Roy_W
Contributor
Ok the following question is highly subjective but here goes..
1 : We dive weekly in cold water, it's summer here but at 30m it's around 8° with a surface temp around 24°.
2 : We have never dived in Dry Suits.
3 : We normally wear 7mm wet suits with 3mm Neoprene T-Shirts underneath, gloves, hood, boots etc..
On a typical dive we would spend around 20mins or so at 25m -> 35m , decos limited to around 5m.. At around the 20 minute mark the cold definately starts to become disagreeable and we want to rise to a warmer depth...
We are seriously considering the "investement" in SF Tech Dry Suits, they are local and most importantly custom made...
My question is as follows, even though it's subjective :
Do drysuits actually keep you warm or do they just inhibit the cold for a longer period of time ? Is it comparable to having good quality skiing gear, we ski a fair bit and have good gear and almost never feel the cold even when it's getting down to -10°. ( uncovered skin is obviously the exception). With skiing we have three layers, the first layer being thermal underwear, 2nd being a shell jacket, 3rd is your skiing jacket ( a standard setup for the alps). I had pretty cheap skiing clothes in the beginning and I would suffer on the very cold days.
My question is under the assumption that we would be wearing proper undergarments, let's say 300g as an example. If we head down to 35m and it's 8° as usual what would we likely feel compared to diving in our wetsuits. Obviousy the head and hands will feel the cold first as they are the least protected, (hands could be debatable depending on dry or wet gloves). Will the body, legs, arms and feet still feel the cold, I would presume and hope that it would be "much" less or are we so well insulated that it can almost be ignored ?
On a normal dive my wife gets colder far quicker than do , but has very little body fat, almost no natural protection. I can usually gain 10 minutes on her before I start to notice cold discomfort. I understand that it will be different depending on body size etc..
What would be a good comparrison, is my skiing fitting as a comparrison, if not what other examples would be demonstrative of the difference between dry and wetsuit warmth.
The SF Techs are expensive and I am having second thoughts if the price justifies the return.. ( The same goes for any other of the high end dry suits, SF Tech is simply our choice because it's local)
1 : We dive weekly in cold water, it's summer here but at 30m it's around 8° with a surface temp around 24°.
2 : We have never dived in Dry Suits.
3 : We normally wear 7mm wet suits with 3mm Neoprene T-Shirts underneath, gloves, hood, boots etc..
On a typical dive we would spend around 20mins or so at 25m -> 35m , decos limited to around 5m.. At around the 20 minute mark the cold definately starts to become disagreeable and we want to rise to a warmer depth...
We are seriously considering the "investement" in SF Tech Dry Suits, they are local and most importantly custom made...
My question is as follows, even though it's subjective :
Do drysuits actually keep you warm or do they just inhibit the cold for a longer period of time ? Is it comparable to having good quality skiing gear, we ski a fair bit and have good gear and almost never feel the cold even when it's getting down to -10°. ( uncovered skin is obviously the exception). With skiing we have three layers, the first layer being thermal underwear, 2nd being a shell jacket, 3rd is your skiing jacket ( a standard setup for the alps). I had pretty cheap skiing clothes in the beginning and I would suffer on the very cold days.
My question is under the assumption that we would be wearing proper undergarments, let's say 300g as an example. If we head down to 35m and it's 8° as usual what would we likely feel compared to diving in our wetsuits. Obviousy the head and hands will feel the cold first as they are the least protected, (hands could be debatable depending on dry or wet gloves). Will the body, legs, arms and feet still feel the cold, I would presume and hope that it would be "much" less or are we so well insulated that it can almost be ignored ?
On a normal dive my wife gets colder far quicker than do , but has very little body fat, almost no natural protection. I can usually gain 10 minutes on her before I start to notice cold discomfort. I understand that it will be different depending on body size etc..
What would be a good comparrison, is my skiing fitting as a comparrison, if not what other examples would be demonstrative of the difference between dry and wetsuit warmth.
The SF Techs are expensive and I am having second thoughts if the price justifies the return.. ( The same goes for any other of the high end dry suits, SF Tech is simply our choice because it's local)