Why not attached hoods????

[buff]

I don't understand not having an attached hood on a dry suit or a thick wetsuit. Most manufacturers have spererate hoods from their suits. If you look down with a hood on isn't there a chance of water flowing down your back-unless you have attained some type of "mircale seal" between your hood and the suit. Why not just eliminate this problem and attach the hood to the suit????
An attached hood also prevents "comparmentalizing" your body(I couldn't think of a better word)-no one part of your bady is seperate from the other-you get better insultating through convection of the circulating air moving from your head to your ankles and vice vera.
Am I just wrong here????


Thanks
Mike

 

[dsquid]

I suspect the primary reason is financial. "Head size" varies so much from person to person, it'd make it necessary for shops to carry a bunch of different suits.

Additionally (For me at least) I can't stand integrated
hoods. They're always a pain for me to put on, and I've never noticed any difference in warmth.

Bill

 

[fooks]

My hood is seperate from my wetsuit and I've never had water get in. The hood has a long bib that creates a seal once the jacket is zipped all the way up.

 

[fooks]

The best hoods are the ones that have zippers in the back.
Much easier to deal with!

 

[Warhammer]

When I need a hood, that usually means I also need more neoprene. So I usually put on my full suit, then put on my bibbed hood, then put on my short-sleeved shorty on top of that. With this setup, there is absolutely no way water can get down my back due to the layering. This way I can also wear each piece separate if need be. My wife on the other hand usually uses a hooded vest on top of her full suit, when she needs a hood. There is also no way for water to enter this way. Most drysuit divers use the drysuits neck seal to keep water out vs an attached hood. That's more versitile than an attached hood. But I suppose if you were diving in extremely cold water for extended periods of time, you might want an attached drysuit hood, as well as a full face mask and attached gloves.

 

[JoelW]

If I am using a hood wet I have an Akona hood with a zipper. My drysuit on the other hand has an attached hood. I end up with a "ring" of water around my neck when I am diving, but it doesn't seem to migrate up and my hair is pretty much dry when I am done. My drysuit also has a neck seal, so water around my neck doesn't get into the suit. Getting the neck seal set correctly is a bit of a pain, but I am getting pretty good at doing it. Nothing like a bit of water down the suit while ice diving to make you pay attention to what you are doing.

In the end, diving wet it doesn't matter either way to me since the water temp is reasonable, >60. When I use my drysuit, 6mm neoprene, it is because the water is getting a tad chilly and I think that an attached hood is the way to go.

JoelW

 

[Lost Yooper]

I dive some pretty cold water up here, and everyone I know uses unattached 7mm "dry suit" hoods. They call them dry suit hoods, but they aren't dry at all -- more like semi dry. They have about a 2" seal around the face to prevent water exchange. I got mine with my Abyss dry suit purchase, and my head never gets cold even in ice water.
I've used attached hoods and found them to be difficult to put on and are rarely the right size anyway. For a dry suit, I don't like the collar type hoods (which are zippered) either as the excess of the collar bugs be. My hood is a simple unzippered hood with a neck. Just make sure you get a hood that has the seal around the inside of the face, and you'll be good.

Mike

 

[simonk999]

I recently ordered a custom wetsuit -- fullsuit + hooded jacket. Ended up cutting off the hood and buying a seperate one because the hood was next to impossible to take off!! Now, granted I have a big head and relatively skinny neck, but even "normal" hoods are hard to take off -- best technique is to pull up from the rear of the hood, something that is impossible with an attached hood, and it's much more difficult to take off trying to pull up from the front. Believe me. Been there.

-Simon

 

[rcohn]

I have 3 wetsuits with attached hoods and when done correctly they work great. I only use a separate hood on a warm water suit where I adjust the layers to suit conditions. I've no desire to use a cold water suit with a separate hood. Oh, by the way, these suits also have no zippers.

On a dry suit, no water can flow down your neck so it's not as useful. I have a full beard so a dry hood would not be a good idea.

Ralph

 

[Normunds]

I dive in Baltic Sea with temperatures 4-7 C and use dry Viking with attached hood. It is not easy to wear it correctly and adjust neck seal but when done in the right way I think its is ideal option. Before I got my own Viking I dived in Viking without the attached hood and I definitely like the attached version better.
Another thing is that my girlfriend has very long hear and for her it is a real problem to squeeze the head through the neck seal of her Viking an after get all the hear in the hood. For her it was slightly easier to dive with separate hood. Anyway now she has tried several ways of how to deal with her hear and really enjoys the comfort Viking suit provides under water.
Norm