undergarments for a drysuit

[Peter_C]

Woolen undergarments will work regardless what its made for...

Yeah but you are a polar bear. There is NO WAY I would get in the water with what you wear, as I would be frozen in five minutes. What you wear is what I wear UNDER my undergarments.

Much of what you require for undergarments, and base layer depends on water temps, and how you dive. Some are quiet divers that move very slowly (OR quickly if using a scooter, but that makes you colder), with really long 80+ minute bottom times, and some divers are hyper underwater constantly moving and tend to have shorter bottom times -30 minute bottom times. Of course some people are more predisposed to the cold than others.

 

[AngloFish]

Yes they do, I use wool liners for my gloves. However a wool jumpsuit of similar thermal properties/lack of loft will be the same if not more than proper drysuit undies.
I'm from Canada, I'm no stranger to having to chainsaw my way into the water. OP is from NC and doubt they have much opportunity to ice dive.

Proper wool undergarments work perfectly fine. Its nothing magic that make it work better just because you print "diving" on a garment and double the pricetag...
And yeah, I think Id say I dive cold water when the water goes solid above my head

 

[TSandM]

skullmancan, any insulating garments will insulate in a dry suit. There are two major questions you have to ask, though: One is what the weight penalty will be for getting enough of the material on you to keep you warm, and the other, and more important question is whether what you are wearing will keep you warm when you are soaking wet. Although dry suits ideally are dry, in the long run every dry suit will leak at some point. It is not at all fun to discover you are a half hour swim from shore in 48 degree water and you are soaked, but it's survivable if the undergarments you are using are designed to retain significant insulting capacity when they are wet. If not, you can be in a world of hurt.

I started my diving career layering polarfleece stuff that I had from other sports and activities. I stayed warm enough for that point in my diving career, where I was moving a lot and dives were relatively short, but I sure had to pack on the weight to sink the layers. The undergarment I use now, the Whites MK3, keeps me warmer, requires less weight, and works when it's wet. It's really worth the extra money.

 

[skullmancan]

thanks for all the help now i know i have alot of thinking to do on what i should buy

 

[FinnMom]

TSandM do you wear a base layer (such as wool long johns) under the MK3?

 

[bradells]

I dive with whites, I have a mk2 for 'warm water' drysuit diving 65F+ water, and a Fusion undergarment (1 size bigger) for 40-60F water.

I've had extremely slow floods in 46F water and not noticed until I've come out an hour later, and fast floods with not having the inflator hose quite seated noticed immediately (water is sucked in via the Venturi caused with the inflator valve).

Overall I love the fusion, and wear a light weight merino wool base underneath.

The only way better I'd gather is heated vests.

In 50F water the fusion feels like I'm diving in the Caribbean ...

As mentioned before, wool is wool as far as insulating, but for keeping liquid away from the body and movement/flexibility, dive undies make a difference in the end (especially with the fusion)


BRad

 

[Peter_C]

The undergarment I use now, the Whites MK3, keeps me warmer, requires less weight, and works when it's wet. It's really worth the extra money.

Wait, I thought you were using a Thermal Fusion?? Or was that just borrowed?

 

[TSandM]

No, I have a TF, too. I like a lot of things about the MK3, though, including the zippered breast pocket and the drop seat. Since I started diving my Santi suit pretty exclusively at home, I use the MK3 more, because it's not difficult to stuff into the Santi. And yes, I use a base layer of KamGear fleece, which I use under either garment for Puget Sound diving.

 

[boulderjohn]

I dived the MK3 when Lynn and I dived in Puget Sound. I had never used it before for single tank diving, and only once before with double tank diving, when I was very overweighted.

We did a one hour night dive with temperatures in the high 40s, and I was sweating at the end of it. I would have been fine with my MK2's and maybe the vest. Because of my considerable past experience with MK2's, I could not believe how much additional lead it took to get me under water when I wore the MK3s, and I did not have enough at the end of the dive when my tank started to run toward empty.

 

[Kitty_Kat]

Like TSandM said, I too started by wearing polar fleece stuff I had lying around (REI type stuff) over some sort of a wool base layer. This worked well for keeping warm but didn't always fit wonderfully under the drysuit, required a lot of weight, and felt bulky.

I switched to Fourth Element Arctics and couldn't be happier. I'm very comfortable in ~50 degree water in just those under a tri-lam drysuit and am usually too warm if I wear an extra layer underneath. Sometimes I can't even tell when I have a leak until I look inside my drysuit because the Arctics work equally as well when wet. Worth the money to me!