Dry Suit and vacation

[Doc Harry]

I have an H balanced p-valve. It almost never leaks. Maybe once every 200 dives I've had to take out the duck valve and give it an extra good rinse, but certainly no leaks in between those times. Do make sure you aren't over-tightening the plug that seals the duck valve. That seems to be the number one cause of problems.

Been through all of that with Halcyon, no change in the leak.

 

[TSandM]

Hmmm . . . I had some small leaks when I first installed my Halcyon valve, but I changed the duck valve and it solved the problem. We have, I think, two more Halcyon and one Light Monkey valve in the family now, and none of them leaks. One DOES have to live with the occasional She-P failure or condom blowoff; it's the price one pays for the convenience of the many dry dives.

 

[tadawson]

Finally there is the contingency issue of a blown drysuit gasket. If you're on a live-aboard and you blow a gasket, what is your contingency plan? I was out in the Coral Sea off Australia and accidentally shoved a hanger through my neck gasket when i was trying to hang it up in the dark in heavy seas. Fortunately, the ship had wet suits/booties/fins for rent. My drysuit fin pockets were too large to be used with regular wetsuit booties, so it was nice that alternate fins were available for rent.

ZipSeals or similar. If going way off-grid, take spares.

- Tim

 

[ddmattos]

When in a hot dive location as high as 80 - 70deg F, Under my trilam, I wear just the 4th element drybase top and bottom with my zerotherm socks and keep the zerotherm top and bottom in my bag just in case. Can’t see you needing the Artic but throw it in your luggage just in case you hit low 60’s. They are all really good at keeping you dry. With that said, the inside of your suit will be moist. During surface interval put your drysuit top down, if too cold at least unzip to let the moisture escape. If wearing two layers take the top layer off so they dry out faster. At the end of the day take a towel to the inside of the suit and hang it upside over night.

With all 4^th element undergarment, they dry faster when turned inside out. So overnight you should be fine as long as the humidity isn’t too high.

My friend wears a base layer sock (zerotherm) with a cotton socks layered over to absorb the sweat. I haven’t needed to do this myself but if you find your feet get soaked I guess you can give it a try. But never wear cotton anything as a base layer.

I always dive dry and have found this works for me.
Hope this helps.

 

[chs8084]

I am also planning to take my drysuit on vacation next summer (their winter) to Australia, and I have heard that the water temp ranges from 75 to 78 when we will be there. Are long underwear (like Capilene 2) enough or would I need more than that?

 

[TSandM]

At that temperature, I wear a set of Lands End polarfleece sweats and a hood, and I'm good for 3 hours in the water.

 

[Rainer]

We took our drysuits to Roatan. Water temps around 79F, air temps mid-80s. I think *just* a light baselayer as thin as Cap 2 wouldn't be quite enough, but so much of this is personal cold-tolerance. I used a heavyweight REI base top and some Old Navy fleece pants. Wife wore about the same, but with a very light wicking base layer underneath. We were quite comfortable.

 

[chs8084]

Thanks for the advice.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Shftrdog]

I find if you bring a couple of base layers for back ups you will be fine. If you can dry them outside, rather than indoors. You will have much better luck. I have found that if you dry indoors they will dry but still smell. have fun

cheers

 

[bkbomb123]

Man, that's great info. Thanks