Drysuit Garments...can I use my under armour stuff for now?

[Yoyoguy]

All,
I currently own pretty expensive hunting/skiing garments which are all moisture wicking type garments. I have a cold base layer from under armour known as under armour 4.0. I was planning on wearing this with a fleece type ski layer for my diving until I get some actual scuba garments. The garments I have work well in sitting still hunting in very cold weather so I think I should be good with this stuff down to high 40s F water in dives shorter than 30minutes but honestly don't know. Fortunately I have a shore diving place to go diving that I can test to lower 50s F temps. Do you think this will be ok for now? I really don't have money to spend on scuba specific garments until winter time. I will not be diving anywhere where I would need to do a long swim if I did have a suit flood and needed to get out of the water quickly.

What garments do you suggest I start saving up for which will allow me to dive in water down to 35F for ice diving should I go that route? thanks!

 

[fjpatrum]

Yes. There is absolutely no need to buy expensive undergarments "designed for diving" or made by diving companies. I use an old military wool sweater, spandex runners tights (big in the 90s), polypro "sleep shirt" style shirts, and homemade fleece pants, or a homemade fleece body suit. (Not all at the same time. Generally a "skin layer" like a rash guard and the runner tights with a second "medium weight" layer on top of that.) Total cost for all of the above was about $30, over a 10+ year time period and all of them are also good for ice climbing, hiking, camping, lounging around the house etc.

The coldest water I've dove was about 38-40F but I was plenty comfortable in those undergarments, even when I got wet from a neck seal leak.

 

[tbone1004]

yes, most of us do.

 

[eelnoraa]

absolutely yes. Before I bought any diving specific undergarment, I was using fleece top and pant from my winter sport, REI smart wool socks under drysuit. They worked well. But do keep your eyes on classify and ebay. I have seen and bought new old stock DUI thinsulate for well under $100. REI heavy wool socks (on sale) are just unbeatable for warmth and value.

 

[TSandM]

Just two observations . . . one is that whatever you wear under your dry suit (especially in the temperatures you are describing) needs to insulate well when wet. You can never predict when a dry suit will become a wetsuit . . . and when it does, if you can't get out of the water immediately (eg. Shore dive where you have a swim) you need to be able to stay warm enough to get yourself out.

The other observation is that often, for equivalent insulation, you will pay a MUCH higher penalty in lead for using multiple layers of other cold weather stuff, rather than purpose-made dry suit undergarments. I know, when I started, I was layering my extensive polarfleece wardrobe that I have for horseback riding in winter, and the weight penalty was pretty severe.

 

[Adobo]

All,
I currently own pretty expensive hunting/skiing garments which are all moisture wicking type garments. I have a cold base layer from under armour known as under armour 4.0. I was planning on wearing this with a fleece type ski layer for my diving until I get some actual scuba garments. The garments I have work well in sitting still hunting in very cold weather so I think I should be good with this stuff down to high 40s F water in dives shorter than 30minutes but honestly don't know. Fortunately I have a shore diving place to go diving that I can test to lower 50s F temps. Do you think this will be ok for now? I really don't have money to spend on scuba specific garments until winter time. I will not be diving anywhere where I would need to do a long swim if I did have a suit flood and needed to get out of the water quickly.

What garments do you suggest I start saving up for which will allow me to dive in water down to 35F for ice diving should I go that route? thanks!

A few things to consider for an undergarment:

1. Will it keep you sufficiently warm during a dive and, in the case of a catastrophic flood, keep you able to function until you can get yourself out of the water? Whenever I read about undergarments, I usually see people comment about how "toasty" the UG keeps them. Not nearly as common is the commentary about how the UG performs when, while on a shore dive, being 30 minutes from being able to exit the water, a neck seal delaminates. This is the same point that was made by TSandM.
2. Fit. The undergarment has to fit such that it is long enough to allow you to stretch out and maintain full range of motion. But, it also has to be not so big as to have excess material bunching up in places.

It is true that undergarments need not be diving specific for them to work well. However, my concern here would be this - the proper way to buy a drysuit is to first get the UG that has all the properties you are looking for (thick enough for the water you will be diving, proper size and fit, etc.). After you have the right undergarment identified, then you can go about finding the right size drysuit. I see a lot of people buying the drysuits first, then the UG. This could be problematic as you might find that the drysuit is too small for the thickness of UG you need.

So if you go in the direction of using some temporary UG solution and then you buy a drysuit, you'll have to be careful to get, not the size that fits your temporary UG but rather, the size that fits your eventual UG. Does that make sense?

In terms of what UGs to consider for the future - the vast majority of people I dive with (in high 40s, low 50s) use 400g thinsulate UGs from either DUI or Santi. I have used my DUI 400g UG in low 40s (in Vancouver, BC) for dives up to an hour. I have used that same UG in Monterey (high 40s, low 50s) for dives of almost 2 hours. I try and plan my dives such that I could exit the water within 30 minutes should I have a drysuit flood.

 

[JohnnyC]

I've worn UA, with a pair of Kuhl hiking pants and a long sleeve t-shirt once. It's not a great idea, but realistically there's no reason you can't wear whatever you want underneath your drysuit. But that all being said, the advice given above reurpose designed undergarments holds water.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

As stated previously, you don't. I used to get a lot of flak from a diving instructor for not having an undergarment, as I had plenty of layers for winter sports, including the Omniheat shirt from Columbia Sportswear (which I highly recommend). Now I have a Fourth Element Halo3D undergarment, and I really don't see a difference between that and the polypropylene/fleece layers I had before. In fact, I still wear many of the same base layers. Fleece works really well in my experience.

 

[KevinNM]

Yes, but they rarely insulate as effectively as purpose built layers when wet. I've poured water out of my drysuit legs and had to wring out the mid layer to get it to dry in a machine and yet I wasn't freezing after hours in the water. So I'd suggest you flood the suit (preferably slowly) and see how long it takes for you to get seriously cold, so you know how long from shelter you want to be.

I spent 3 hours in the water with a flooded drysuit in a roughly 70 degree water. I was just a bit chilly at the end, didn't figure out it was flooded until I was waking out of the water and felt squishing in the boots. It takes about 6 pounds more lead to sink the drysuit with this mid layer than a 5mm wetsuit. It a very warm but dense thinsulate. So while I'm unimpressed with the bare dry suit, the bare SB mid layer is pretty good.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

As stated previously, you don't. I used to get a lot of flak from a diving instructor for not having an undergarment, as I had plenty of layers for winter sports, including the Omniheat shirt from Columbia Sportswear (which I highly recommend). Now I have a Fourth Element Halo3D undergarment, and I really don't see a difference between that and the polypropylene/fleece layers I had before. In fact, I still wear many of the same base layers. Fleece works really well in my experience.

Okay. I want to withdraw this earlier comment. Why? Yesterday, while taking a long dive for the mapping exercise for my DM certification (hour and a half, as I was mostly around 40 feet), my backup dry suit had a major leak. Once I was out of the water, i realized how soaked I was. But while diving, I was comfortable. I knew something was wrong, but I wasn't really feeling the water. There is no way my previous setup of polypropylene/fleece would have enabled me to continue diving like I did.

Now I have to figure out where is that leak, as I was pretty much soaked everywhere. I'm guessing up high, as I surfaced a couple times to take compass readings for points of interest.