents.

You didn't ask the big question; neoprene, cloth, trilaminate or rubber? I picked a trilaminate nylon sort of material simply because I like the way they look better. (There is a little fashion in SCUBA.) If any but a neoprene suit rips under water though the dive is over and you are miserable. With a torn neoprene you simply go from a dry suit to a wet suit. I don't think the squeeze is as bad in a neoprene suit but I've only been in one once.

The important thing is cost vs. quality. This is one area you don't want to scrimp. I paid $1400 for my suit and undergarment and it hasn't leaked a drop. My buddy bought a $500 one off ebay and he gets pretty we every dive. He will need to get new seals put on his. I think here more than ever the joy of quality will far outlast the joy of saving money. I have since found that USIA is not considered the highest quality product on the market, more of a beginner's drysuit but I still like mine very much and would recommend it. They also make the Aqualite which runs around $800 with undergarment but it doesn't seem nearly as well put together as the Aquapro which I use. Good luck.
 
One of your biggest considerations for material is the type of diving you will be doing. Zebra mussels...You want something that will stand up to those. I have a heavy tri-lam and have been diving in mussels with it for about 4-5 years without a single problem. Not sure how the neoprene holds up to zebra mussels..but I would be interested in hearing other opinions on that as I have a cousin looking at drysuits right now as well.

Longer zipper generally means more cost if it needs to be replaced down the road. I was advised to go with the shorter shoulder mount for that reason. In a pinch you can open and close it yourself, but a buddy is generally needed for that. If you have the option, get a heavy duty zipper....there IS a difference.

Boots...If you can get "rock" boots or heavier duty boots with a good grip, you will find it is totally worth it for those shore dives.

Neoprene or rubber bell seals....that's more of a personal one. You mentioned you would be renting for a while...check out both and you will quickly settle on the one you like.

I agree with Bubbles on the vent position. I would be wary of putting a vent on the ankles...seems like a great place to snag something.

Look for reinforcements on the suit....knee pads etc. Do you want pockets on the suit?
Buy the best quality you can afford..a heavier material of whatever material you choose will definitely be an advantage. Especially if you drop a knee onto a rock covered with mussels on the way to the wreck etc.

Valves...be aware that posiedon and apeks valves take a special inflation hose connector, if you want to set up another reg set. I have apeks valves and love them.

As far as custom versus rack...If a rack suit fits you, you'll save quite a bit...Wetsuits I would definitely recommend custom, but not drysuits if a rack suit fits you well.

Hope that helps

BTW: An attached hood is often an available option..it is a great way to keep you that much warmer.
 
A Drysuit Overview

As their name implies, drysuits provide the most exposure protection by keeping water away from your skin. Their warmth lies in several things: (1) the basic thermal properties of the drysuit material itself; (2) the type & amount of garments you wear under the suit. (3) how much air you put into the suit.

Wearing a drysuit is akin to wearing a big pair of sleepers: you are encased from neck to toe in the suit, with your head & hands exposed. Most suits are back entry, which means that someone has to zip you in & out of the suit. There are a few front entry or "self donning" suits and that, with their long diagonal zipper in the front, allow you to get in & out of the suit yourself.

Drysuit Material
Basically, suits fall into 2 categories: shell or neoprene. Shells can be anything from vulcanized rubber to tri-laminates (3 layers of various materials, one of which is usually nylon). Neoprenes can be the usual 1/4" closed cell or the more exotic crushed neoprene. Fit is important in either suit: you should have a full range of motion regardless of what the suit is made from.

Shells give some protection against the temperature of the outside water; however, what you wear underneath them is the determining factor in how warm you will be. You can wear anything from a t-shirt & shorts to full "woolly bears", or multiple layers of clothing. Shell materials have minimal buoyancy characteristics, so you require less weight to be neutrally buoyant.

Regular 1/4' neoprene gives you a lot of insulation against the outside water, but it also means more inherent buoyancy. Thus, you must wear more weight to be neutrally buoyant. Again, what you wear depends entirely on how warm you want to be. Like it's wetsuit cousin, 1/4" tends to be somewhat restrictive unless fitted properly. They are usually the most economically priced suits.

Crushed neoprene is only available through a few manufacturers. Because all the N2 bubbles in the neoprene have been "crushed" out of it, it has very little buoyancy of its own. It is durable, flexible, and gives more insulation than tri-lams. However, since it is a proprietary product, it is very expensive.

Seals
Drysuits seal at the neck & wrists. Seals are made of two materials: latex or neoprene.

Latex is suppler, conforms well to the contours of the body, is less restrictive and so easier to adapt to & fit. However, it is also more expensive than neoprene, tears easily, is higher maintenance, and has no thermal properties (colder).

Neoprene is less expensive, very forgiving of abuse, requires less maintenance, and has some thermal properties of it's own (warmer). However, it is less supple than latex (more restrictive), and thus may takes a little longer to "get used to".

Zipper
Arguably, this is the most important and most expensive part of the drysuit. If this item "goes" it is literally HUNDREDS of dollars to replace, because of its highly specialized nature. There are particular care requirements to this type of zipper, but they are minimal and easy to incorporate into your usual routine of good equipment maintenance. Like most dive gear, if you take good care of your drysuit, it will take good care of you. :)

Air
If you look at the 1st stage your reg, you'll see a lot of ports. ONE is HP for your gauges, all the rest are LP for your 2nd stage, octo &, BC inflator. There are usually a couple of spare LP ports that go unused. When you have a drysuit, you connect one of these spare LP ports though a separate hose (commonly referred to as a whip) to an inflator valve on the chest of the drysuit. The hose is generally run under the right arm from the 1st stage to the valve. This is how you put air into the suit to keep you warm & for buoyancy control underwater. (You only use your BC for surface buoyancy, once underwater you only use the suit; it is much easier to control 1 buoyancy system than 2.)

Air is exhausted from the suit via a separate valve, called, appropriately enough, the exhaust valve. Current suit design usually places this on the upper left arm (bicep or tricep area). This valve is adjustable in that you will be able to determine how easily & often air is purged from the suit. Although there is too much detail to go into here about how to do this, let it be said that learning to use the suit for buoyancy control is no more complicated than using your BC; in fact, some people claim it's easier. It's just a little different!

Misc.
Generally, drysuit divers tend to need about the same amount of weight as someone diving wet in 1/4" neoprene, EXCEPT if you opt for 1/4" neoprene drysuit... air+ neoprene = more weight. Also, drysuit divers tend to need/use ankle weights, although this is not always the case. When you take a drysuit course, this will be addressed by the Instructor, who will make sure you are weighted properly as well as show you how to weight yourself in various conditions (salt vs. fresh, etc.).

Needless to say, using a drysuit requires specialized instruction from someone qualified to teach it. You didn't go diving without getting certified, did you? Well the same applies to using a dry suit!

That being said, no one who dives dry ever goes back to diving wet, except in tropical waters. Its just makes diving temperate waters so much better. So says someone from The Great White North, eh?! :wink:

~SubMariner~

 
All the replies so far have been excellent, however, there is one point that has been missed. The type of dump valve you have. Two types exist, the cuff dump (manual) or the auto (constant volume) dump valve.

The difference between the two is that using the manual dump you have to raise you wrist to dump air, for first time divers this might seem like a bit of a faff, but it is no worse than having to press / pull a dump valve on a BCD. The advantage is that it is easy to controll air in and air out.

The other type of valve is the auto valve. This sits an the shoulder at about the highest point of the diver, the valve is adjustable, and you set it so that the air in your suit is correct for neutral buoyance, as you go down you add more air to the suit (any excess, and the valve dumps it automatically), and as you ascent, the valve should dump automatically, keeping you neutrally buoyant all the time.

Personal preference is for a cuff (manual) dump, but a lot of people prefer the auto. Try using both and see which you prefer.

Jon T
 
Wow, and I though I had the basics down. Just goes to show, I've got some more research to do.

I knew I would need instruction ('cause I didn't want to dive upside down)so I've signed up for the PADI Drysuit course (scheduled for April). But going into it I wanted to have info about the suit itself, so I could try the various types that the shop has available to rent.

Thanks one and all for the great words of wisdom.

SubMariner -- I don't recall if you've said, but just how did a Canuk end up in Georgia? What part of the Great White North did you come from?

Here's a flavour of the Great White North
http://64.26.129.111/winter/index_e.asp
 
This might not be the right discussion for this, but I have to disagree about the buoyancy differences between a suited up diver in tri-lam vs. neoprene. I agree that neoprene is more buoyant. But, there is more to the system than just the suit material.

For example, last fall I was diving in some old iron mines in a DUI TLS-350 with a wooly bear on underneath. I needed 28# to get what I felt was reasonably weighted and I was using a steel tank. The water temp at depth was 39F. In this suit I felt cold in 39 degree water.

Last weekend I was ice diving in a new 1/4" neoprene suit. Underneath I wore polypropylene long underwear and sweats. I needed 36# of lead to feel a little heavy (so as not to bob along the ice) and I was using an AL80. The water temp was 38F. I did not feel cold in the least in the water.

A reasonable approximation of the two systems is that they needed about the same amount of lead to get the job done given the difference between an aluminum and steel tank.

I agree that tri-lams are much more comfortable to wear out of the water, but the reason I am wearing one is to be comfortable in cold water. The downside that I see in neoprene is that it will stay very warm as the temps warm up. I don't imagine that I will be wearing this suit once the water temp hits 65F since the air temp will be much higher by then. (might be a good way to lose weight)

On the plus side for tri-lams is that once the underwear starts getting thinned down for warmer water the tri-lam will take less weight. Since there is less squeeze in the neoprene I don't expect to reduce the weight much even in shorts under the suit. (I tried the suit in a pool with just shorts under it and found that I still needed 32#)

For what I am wearing a dry suit for I think that neoprene does a good job. (friends tell me that I am just rationalizing my decision)

JoelW

 
There are other ways of looking at what material you want to get.

Membrane (tri-lam) are almost always cheeper than neoprene, or any fancy crushed neoprene. - for the vast majority of people, with the correct undersuit this is all that is neded, provided the material is tough enough for the job. If you go crawling over a wreck and put a ruddy great hole in the suit it can be easily fixed with tape and a bicycle inner tube repair kit. If it floods, end of dive, and you might have to ditch your weight to get to the surface (think of the buoyancy from the air in the suit that is lost - and potentially you are 30 Lbs or so negative at this point :-( ) Once the suit floods membrane suits have no insulating properties whatsoever.

Neoprene suits have their own insulation properties, and for a lot of more technical divers this is the reason they go for neoprene. If your suit floods, you are now wearing a wetsuit, with the neoprene insulating you.

Weight for weight, I find that I need slightly less with my neoprene suit, although this is probably due to the fact I have only done about 4 dives in a membrane. Also, consider, that neoprene suits are generally better fitting, and posibly more comfortable, again, this is my opinion, but having dived both, I do prefer the feel of a neoprene drysuit.

Just another .02

Jon T
 

things to consider:

neoprene does NOT insulate any better than any other substance at any appreciable depth: it compresses and
you are, essentially, wearing a shell suit so you'ld
better have some thermals on or be one-hardy-individual.

you need to carry weight to compensate for a bouyant suit material (not just the air trapped between you and the suit) and at depth that suit compresses and the bouyancy is GONE yet you are schlepping the weight.

if you rip the neoprene suit and it floods, it is unlikely
that it fits as well as a WET-suit so you are wearing a
not-very-semi-dry-suit and there will be beaucoup heat loss
via the water that continues to be flushed in and out.
(of course, the same can happen with a shell suit)

on ascent you've got air in the suit expanding that needs
to be vented, air in the BC that needs venting and bubbles
IN the neoprene expanding and adding bouyancy. within 30 feet or so of the surface you might find yourself ascending faster than expected if you are not compensating for the expanding suit.

were i to do it over, i'd get a shell suit FIRST and wear
a layer or two of undergarments and if that was unsufficient
i'd consider argon.


 
Hi all,
I've just sold my neoprene suite and have bought a Bare Trilam. Weighting I'm told, will be about the same. This is due to the underware that you have to wear under the suite. In the neaoprene suite I wore light sweats year round (Great lakes diving). I found my hands and face got cold first. I think choice of suite comes down to type of diving and cost. I have moved to a trilam because I found the neoprene to restrictive for post drills.
Rodales had a good write up on dry suites. If you require information on the different suites you could check them out.
TTFN
DSAO
o2diver
 

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