Dry suit or damp suit?

[Yoda-X]

Wife and I both have ScubaPro Everdry 4 dry suits and are new to the "dry suit experience". We just spent a weekend in Hood Canal and made 5 dives each with them. Each time we got out of our suits we were pretty damp. Clothes were wet enough to need drying before putting back on.

Is this normal for all dry suits or just neoprene?

 

[WarrenZ]

If I'm wearing mine for several hours or during a warm surface interval I usually notice a lot of condensed sweat on the inside of my suit.

 

[jbomb001]

I'd say if it is wetter near the seal areas then perhaps a leak but damp all over is much more likely that your sweating and it's condensing when it hits the cold layer of the suit. Hot surface and or a hard working dive with too much thermal on or over weighted and working too hard. These things will all Lead to sweat and obviously it will have no place to go but into your clothes.

Sent from my galaxy S5 Active.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

What type of undergarment were you wearing? Were you damp all over or noticeably wet in the neck, wrist, or zipper area? Have you trimmed your seals?

 

[Yoda-X]

We bought an Immersion Research unionsuit. It's made for kayakers. Seemed like a mid weight alternative. Most of the moisture is the chest area.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

Most often if it's condensation/perspiration you'll be damp in more areas than just the chest. Perhaps you're getting a little "drip" coming in through the neck seal.

 

[noseeum]

Are folding the neck seal back in on itself so that the smooth-skin side in on your skin?

 

[buddhasummer]

Agree with others, if it's localized dampness I'd be checking, seals, gaskets, valves etc. if it's everywhere then it's normal. I use 4th element Xerotherm base layer that I got from DRIS, it works very well at wicking. I don't feel dampness but after an hour dive there is certainly condensation on the inside of my suit. When I first started DS diving I was convinced my suit was leaking, I was suprised at the amount of water in my suit, but sweat it was. Good luck.

 

[sea_ledford]

If you are just wet on your chest, you might also be pulling enough of a vacuum on the suit to get a leak at the inflator. If you add air regularly on the way down, it is likely something else, but if you are at the "oops, I'm at the bottom! I should add some air!" stage, that could be your problem as well.

 

[Stoo]

It depends on the type of suit as well.... I"m a long time Viking guy, and used to ending a dive as dry as I was when I jumped in. Last year, I added a Santi e-Motion to my kit, primarily for travel (It weighs about 1/3 of my Viking ProTec) and I find that after a few dives in it, I'm pretty damp from condensation. If I wear ly lightweight undies (my old Viking stuff) which are some non-repellant material, the undies get pretty wet. If I"m wearing my new Santi 400gsm stuff less so..

So I think some dampness is to be expected in a light shell suit, especially of the water isn't especially cold.