Dry suit for both Tropical and Cold water Dives

[Ana]

Why would you want the hassle of a dry suit or any suit in warm waters.

why would anyone puts a jacket on captain? is not easy to be thermally challenged (I know)... right now is around 60 outside and I see people wearing shorts, I need long pants, socks, a shirt AND a sweater. I even have a jacket that stays in the car for when I walk into a supermarket, oh yes a blanket in the trunk for when I go to the movies.

...and for waters bellow 72-73 degrees you bet I wear a DRY SUIT

by the way a shorty for me is useless, the concept of just warming up the core gets lost on me. If my arms are cold, I"M COLD. In my 20's and early 30's I was cold everyday, all day. But didn't use appropriate thermal protection because "nobody needs a jacket when is warm" Until I realize that my misery could be easily solved by simply adding more thermal protection...... I still remember the first dry suit dive, first dive ever without convulsion-like shivers, what a great thing that we can fit the amount of protection to our needs.

 

[Hatul]

Get one with a front zipper so you can get out of it quickly if you overheat.

 

[Diver0001]

Why would you want the hassle of a dry suit or any suit in warm waters.

Good question. To me it depends on what you're doing. There's a big difference between making the odd dive and making a lot of dives. For a single dive of about an hour in 25C water I'd want to be in a 3mm suit. In 28C I might not even wear a suit if I were only going for an hour.

However, for making 20 (or more) dives in a week in 25C water, there just comes a point at which I can't seem to warm up again between dives and I need a lot more thermal protection than the 3mm suit. In my case I've tried it with a 7mm and a 7/5 wetsuit in Egypt and in the end, I've just found that by using my drysuit for those kinds of week long vacations two things happen.

1) I don't freeze my butt off toward the end of the week so I can enjoy ALL of the dives and
2) I don't get friction wounds on my heels like I do when I make a lot of dives in a wetsuit, especially in Egypt where the sand is very course and gets in everything no matter how hard you try.

One drawback to the drysuit when you're diving in the tropics is the need for a pee-valve. Wetsuits come with their own "central-heating" but you really don't want to try that in a drysuit.

R..

 

[randy88k5]

I use a Whites Fusion Bullet drysuit. I have dived it in South Florida wearing a thin fleece, and dive it <40F water in the local quarries with thicker undergarments. I think a Whites Fusion with a Sport skin would be perfect for the OP's situation.

 

[rongoodman]

A drysuit makes a lot sense on a trip with multiple dives in a short amount of time--the cold stress accumulates. I've done 25-27 dives on every week long liveaboard trip I've done, and am a lot cooler by the end of the week than at the beginning.

 

[fjpatrum]

Why would you want the hassle of a dry suit or any suit in warm waters.

Because "warm" water is still 20 degrees colder than my body temperature and I have no (<3%) natural insulation. Not everyone is built the same way or has the same tolerance to cold. We do all still like diving though, apparently.

To the OP:
I haven't dived my suit in warm waters, yet, but I did try it on a couple times on my last trip to FL. The DUI TLS350 (what I have) will be a good option in warm or dry water, I think. In warm waters just wear a rash guard or dive skin (to prevent chafing). In cold water wear thicker thermal undergarments.

Is cost a factor in your decision to look at the 30/30?

 

[Peter_C]

Open feet is asking for trouble in any environment. It seems very peculiar to me that any drysuit would even have open feet as a default. I can't think of a single reason why someone could possibly want that.

R..

I can think of lots of reasons, like wakeboarding, water skiing, barefooting, but non have anything to do with scuba diving.

My cut off for diving dry is now around 80 degrees. Anything colder and I am diving dry.

This thread has lots of info on warm water drysuit use.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ex...ommendations-middle-aged-female-fl-diver.html

 

[TSandM]

I have taken my Fusion Sport to several tropical destinations, and I also dive it at home. One of the nice things about the two-layer, compression model of the Fusion is that it adapts quite nicely to thinner or thicker undergarments. In addition, the suit with the Sport skin is lighter than my 5 mil wetsuit. I did not find it unpleasant to get in and out of the suit in the 90 degree air temperatures of the Red Sea.

One of the big issues with dry suits and travel is that there are failures that can render a dry suit unusable. Primarily, this is seal damage, and the new user-replaceable seals on the Fusion solve that problem. In addition, should you forget to bring your own spares, you can use seals bought anywhere as replacements.

 

[Bhtmec2]

I live in the tropics and dive deep and I only use at a max a full 1.5mm suit. Usually I just dive in a rash guard and shorts.

Liveaboard 5 dives a day for a week I take a dry suit to use when I start getting cold later on in the trip.

On Saturday 2 divers from the states dove dry and got overheated. I told them to strip down and hydrate but they knew better.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[00wabbit]

I just got the fusion with the bullet skin. I dove it this weekend in 39 degree water. When you travel with it you can order the sport skin that is lightweight and drys quickly. The outer stretch shell keeps the suit streamlined like a wet suit.