Drysuit Confusion

CCRDVR

Drysuit help needed. What are the pros and cons of the various drysuits styles available? Neporene, Laminate, crushed neporene etc.. I'm a bit confused as to what type to buy. I'm tired of wearing two wetsuits to stay sort of but not quite almost warm. The 7mm semi-dry just doesn't cut it. I'll be diving in waters from 40+ degrees. Help Please!!!

diverklondike

Based on where you live a CF200 should do the trick...

Best of all worlds...

M

nigelh

My opinion on dry suits

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nigelh

caveseeker7

I prefer shell suits with front entry zipper.
Currently have a Mobby's Armor Shell which has been holding up very well.
Next suit will likely be a DUI TLS350 or CLX450. I like the rock boots better
than attached rubber boots.

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Stefan



"It is still a good day if you are on the green side of the grass!

Su amigo Roberto!"

Sponsor Lou in Race For Life!

Nick uk.

Definately front loading, and with seperate boots, so you can turn it 'completeley' inside out for drying.

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If it aint broke....don't fix it,
and if it is.............well......get another one!


divechief2000@hotmail.com

CCRDVR

Thank to all for your input. Especially Nigel. Your dive rant web page is most excellent. To clarify things a bit. My dream has been to dive the Andrea Doria amongst other east coast wrecks. I live in Maryland and will be diving the coastal wrecks this summer and fall in order to build time on my CCR and earn TRIMIX certification in preparation for the Doria.
Thanks,
Jim

Deep Thought

Yes to ” Neoprene, Laminate, crushed neoprene etc..” anything is better than a wet suit and all will work fine under certain circumstances.

My first drysuit purchase in the early 70’s was a Uni Suit, the type that split down the mid back to mid chest. At the time it was the rage and I was styling! Some years later the seams started to leak, the neoprene cells would get crushed or punctured, the neoprene wrist and neckseals would develop permanent wrinkles / valleys that would not seal and I had a soggy semi-dry suit.

I have since dove in Crushed Neoprene while sport diving and instructing, sheet rubber suits when doing few years as a commercial “grunt” diver, and laminate suits.

Any of the choices will work, and work well for a while as can be seen by the still present market for all the choices and divers who choose them. Here are a few things I have discovered about the different choices;

Most Sheet Rubber suits are built on forms and sealed in autoclave ovens and only come in stock sizes, any custom sizing is having to cut the shape and add or subtract material. This type of manufacturing is more costly than cutting and gluing laminates, or neoprene. Sheet rubber suits have some stretch to the material depending on thickness, when I wore heavy sheet suits such as commercial diving they were very stiff to afford abrasion protection. Sheet Rubber suits dry quickly as the surface area does is not highly porous, nice for quick dry and haszmat. When I climbed out of sewage recepticle number one ( commercial work - not recreation - vis was shitty ) and was hosed off and rinsed with sanitizers I was glad to be in a sheet rubber suit. The thin material can be punctured, but easily identified with leak test and easily patched. Sheet Rubber suits will eventually crack at the seams and develop leaks, especially in wear areas of crotch.

Neoprene suits are primarily glue and blind seam stitched, some are taped inside but regardless closed cell neoprene is waterproof if you seal the seams. Neoprene has inherent thermal protection only in shallow water and you lose it as the cells compress at depth. The shallow water thermal protection comes at a price of additional weight to offset the buoyancy, then additional air in suit or bladder to offset negative weight at depth. Spongy thick neoprene seems abrasive resistant and it is in some regards, yet can deceive and make pinholes harder to locate than sheet suits. Gluing and patching neoprene suits is not as simple as sheet construction suits, and typically means blob patch or sometimes removing some material and re-stitching in a new section. Neoprene glue seams will eventually crack and leak, although some manufactures have seam sealed suits with AquaSeal which alleviates most of the problem.

Crushed Neoprene suits are a great compromise to tough material of neoprene without buoyancy and I feel they still offer a thermal barrier with the cells squished when compared to sheet suits. The toughness comes at a cost of weight of the suit and the porous exterior is slow to dry inside and out.

Laminate and Tri-Laminate suits have popped out of the woodwork from all sorts of manufactures due to the relative ease to cut, stitch, glue and tape seams to create a waterproof barrier. These suits vary widely in quality and durability. There are some very fine name companies that produce very durable Tri-laminate suit. The benefit of sheet laminate suits for me is the light weight, smooth exterior / interior that dries almost instantly, easy to patch.

Currently I wear both a Crushed Neo and a Tri-Laminate suit; crushed neo for cold wreck dives locally and a Trilam, but I always travel with my Tri-Laminate suit to save weight. With a good quality Trilam I would dive the doria or a south florida wreck. In your environment if I were to choose only one, I would choose the Crushed Neoprene suit.

Again they all work, at least for some period of time and they will all leak at some time and require maintenance. Choose a good quality suit and that usually means more $$ but it is worth it, ditch the wetsuit!

Deep Thought

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CCRDVR

Deep Thought,
Thanks for the terrific feedback! I appreciate you taking the time.
Aloha,
Jim

rogeringebo

I have a OTTER Britannic and Iam very happy with it....got in made to match,much cheaper than the DUI ones......and just as good or even better
http://www.drysuits.co.uk/britanic.html
Stay away from the Rockboots
Cheers Rodge

Nick uk.

Britannic is what i use too, very nicecly made.

__________________
If it aint broke....don't fix it,
and if it is.............well......get another one!


divechief2000@hotmail.com