How to break in a new Bare Dry Suit

[Soakedlontra]

Alleluia! After waiting for 3 and a half months last Saturday I got my new Bare dry suit. On Sunday I could not wait to do my first dive with it and went to Keystone jetty...

but my body thought otherwise...

I could not get in the water. I felt I was inside a straight jacket, my heart beat went crazy and I began to feel a sense of claustrophobia. It seemed that I could not breath and I had to drop my tank on the beach, pull off the hood and free myself of the neck seal...I have never experienced anything like that with my semi-dry and my old dry suit (well that was used so doesn't count I guess).

So back home I decided to wear the suit inside my house while cooking:

and checking my e-mails

until I began to feel too hot and uncomfortable.

My plan is to keep wearing the dry suit at home for a while to break it in before passing to the next step: snorkeling and eventually diving with it...​

 

[RIdiverMike]

Was this squeeze pain associated with burping your suit of air before entering water? That's a distinctly "shrink-wrapped" sensation that you'll probably get used to. I've certainly had some squeeze issues with drysuit diving in general. I think my jacket style BC increases the resricted feeling. Besides just time, I make an extra concerted effort to move as slowly as needed to keep my heart rate to a minimum. All of this assumes you've got a well fitted suit, particularly with the thick looking undergarment you're wearing in the pic. Good luck with the assimilation! I never thought of wearing mine around the house - good idea!

 

[Soakedlontra]

Was this squeeze pain associated with burping your suit of air before entering water? That's a distinctly "shrink-wrapped" sensation that you'll probably get used to. I've certainly had some squeeze issues with drysuit diving in general. I think my jacket style BC increases the resricted feeling. Besides just time, I make an extra concerted effort to move as slowly as needed to keep my heart rate to a minimum. All of this assumes you've got a well fitted suit, particularly with the thick looking undergarment you're wearing in the pic. Good luck with the assimilation! I never thought of wearing mine around the house - good idea!

That's the problem: What is a 'well fitted suit"? I don't know anymore...I really hope that it will work otherwise it would mean that the shell is too tight and I just wasted more than $1,000!

 

[RIdiverMike]

You fit it while wearing your thickest undergarment right? And then you tried those various stretches, like the ones shown on page 10 of DUI's manual?

http://www.dui-online.com/pdf/drysuitmanual.pdf

I'm betting you already know this so don't mean to offend!! Best wishes!

 

[pjhansman]

I'm currently on the hunt for a drysuit. If your Bare is comfortable enough for cooking and email, then it sounds good to me

 

[a22shady]

The suit looks to be a good fit. When wearing your thickest undergarment it can feel a little snug. I wore mine with both my Fourth Element Arcti/XT250 undergarments when diving in Januaray water temp was 38F I was warm but the suit did get a little tight with all the layers. As for just the Arctic it feels good snug but not overlly.

If this is your first time ever trying on and wearing a drysuit I can see how you could feel that way as I had a similiar feeling first time I wore one, even when I used a hood for the first time. If need be go to a pool somewhere you can take your time and just practice.

 

[W8less]

In your post you mentioned a rush to take off your hood and neck seal. Any chance you were experiencing carotid squeeze from a tight neck seal? Was neck seal stretched and trimmed properly? Walking from your car to the water with the weight of the tank and strap/harness pressure can exacerbate restricting adequate blood flow to your head.

 

[Soakedlontra]

You fit it while wearing your thickest undergarment right? And then you tried those various stretches, like the ones shown on page 10 of DUI's manual?

http://www.dui-online.com/pdf/drysuitmanual.pdf

I'm betting you already know this so don't mean to offend!! Best wishes!

I wear the Bare thickest undergarment. If I had worn the Whites MK3 I wouldn't have been able to fit the legs inside the shell at all!

No I did not try the various DUI stretches because I did not know that they existed. Thanks for the link. I will try them out!

 

[Soakedlontra]

I'm currently on the hunt for a drysuit. If your Bare is comfortable enough for cooking and email, then it sounds good to me

Well...it depends of what kind of cooking you do and how many e-mails you write!

Good luck and make sure that whoever takes your measurements picks the size of the suit with some extra room...I think that is what's wrong with my suit!

 

[Soakedlontra]

The suit looks to be a good fit. When wearing your thickest undergarment it can feel a little snug. I wore mine with both my Fourth Element Arcti/XT250 undergarments when diving in Januaray water temp was 38F I was warm but the suit did get a little tight with all the layers. As for just the Arctic it feels good snug but not overlly.

If this is your first time ever trying on and wearing a drysuit I can see how you could feel that way as I had a similiar feeling first time I wore one, even when I used a hood for the first time. If need be go to a pool somewhere you can take your time and just practice.

This is my second dry suit. The first one was a Mobby's and it was a bit baggy so maybe I got used to have a lot of extra room and this is why I am struggling to feel comfortable in the more snug/tight fit of the Bare.