weights while diving with Santi emotion dry suite

[MasterMindDiver]

Hello Scuba Board,
few days ago i was diving in cold water 8 °C, 46.4 °F with full wet suite 15 mm .
my weight is around 250 LB ... and I was holding 46 LBs of weights + single tank mounted on my back.

I am planning to buy santi e-motion .. as I understand that its material does not compress while going deeper .. therefore I am assuming that i will be hold way less weight.

hope I get more information from you guys if you have more information about that dry suite , if it will help me reducing the amounts of weight i put on my waist .. and the possible alternatives in case I will consider GUE diving in the future.
Regards

 

[KevinNM]

The weight needed for a drysuit is determined by how dense you are (denser muscle and bone vs less dense fat), what type of undergarment you have on (typically warmer garments needs more weight) and how much air you run in your dry suit. More air increases the thermal protection, and requires more weight to sink.

So it varies. People who dive in really cold water, like ice divers, need a lot more thermal protection than someone diving in a Florida spring (70F). Someone spending 8-12 hours in a 70F Florida spring is going to need a lot more thermal protection than the typical diver in for under an hour.

I feel it is very likely that you can remove weight by going to a dry suit, but it's hard to tell from here.

 

[TotDoc]

15mm wet suit? Yeah, that will have some buoyancy to it! How much weight you need to sink a dry suit is highly dependent upon how heavy of undergarments you wear under it, and how much residual air you need in the suit you require to feel comfortable. That air in the suit as well as some loft of the undergarments can and does compress with depth, but you can equalize that change by adding air to the suit, whereas you can't equalize the change with the wetsuit. I imagine you will be able to drop some weight in the drysuit vs a 15mm suit, but I've never made that comparison myself. Try it out and let us know!

 

[AJ]

The great thing about a drysuit is (almost) constant volume. As you go deeper it won't compress. As you ascend it won't decompress. So correct weighting is much easier to achieve. The main variable is underwear. That defines your weighting more than anything else.

How much weight you will need can only be determined by doing a weight check. I have tried to calculate it, but failed miserably.

 

[captio2000]

Wow, I can't even imagine a 15 mm wetsuit. I am a big guy and use an Emotion drysuit for cold water diving. The weight you need is all about the under garments you wear and gear you strap on. One thing I can tell you is if you've never dove a drysuit before, the resistance to moving through the water is higher due to bulk of the suit, it doesn't slip through the water as cleanly as a wetsuit. Love my Santi Emotion. You might want to consider dry gloves too if you will dive really cold water.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

With a ScubaPro Everdry 4mm compressed neoprene dry-suit and 12L steel cylinder (3500 psi, 100 CuFt), I use 15KG (33 lbs) of lead when diving with a Fourth Element Arctic thermal top and a Sharkskin thermal bottom. When I use a thinner Kathmandu POLARTEC top and bottom thermals I only need 13KG (28.6 lbs) of lead. I weigh 174 lbs and am of medium build, 5' 9".

 

[captio2000]

Wow, I can't even imagine a 15 mm wetsuit. I am a big guy and use an Emotion drysuit for cold water diving. The weight you need is all about the under garments you wear and gear you strap on. One thing I can tell you is if you've never dove a drysuit before, the resistance to moving through the water is higher due to bulk of the suit, it doesn't slip through the water as cleanly as a wetsuit. Love my Santi Emotion. You might want to consider dry gloves too if you will dive really cold water.

Oh, you also need to adjust based on the tank used - I add several pounds when I switch from my AL 100 to AL 80.

 

[MasterMindDiver]

Wow, I can't even imagine a 15 mm wetsuit. I am a big guy and use an Emotion drysuit for cold water diving. The weight you need is all about the under garments you wear and gear you strap on. One thing I can tell you is if you've never dove a drysuit before, the resistance to moving through the water is higher due to bulk of the suit, it doesn't slip through the water as cleanly as a wetsuit. Love my Santi Emotion. You might want to consider dry gloves too if you will dive really cold water.

thanks for letting me know about the resistance .. first time to hear about it .. actually my first time to dive dry will be in the weekend .. but most probably will be neoprene since it is rental gear so far

 

[MasterMindDiver]

With a ScubaPro Everdry 4mm compressed neoprene dry-suit and 12L steel cylinder (3500 psi, 100 CuFt), I use 15KG (33 lbs) of lead when diving with a Fourth Element Arctic thermal top and a Sharkskin thermal bottom. When I use a thinner Kathmandu POLARTEC top and bottom thermals I only need 13KG (28.6 lbs) of lead. I weigh 174 lbs and am of medium build, 5' 9".

while using really warm water .. I use 4mm shorty neoprene with around 16lb + gears .. looks like I need to try it and figure it out .. a lot of factors are counting