Dry suit flooding

[Andy077]

Did my AOW last weekend as well as the Dry suit speciality. I really only did the dry suit because the shop I did it with does all advanced in dry suit, and went for the speciality because i felt like doing one more dive, who can blame me? beautiful weekend at Dutch. The shop was great, set me up with any permutation of gear i could have wanted to bring with me, so no complaints there! They were fantastic.
But...

I had serious problems with flooding. The first dive, started at about 25' on platform, just doing fin pivots and swimming around with a buddy while the instructor did some drills with an OW class, it was leaking, not too bad, we all went down to the cabin cruiser and i really started taking on water, by the time we got to the shore again, I was ankle deep. let me tell you, BC removal and recovery on the surface was a challenge with that much extra mass, too!

Second dive, was supposed to be navigation, but I was leaking again, and couldn't maintain buoyancy, tried inflating my suit, but got to the point where the valve and seals wouldn't hold air, even cranked down all the way, because of the excess water in my suit. Tried using the BC to hover, but kept sinking since I was taking on water faster than the Titanic. Ended up bailing on nav, and attempting to just practice hovering, didn't happen. Finally went OOA at about 10 feet after trying to keep everything inflated (plus, I breathe heave when pissed, and boy was I ever!)

My analysis of the situation, I think there was a leak in the suit, first, and once I started taking on water, was VERY overweighted (34#, plus the volume of my suit to the knees ) and every time the suit farted through the neck seal, more got in.
I also realized that I need to not get so irritated and breathe faster. Positives from the situation, I now know what a nearly dry scuba tank feels like (done it on purpose with Fire Dept SCBA before) , and made an actual ESA, with no panic. I also learned about using both BC and suit to maintain buoyancy, and that overfilling a suit with air to compensate for leaks will exacerbate the problem.

Did the rest of the dives in a nice wetsuit, and did NAV no problem. My instructor was great, the OOA surprised us both, since i went from 400psi or so to flat dry in no time, and even though it was a little annoying at the time. Overall, it was a positive learning experience, like I said, greatly assisted my a very knowledgeable and helpful instructor, which I did not have for my open water class previously, through a different shop. Without him ,this would have been a very different scenario, I think.
That being said, I plan on sticking to wetsuit for the time being.

 

[steve1969]

This could be a couple of things. If you do not get a good seal, wrist, neck and legs, otherwise if the seals do not lay flat water can enter this area. It happens to me every once in a while. Must check the seals. There have been threads about DUI suits leaking in the crotch seam area, mine is starting to leak in that area also so I will seal them soon or later. I guess when I really get tired of the cold water rush. Or there could be a small hole somewhere in the suit. When you put the suit on make sure you burp it. It will get really tight and if it loosens up do it again.

Dry suit take a few times to master.

 

[Hoomi]

If a drysuit leaks like that, wouldn't it be better called a wetsuit?

 

[RJP]

once I started taking on water, was VERY overweighted (34#, plus the volume of my suit to the knees ) and every time the suit farted through the neck seal, more got in.

You do know that water is NEUTRALLY buoyant, right?

 

[TSandM]

I think shops do students a huge disservice by not taking the time to ensure that rental dry suits for classes fit reasonably well and have seals that fit. I got hypothermic on my second open water dive, because I got so wet. I had used the suit in the pool a couple of days before, and told the instructor that I got out pouring water out of the boots, and he said, "Oh, you always get wet in the pool. It'll be better in open water because you won't be doing all those drills." And I believed him, and he was wrong.

The point made about water being neutral is a good one, but the reason you become more overweighted in a flooded suit is that your undergarment loses some of its loft as it gets wet, so the lift you were compensating for with the weight you are wearing is no longer present. This is why Tobin of Deep Sea Supply stresses that the BC you have should have enough lift to compensate for a serious loss of buoyancy due to flooding. (You never lose it all, because the insulation will retain SOME air, but you can lose a lot of it.) In addition, from my one real FLOODED dry suit, I learned that trying to lift wet undergarments out of the water to get your head out can tax the lift on your BC.

Stress does make one go through gas quickly, but I suspect you have learned another lesson, which is not to remain in the water when your gas begins to get low, because whatever made you blow through the first part of it may make you blow through that last 400 psi, too. You might benefit from reading NWGratefulDiver's article on Gas Management, which puts forth some good principles for maintaining gas reserves.

 

[rstofer]

TSandM:

Please bear with me... I have never used a drysuit but I have been thinking about it. I know nothing about them.

Given the loss of buoyancy due to the insulation getting wet, can you just make a wild guess and drop some lead? It is my understanding that drysuit divers carry more ballast than wetsuit divers (perhaps just a few pounds). Clearly, at, or near, the surface the diver can drop all of their lead. Is that going to be enough to guarantee buoyancy?

I suppose the answer will also revolve around single tank versus doubles and SS backplate versus aluminum or kydex.

I suspect that my DSS LCD30 wing that works well with my wetsuit won't be the right answer for drysuit diving. I don't really care, I just need to figure that into the cost of the upgrade.

What wing would you use for cold water drysuit diving with something like a single HP 100?

Richard

 

[Andy077]

You do know that water is NEUTRALLY buoyant, right?

Yes, you know it displaces the air that made me positively buoyant?
Ever seen a boat sink?


Yes I know that, I was making a joke. However, I did consider "adjusting the specific gravity" inside the suit, since i was already soaked.

 

[Dr Neil]

Drysuit diving is great, but when it become wet suit diving in a divesuit format.... well, it's no fun. Most suits leak at point of failure locations (wrists & neck). Even with "custom cut" seals you may still experience small leaks. My son occasionally leaks at the wrist simply because of his wrist anatomy.

Go to a DUI demo day and dive. Since the DUI suit has zip seals, you can pretty much get a good fit on the neck and wrists. The Demo days will allow you to not only dive dry for the day or weekend, you can also try a variety of suits. You may not purchase a DUI suit, but you can get an idea about what types of materials, construction, and undergarments you want to add to your wish list.

The big key to drysuit diving is time underwater in the suit. Going to a dive location where you can safely work with the suit without other stressors factoring into the dive is ideal. I would not recommend purposely flooding your suit, but you can sure perform a variety of other scenarios.

 

[flw]

It sounds as though you were seriously overweighted before starting out - I had a major suit flood last week, which flooded my suit to about half way up my thighs once I eventually managed to stand back up again - so of the same order as yours. From a weighting point of view it made very little difference to anything apart from a cold soggy feeling until it came to standing up in the shallows - certainly it didn't really adversely affect my bouyancy - and my weezle stayed warm enough(ish)
Neutrally bouyant is when you just start to sink when breathing out, a suit not being able to retain air wither means it doesn't fit at all, or there is a dangerous amount of overweighting involved ( or both)

 

[Colliam7]

I had serious problems with flooding. The first dive, started at about 25' on platform, just doing fin pivots and swimming around with a buddy while the instructor did some drills with an OW class, it was leaking, not too bad, we all went down to the cabin cruiser and i really started taking on water, by the time we got to the shore again, I was ankle deep.

Could you tell where the suit was leaking? Given your description ('every time the suit farted through the neck seal, more got in'), I suspect that the neck seal was possibly a little large - not uncommon with rental suits - even considering the overinflation you described. I have experienced flooding from a pin hole in a wrist seal - not bad near the surface, but much worse as depth increased - and ended up the dive with legs full of water as well. In that case, I knew where the leak was (but not why it was leaking at the time of the dive) - I could feel cold water on my arm near the leak - but I was determined to finish the (training) dive, and put up with it so I wouldn't have to repeat the dive. Of course, I was so distracted by my suit gradually flooding with 45 degree water, that I performed poorly and had to repeat the dive anyway.

I also learned about using both BC and suit to maintain buoyancy, and that overfilling a suit with air to compensate for leaks will exacerbate the problem.

Ain't experience a grand teacher?

That being said, I plan on sticking to wetsuit for the time being.

An unfortunate experience with a drysuit, and too bad because a drysuit that fits you well, and keeps you dry, is a terrific aid to extending your diving season, and adding to the enjoyment of the diving experience.

Most suits leak at point of failure locations (wrists & neck). Even with "custom cut" seals you may still experience small leaks. My son occasionally leaks at the wrist simply because of his wrist anatomy.

Very true. The neck leaks can be made more pronounced by significant movement of the head, and the wrist leaks can be made worse by flexing the wrists, and by the type of seals. I had that problem with the first wrist seals on my suit (even without a pin hole), but since I replaced them with thick / heavy bell seals, I have not had any further wrist leaks.