Dry suit gaiters

[webjr]

I've never needed them , so I've never used them. To those that have.....
Do they realy help that much? My wife is trying to get used to drysuit diving but has a BIG problem getting air trapt in the legs. Her suit fits pretty loose in the legs. And she's naturaly a little light in the feet anyway. Any recommendations pro vs con would be apreciated.
Thanks ,
Bill

 

[Doc Harry]

Gaiters do not prevent air from going to your feet.....

....but they do a very good job of trapping air in your feet once the air is there, and make it more difficult to transfer the air back to your shoulder when you can dump it.

The real solution is less air in the dry suit. If you're cold, that necessitates thicker undergarments.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

If the drysuit fits loosely in the legs, then using gaiters is a legitimate solution to the problem.

I've used gaiters on my baggy-legged drysuit and had no issues with the air-trapping that Doc Harry describes. YMMV. You should know, however, that my drysuit has soft neoprene booties that I wear rock boots with. No air-trapping is possible in this configuration. With attached hard boots, I could see how air-trapping might be possible...although one of my dive buddies uses gaiters with his attached drysuit boots and hasn't had any air-trapping issues at all.

BTW, what brand/model fin is your wife currently using? It might be time to give some negatively buoyant Scubapro Jetfins with spring straps a whirl...

 

[webjr]

Thanks guys...
She has tried my buddies heavier SP Twinjets with no better results. She's always been the type to look for a hardware solution to a software problem first. But since she's always right..... I might as well bite the bullet and go pick up a pair for her tomorrow and let her spend the day in the pool with them and see for herself.
Thanks again,
Bill

 

[Dantheengineer]

Bill.

I've been following with interest having had a similar experience just recently. I was thinking either of gaiters or ankle weights. I'd be dead interested in your/her findings if you'd care to share?

Preemptive thanks.

 

[mjh]

Used a pair of Halcyon (sp?) worked for my old suit just do a good dumping of air on surface and then put them on.

 

[webjr]

She spent an hour in the pool today with her new DiveRite gaiters. She seemed very satisfied with the results. No more air in the feet.
Thanks again,
Bill

 

[Bubbletrubble]

She spent an hour in the pool today with her new DiveRite gaiters. She seemed very satisfied with the results. No more air in the feet.
Thanks again,
Bill

Bill, I'm glad your wife found something that seems to work. That being said, I predict that at some point she'll forget to bring her gaiters on a dive...and she'll find that by exerting tight control over her trim/bubble inside the drysuit she'll be able to manage gaiterless drysuit diving. At least I found this to be the case for me.

At some point in the next year I'll be moving to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Perhaps I'll look you up. My girlfriend recently moved to the area and we're trying to decide where the best place to "keep" her drysuit is (San Diego or Fort Worth).

 

[Sas]

Gaiters do not prevent air from going to your feet.....

....but they do a very good job of trapping air in your feet once the air is there, and make it more difficult to transfer the air back to your shoulder when you can dump it.

The real solution is less air in the dry suit. If you're cold, that necessitates thicker undergarments.

This doesn't match with my experience at all. I borrowed gaiters (Halcyon) recently off a friend to try them out, as I have a big problem with floaty feet. Used them for about a dozen dives (then she came back from overseas, bye bye gaiters ) They worked great, it was *very* difficult to get air into them, I really tried to get air in there to see how they coped and it was a challenge. To get the air out was more difficult than normal but easily do-able - but it meant sacrificing my trim for a bit to go a bit vertical. Anyway, with single tank + gaiters, I no longer need to use ankle weights. Double tank I still have floaty feet but going to try gaiters + longer tail weight now. The gaiters did reduce the amount of weight I wear on my ankles though.

I plan to get some myself but they are too expensive for me just yet. Going to see how some mountaineering gaiters work, as my buddy has them for diving and they cost $30 rather than $175 for the Halcyon ones :shocked2: Duct tape around your legs also works, according to my buddy though he eventually forked out for some Dive Rite ones.

 

[jky]

For a cheap alternative, go to a soccer shop and look for "shin splint supports".

The ones I got are available in 2 sizes (which has to do with the height; the larger ones cover the calves pretty well.) They are about $16 each ($32 a set); much cheaper than the $90 or whatever the tech companies sell them for.

jky