Drysuit drag

[Bob3]

After diving in a Viking a few times I was just shocked at how much slower I swim through the water. I hadnt even considered a crushed neoprene. Now I am looking very hard at them.

Your hydrodynamics will improve with the tighter fit, but there are tradeoffs in other areas, like length of drying time, chemical/contaminant resistance, ease of repair.

Viking has a new suit, the Pro Tech / Combat. It's a vulcanized suit that has a stretchy material backing allowing for a much trimmer fit. It stretches so much that they have a front zip model that doesn't even need the telescoping torso.

 

[d33ps1x]

With proper trim and swimming position the lower legs would be the only surface area to have any significant effect of the drag on the diver. Wearing a good set of gaitors would do a lot to alleviate any drag created by bunching of materials such as a trilam suit by creating a smoother and more streamlined surface with which to break the water.

 

[SparkySFD]

Im gonna have to disagree with you on the statement

"lower legs would be the only surface area to have any significant effect of the drag on the diver".

You will have your entire frontal and rear areas contributing to drag, as well as your arms. You will get a little cover for the sides of your body as the shoulders will break the water there.

Its a mistake to think that the top of your body will "break" the water and provide a channel of water with no drag to swim through. If this was true then airplanes would not fly.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Given the reynolds numbers involved, the slipstream effecta lot of divers talk about is non-existant.

Water is very visocus relative to air and the velocities involved in scuba diving are very low, so any flow effects encountered are going to be quite turbulent and remain attached to the diver resulting in nearly all of the divers wetted are a producing drag. And most dry suits are going to significantly increase wetted area compared to a wet suit.