Cold water but hot day: drysuit advice

[MXGratefulDiver]

My routine always involves pouring water over my head once I'm in my drysuit ... cold water on hot days and warm water on cold days. In both cases, it's instant relief.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Tug]

I agree, the warm water is awesome on a cold day! One of the boats I drive always has a cooler of warm water to soak hoods, etc in during the cooler months.

We’ll also dump a bucket of water over you if you like in the warmer months.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Yup, jump in the water as soon as you suit up and stay there for as at least 30 seconds to a minute. Also vent the suit as much as possible, the more compressed the insulation the better. Don't be afraid to jump back in before throwing tanks on.

Also, when coming out of the water do not let air into the suit until you are ready to remove it. The more squeeze on it the cooler you'll stay.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Drysuit diving on hot days in cold water is a bitch!
I used to dive dry in a 7mm Teknodiver Super Duty Commercial.
I would sweat my ass off topside then get cold at depth because of all the sweat in the suit. It used to get so damp that I thought the suit leaked like a sieve, but it didn’t, it was all sweat. Not to mention almost passing out several times from overheating.
I finally went back to a quality custom made wetsuit that IMO for the type of diving I was doing, worked better than the drysuit. I was actually warmer for the first couple dives, but got colder on the third dive.
It’s all a trade off I suppose. Diving dry certainly has advantages but then so does diving wet with it’s simplicity.
We do a lot of kayak diving in Northern California, so in this case wetsuit diving seems to make more sense for me now.
Shore diving involving hikes and/or kayak diving in a drysuit really doesn’t work well.

 

[stretchthepenn]

An instructor I know has an interesting technique. He takes a cold shower in the dive location's bathhouse and then suits up.

 

[ajduplessis]

I don the suit and use the outdoor showers and soak the suit with cold water, or take a quick dip, either way it cools me down.

 

[soonerwink]

I have found it helps to get your hood wet, and put it on right after I don my drysuit. I like to don my gear before getting in the water. It seems easier than over heating at the surface trying to find buckles and everything. That way all I have to do is put on fins and get below the thermocline.

 

[Lorenzoid]

With this thread in mind, we froze a couple of water bottles in the freezer compartment of the hotel room fridge before heading out to dive. By the time we got to the site, the bottles had thawed just enough to make icy cold water to pour over ourselves after we donned our hoods.

 

[admikar]

This is for a short boat ride, equipment already on a boat. For longer rides, suit up just before you arrive on site, and endure heat until hitting the wet stuff

 

[mainedvr]

We have these things called chilllits at work they are a shamious typer material you wet them and they are very cool to the touch put it around your neck and it helps.

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