Dry suit for freediving?

[EireDiver606]

O

Sorry I was rude. I should have shut up.

You said:
"Yeah it would be really dangerous to do it without an argon bottle. I know people who’ve tried it and they sank with their feet floating upwards, so they had to let out the air through the wrist seals and could then go back up.

They said it was scary... I can imagine. I definitely wouldn’t go freediving in a Drysuit. It’s just not practical in any way shape or form. You would have lots of drag and be extremely slow, it wouldn’t be as warm as a wetsuit is and the suit squeeze and no redundant air source are problems that CANNOT be overlooked.

If you sink in a Drysuit it can be hard to let the air out sometimes...."

When you get below the surface with a drysuit the air inside compresses and you rapidly lose buoyancy. As you drop further the suit begins to feel like shrink wrap. At some point it will shrink so tight that it will give you hickeys. Letting the air out at that point is not an issue. Floating up with your feet light is not an issue. You will sink like a rock. When you are scuba diving and get into the situation of floating feet up you cannot let air out of your wrist seals because your arms are on the opposite end of your body from your feet and the air is around your feet. You have to swim hard down until the air compresses or rotate rapidly so your head is up and you can bleed off air. In short: If you sink in a drysuit you don't need to let the air out.

Ok sorry I understand it sounds completely silly now. I apologise that I am so stupid.

I’m not sure exactly what happened because it wasn’t my experience and he probably can’t remember haha but he said something about letting the air out, maybe it was his neck seal I don’t know. He was sinking but with his feet floating, so like falling upside down and he was overweighted of course as he didn’t know what he was doing.
I think the whole idea was that it was a **** how he (somehow) let the air out. When he did that, I presume he could correct his posture in the water and swim up to the sanctuary of the surface.

Everyone knows you can’t swim upside down with floaty feet. Once air goes above your head, a certain level of excitement can pursue

Must find out the details of that nightmare...

 

[BRT]

O

Ok sorry I understand it sounds completely silly now. I apologise that I am so stupid.

I’m not sure exactly what happened because it wasn’t my experience and he probably can’t remember haha but he said something about letting the air out, maybe it was his neck seal I don’t know. He was sinking but with his feet floating, so like falling upside down and he was overweighted of course as he didn’t know what he was doing.
I think the whole idea was that it was a **** how he (somehow) let the air out. When he did that, I presume he could correct his posture in the water and swim up to the sanctuary of the surface.

Everyone knows you can’t swim upside down with floaty feet. Once air goes above your head, a certain level of excitement can pursue

Must find out the details of that nightmare...

Sometimes when you just notice things going wrong you can swim down like crazy, usually a few feet will do it and then rotate by sweeping your arms and get upright so you can dump some air. Dumping air out of your seals while upside down would be like dumping from your BCD shoulder dump while upside down. There is no air there to dump.

Edit: Exhale as you swim down. Your lungs are your fastest dump.

 

[EireDiver606]

Sometimes when you just notice things going wrong you can swim down like crazy, usually a few feet will do it and then rotate by sweeping your arms and get upright so you can dump some air. Dumping air out of your seals while upside down would be like dumping from your BCD shoulder dump while upside down. There is no air there to dump.

Edit: Exhale as you swim down. Your lungs are your fastest dump.

I know the principles of physics, thanks. As I said, I don’t know exactly what happened

 

[Vicko]

Only usable for things like no limits and variable weight, the drag that a drysuit creates is to much to do any serious freediving.
A quality open cell 8mm wetsuit is more then enough termal protection for multiple hour spearfishing sessions in close to 0c waters in places like Norway and Baltic Sea so you should not have to many problems.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Only usable for things like no limits and variable weight, the drag that a drysuit creates is to much to do any serious freediving.
A quality open cell 8mm wetsuit is more then enough termal protection for multiple hour spearfishing sessions in close to 0c waters in places like Norway and Baltic Sea so you should not have to many problems.

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I suspect you will find all knowledgeable divers will agree with you
~~~~~~~~~ BUT ~~~~~~~~~~~~
the question was from @Adi das was;
Hi to everyone open to any suggestions on a light weight dry suit for cold water freediving,neo or trilam?

The answer is yes he can dive with a light weight dry suit.

FYI the American Bill Barada created recreational dry suit in the 1940s several years before Bradner introduced the wet suit in mid 1950s. There was considerable Free Diving/Spearfishing with dry suit prior to the introduction of the wet suit

May I suggest to you that you investigate the "Trend & Fawcett" series of books and either purchase or review the cover photographed by Homer Lockwood of Trend Book #147 by E.R Cross, published in 1957 tiled "Skin Diving Annual" which has a Skin Diver clad in a Barada Bel Aqua DRY SUIT with a J snorkel an Oval shaped mask with a spear gun equipped with at Barada Bel Aqua muzzle horsing a very presentable fish to the surface.

Yes their was Free diving and Spear fishing prior to the introduction of the west suit
SDM

 

[David Wilson]

Here is the front cover of the book Sam mentioned in the previous message:

I have a copy of E. R. Cross's 1957 booklet on my diving literature bookshelf. The front-entry drysuit showcased on the cover can also be found in the 1958 Bel Aqua catalogue, which can be downloaded from my collection of scanned catalogues at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw7z_4bLjOOEZjE3dDBoeng1aHM. Bel-Aqua's successor is Aquala, which remains in business to this day, still manufacturing the original green chest-entry suit for vintage diving enthusiasts.

Light drysuits like this were used by the pioneers of freediving and spearfishing, who back in the 1950s appreciated the fact that such drysuits were cheaper than wetsuits and that they left the breathhold diver with the option of doubling or tripling the layers of underwear inside to match the conditions. I have several Soviet diving manuals on my bookshelf testifying to the fact that many Russian spearfishermen continued to prefer light drysuits to wetsuits when they swam in freezing rivers and lakes as late as the 1990s. They are only now beginning to use wetsuits because the older style of drysuit has become harder to source and their bulkier modern western-type replacements are only suitable for surface or near-surface breathhold diving.