50 degree water... what undergarment?

[BlueDolphin]

I purchased a Harvey's fleece lined nylon shell undergarment ($100 brand new with tags-had to have it). I don't know what thickness the fleece is.... but MAN it is hot in there. Is this overkill for 50 degree water?

What do you wear? What thickness? 100wt 200wt?

I tried this thing on in my drysuit in the house (68 degrees), and after about 15 minutes.... the undergarment was SOAKED...lol.

Maybe this is best kept for those EXTREME cold situations.

Would like to hear more about what everyone else is using in 50 degree waters.

Thanks much!

 

[metridium]

For 53F water I use a DUI 200g Thinsulate jumpsuit with a layer of military weight polypro and two layers of wool-based socks.

For recent dives in the tropical waters of the PNW (consistently 48F), I added a layer of very thin polypro. I was quite comfortable (except a bit cool during the SI onboard), and may not have needed the extra layer at all.

 

[trymixdiver]

Custom 300g thinsulate $178 with socks

Andy

 

[BlueDolphin]

I just checked the Harvey's website.... I have the 18oz fleece bunting undergarment with Taslon shell. It takes up a lot of room in my Trilam drysuit. Seems like it will trap a lot of air.

Anyone have this undergarment? If so..... how do you like it?

Wow... I got a great deal... it sells for $262.00 apparently.

 

[Arnaud]

Based on what I've seen, DUI makes some of the better fleece. They're double layered. I couldn't find any when I needed them so I got Patagonia's. I figure they work great in the snow. They did work great under my dry suit. Patagonia makes these ribbed undergarment (pants and sweater) that you wear under the fleece.

We dove off from the beach and had quite a bit of back and force walking under the sunny Californian sky. After 3 dives, when I took off my dry suit, the sweat was on the outside of the undergarment. My skin was actually dried.

I have tried Patagonia's regular undergarment that's made of polyester. While they make the same claim, it definitely doesn't work as well as the ribbed one.

 

[BlueDolphin]

I also noticed all the moisture was on the outside of my Harvey's. The material next to my skin was mostly dry. Need to find out if the DUI is thinner than this Harvey's. The Harvey's seems really thick.

 

[SDAnderson]

At those temps, I dive with a Diving Concepts 220g Thinsulate under my TLS350. Thermal protection requirements vary a lot from one person to another, however. I tend to run warm.

Steven

 

[Uncle Pug]

Price, performance, quality and service.
http://home.att.net/~gchev91/
Get the 300g for 50F and less. That is what I use.

I have no financial interest in the above... I just had them make me a set of dive undergarments and they did such a good job I told them to go into business. They are selling at twice the price (of course) through the LDS but we can get them direct.... tell them you want Uncle Pug's button hole if you are using a P-valve.

 

[trymixdiver]

I ordered mine from Janice also. I mentioned she needed to add the Pug special button hole to the web site as an option.

she may have added it by now.

Andy

 

[roakey]

The reason that there’s so much moisture on the outside of your undergarment is that after zipping up the humidity quickly climbs to 100% inside the suit. Immerse the suit in cold water and the water vapor condenses on the inside of the shell, wetting the outside of the undergarment.

Not to say that a good undergarment DOESN’T wick perspiration off your skin, I’m just saying that it doesn’t get sucked all the way to the outside layer of the undergarment, there’s another reason for all that moisture on the outside.

Roak