NFPA 1953 Contaminated Water Diving Standards

[Upstate Scuba OWI]

I'm not going to be able to make it to

Beneath the Sea trade show in Seacaucus, NJ to see this new proposed standard that will be discussed there. I know from researching the minutes of the NFPA Commitee Meeting that reps from the dry suit manufacture's, Blades from IADRS, Dive Rescue International, Kirby Morgan, OTS, and ERDI have been part of the process. But the minutes don't discuss what is proposed. My team is short time away from making a major upgrade to our contaminated water equipment and want to make sure our investment will not be in equipment that won't meet or exceed the new standard. If anyone can provide to all of us what the new proposed standard says so far to date will be greatly appreciated.

[BladesRobinson]

I would suggest that you purchase your dry suits as funds come available and not wait for a NFPA standard. DUI, Viking and Whites have good suits for PSD application and I am certain there are a handful of other companies too. I gut believes that the good suits are not going to get radically better because of the standard. In fact, it is going to be very expensive to test the suits to obtain the NFPA approval and that cost is going to be passed along to the consumer. Understand that if it costs $50,000 to test the suit to obtain the NFPA approval and the manufacturer produces 500 suits, then the consumer is going to pay at least $100 extra per suit (likely considerably more due to markup). I believe that the testing is going to cost more than $50,000 per suit but only time will tell for sure. The advantage is the NFPA standard will prevent cheap suits from being marketed for public safety use because it has a reflective stripe and has "RESCUE" stenciled on the sleeve. If a suit has an NFPA label, you can be assured that the suit will be adequate for PSD use.

I believe it may be more than two years before we see a dry suit with an NFPA label affixed to it so that is why I suggest you don't wait. Two years of exposure is more risky than waiting for standard to be finalized and suits to be tested. My thoughts ... subject to revision after the next meeting.

Regards,

Blades

[udtfire]

i agree with Blades dry suit now and get training with ant recognized agency ERDI<DRI<LGS ECT>>> but get both and i look forward to the day we have a standard.