Cave Diving. Wet, or Dry. Pros/Cons

[garyh]

Hello. Having experience in New England diving 18 winters in a D.U.I. TLS 350 Drysuit, and a 6.5mm Farmer John Wetsuit in the summer. I have a "Basic." understanding of exposure protection, and insulation strategies, core temps, prolonged exposure to cold water, Etc.
For 20 years, I have been adamant about not Cave diving. It is now something, that I am strongly thinking about pursuing.
I'm curious what the Cave divers are using for suits (Specifically, in "Cave Country.") Florida.
and why?
Thanks.
Cheers.

I dive dry always, TLS350 is my suit of choice repairs r quick and easy and they dry pretty much immediately . When in FL (haven't been there for a few years) I would typically wear a 200 G under suit, I'm from the north and in 72 deg water that was fine.
Most of my cave now is in MX so 78 deg water for the most part.
Still use the TLS but take 2 under garments. Use a Santi fleece for shorter 2-2 1/2 hour dives and if I'm staging/going longer I switch to a Flex 190.
Looks like u r from Georgia so u r likely used to the heat.
Key is gearing up, dress in shade, make sure all your gear is totally ready prior to donning your suit, and then get in the water for a few minutes to cool off b4 donning the rest.
I remember my 1st trip to MX. It was a group thing so probably about 8 divers plus the guide.
Day 1 we r suiting up and I'm the only person in the group diving dry, was a big joke with the group WTF r u diving dry???
Day 4 we get out of the water and the whole group where different shades of white and blue shivering their asses off, who laughing now ;-).

 

[Boston Breakwater]

I dive dry always, TLS350 is my suit of choice repairs r quick and easy and they dry pretty much immediately . When in FL (haven't been there for a few years) I would typically wear a 200 G under suit, I'm from the north and in 72 deg water that was fine.
Most of my cave now is in MX so 78 deg water for the most part.
Still use the TLS but take 2 under garments. Use a Santi fleece for shorter 2-2 1/2 hour dives and if I'm staging/going longer I switch to a Flex 190.
Looks like u r from Georgia so u r likely used to the heat.
Key is gearing up, dress in shade, make sure all your gear is totally ready prior to donning your suit, and then get in the water for a few minutes to cool off b4 donning the rest.
I remember my 1st trip to MX. It was a group thing so probably about 8 divers plus the guide.
Day 1 we r suiting up and I'm the only person in the group diving dry, was a big joke with the group WTF r u diving dry???
Day 4 we get out of the water and the whole group where different shades of white and blue shivering their asses off, who laughing now ;-).

Hello. Good post...
"Looks like u r from Georgia so u r likely used to the heat."
No. I'm from Boston. I'll probably never get used to the heat.
I think @The Chairman should have someone change the "From" part in the information to "Currently In."
Besides...My Gohjah aksent is horrahbull.
Cheers.

 

[Boston Breakwater]

There are 2 agencies I know of that absolutely do frown on dual bladder wings for all diving, especially cave diving. I was originally trained with one, and it took me a long time to overcome that bias.

Quite a few years ago I was cave diving in Mexico, and I brought my doubles wing, which was usually used with big LP 108s. It was too big for the AL 80 doubles we were using (the taco effect makes it hard to dump air), so the guide I was using had me try the smaller wing she had just purchased used from another dive guide. It worked great until we were near the end of the dive and starting to ascend. I reached back to dump some air, and the entire dump valve broke off. Fortunately, we were ascending slightly for the rest of the dive and had room to maneuver, and I could keep air in the upper part of the wing by going out of trim, with my shoulders above my hips.

On another occasion I was diving with another cave diver (extremely experienced) in Twin Cave in the Mill Pond in Marianna, Florida. That is a very silty cave, where buoyancy control is critical. My buddy's shoulder dump started leaking, and we could not repair it. We called the dive, and he worked his way back while continually playing with his wing inflation.

Hello. @boulderjohn What are those two agencies?
Cheers.

 

[rjack321]

A Thermalution heated vest works great for deco, if you are getting chilled.

As a general rule you don't want to rely on external heat to survive. Although anyone diving a wetsuit in FL isn't likely to die if it fails as those people are almost all beginners and rarely end up with significant deco which is where the real hazards lie.

Wetsuits have one place where they are actually the preferred approach - really small cave where ripping a drysuit is a bigger risk than compression induced hypothermia. But tiny cave dives are rarely very long duration as its pretty hard to bring huge gas supplies into a no-mount system

 

[tursiops]

As a general rule you don't want to rely on external heat to survive.

I've seem more drysuit failures than I have Thermalution failures. Just sayin'

I'm sorry you and some of the others get so dang cold. My longest dives in the FL caves have just been 2h and a bit. Wet.

 

[Miyaru]

You're simply lucky to even have this discussion. Caves here are 55°F.

 

[grantctobin]

I've seem more drysuit failures than I have Thermalution failures. Just sayin'

I'm sorry you and some of the others get so dang cold. My longest dives in the FL caves have just been 2h and a bit. Wet.

Are you implying that’s a long dive or a short one?

 

[tursiops]

Are you implying that’s a long dive or a short one?

No implication. Just a fact.

 

[PfcAJ]

If your dives are 2hrs, are you thermally prepared for 3+ hrs if you have to dip into that reserve 1/3 plus the resulting deco obligation?

 

[rddvet]

If your dives are 2hrs, are you thermally prepared for 3+ hrs if you have to dip into that reserve 1/3 plus the resulting deco obligation?

You mean people should actually have forethought in planning dives? Who'd havre thunk it,

If you're doing 45 minute or less intrio dives maybe you'll be good. In my personal opinion, any cave dive of significance should be done in a drysuit for safety. I see people claiming they don't get cold ever and have no need for a drysuit. Many if not most of them are fat, older gentlemen. Not being mean, I'm a bit overweight too. But that demographic is in the group that are starting to become predisposed to getting bent, and imperceptible coldness is likely going to be a huge risk increaser. I dove without a hood in my drysuit for the longest time and claimed "I never get cold". When I moved to a hood I realized how ridiculous I was because it's impossible not to lose heat in 72d degree water after an hour.