Shell drysuit gizmo needed.... armpit suspenders

[Javik]

So I just recently got my PAID drysuit training, and I notice a problem with the DUI suits plus a Weezle.

When you get in the water at the surface, you put your arms down with your left shoulder at the highest point, to vent the air out the drysuit exhaust valve.

Once properly weighted, you flatten out horizontal in the water, you raise your arms and put them out in front of you, flying like superman, and proceed down on the dive.



I said raise your arms and put them out in front of you.

What? You can't do that? Why?

Oh, the suit squeeze while getting air out of the suit, now has the suit material tightly pinned down, and there is no stretch at all in either the DUI trilam or the Weezle. So you can't raise your arms out in front of you without pulling REALLY hard on the suit material and either pulling a muscle or damaging the suit.

When you got in the water with your arms down and the valve at the highest point, as the suit deflated, the suit was pinned against you in the arm-down position and it hung low on your body while doing that. There is now no slack left in the material held down by the water, to raise your arms once the air is squeezed out.



Hmm, how can we deal with this? Apparently what we need is a way to pull the suit shell up around the shoulders so there is slack held up in the armpit area, even with your arms down.

It would sort of be like a second set of suspenders inside the suit that attach to the suit material directly under your armpits to pull up the suit shell slack into that area, so you can always easily raise your arms with the suit squeezed down by the water.



Shell drysuit armpit suspenders? Never heard of such a thing.

It would have probably even been patentable, if you hadn't just announced it to the world on a global forum accessed by thousands of divers.

Oh well, another money-making opportunity lost.

 

[tbone1004]

I can all but guarantee you that you won't be able to damage that suit by stretching. Those seams are far stronger than you are by stretching. You'll pull the wrist seals back long before the seams pull apart.

The technique to mitigate that is while at the surface, scrunch into a ball with your arms up and crack one of the wrist seals to let the air out. If doing it in the water i.e. after jumping off of a boat, just open the valve all the way and raise both arms until they are parallel to the water or a little higher and that will telescope the suit back up to where you want it. When on descent, while you're still somewhat head up, stretch up again to make sure all is where it should be while the air is still up by your shoulders, and then flip horizontal.

 

[sea_otter]

One trick I like to use when drysuit diving is to get in the water, close my exhaust valve, fill my suit with a bit of air, and wiggle around a bit on the surface. Stretch out each area of the suit, reach back overhead to check my tank valves are open, drop my head underwater to stretch out my legs, etc. I look pretty absurd doing it but it works. I'll then reopen the exhaust valve and let that air out with everything in a comfortable position. It makes it easier to move and it makes the suit more comfortable for the entire dive (I remember skipping this step once a few dives back, and I realized just how much of a difference it made - you can't fix it after you're underwater).

Your suit will get tighter and less flexible as you descend, but that's why you have an inflator. Puff some gas into it to maintain flexibility and warmth.

When it comes time to ascend, a good trick is to raise your left arm to the highest point on your body and let that gas flow into your forearm or glove. Remember that air movement is a slow thing, so give it a couple seconds, then slowly bend your arm towards you to push bubbles out the exhaust valve. It's easy to want to flail your arm around, but that won't work.

 

[elgoog]

One trick I like to use when drysuit diving is to get in the water, close my exhaust valve, fill my suit with a bit of air, and wiggle around a bit on the surface. Stretch out each area of the suit, reach back overhead to check my tank valves are open, drop my head underwater to stretch out my legs, etc. I look pretty absurd doing it but it works. I'll then reopen the exhaust valve and let that air out with everything in a comfortable position. It makes it easier to move and it makes the suit more comfortable for the entire dive (I remember skipping this step once a few dives back, and I realized just how much of a difference it made - you can't fix it after you're underwater).

What she said.

I'm lazy and don't close the exhaust valve while doing this and it works fine that way too - you have to be horizontal or head down the entire time. I also tend to be quite generous with how much gas I put in the suit while doing this and am quite, uh, enthusiastic with the stretching and wiggling. Let your buddy know what you're doing; I didn't once and he thought I was having a seizure or something ...