Vintage Tunnel Dry Suit

[Ed66]

I am putting my vintage dive kit together, and I have not been to lucky at getting a good vintage wetsuit (1960's ) on E-bay. I'm a men's med. (5' 7" 145lbs. 32in waist 36-37in chest if anybody has one I dive in NJ so needless to say I need something for cold water. I found a web site that makes an exact copy of thier 1950's dry suit. The only thing is the drysuit is a tunnel type( hole in the chest you climb into then twist it shut and band it or clamp it) The suit has no other fitting's so it does take some getting used too. Has anyone ever dove this type of suit and what was it like. I plan on shallow diving only with my setup 30-40 ft max. any help would be great. Thanks Ed

 

[Diver Lori]

I saw one at a talk Dick Long from DUI did at one of his DOG Rallies. You may want to drop him an email and see if he'll respond to you. As long as he's been diving dry, I bet he's dived one........

Or better still, attend one of his Demo Days and I'm sure you'll get more info than you ever thought you'd get!

He's also a collector of vintage gear too and loves to talk about it.

www.dui-online.com

 

[Bob3]

You want to use some good stiff undies or you'll have road maps pinched into your skin.
As you're descending you can go into a head down position & pull the chin up over your mouth & blow a little air into your suit. Don't overfill though.
My DESCO Bunny Suit has a duckbill on the top of the hood to dump excess air, those old Aquala's don't.
Alternately you can sneak a valve on the suit, One of my first just had a HP bottle with a needle valve for piddling a little air into it.
I have an extra clamp, got anything to swap?

 

[oxyhacker]

There were two outfits that were advertising vintage-style rubber suits, one being http://www.xyz.net/~cstmwrks/vintage.htm but the links don't seem to be working to either.

The suits were usually just glued up out of flat sheets of latex, so it would be possible to make your own.

Not sure how much luck you'll have finding a usable old one - being natural rubber, they aged pretty quickly and most of them have probably perished.

BTW, if you want a cheap and authentic period divesuit to tide you over until you find your tunnel entry, one of the tricks people used to use in the early days was to get a set of snug fitting wool long underwear, then soak them in liquid latex to waterproof them.

 

[ew1usnr]

Back by popular demand from the maker of America's premium drysuit! An authentic replica of our classic 1950's dry suit.

1-800-DRYSUIT
www.aquala,com

See attached photo.