Drysuit undergarment advice

[Lorenzoid]

A weight gain regime would have been cheaper and probably more effective but alas my metabolism prevents weight gain. My weight has not changed since I was a teenager and that was a long long time ago.

You do know most of us are hating you?

 

[buddhasummer]

You do know most of us are hating you?

As I hate those of you with hair.

 

[Jake]

I use the 400gm DUI Thinsulate diving in Monterey/Carmel all year round layered with a SmartWool base layer. Water temps in the last 12mo have been 48-55F here and my dives now average 90min. I've also comfortably dived this exact same insulation in 70F for a >1hr dive and was totally fine (I used a thinner hood and wet gloves on this dive).
Honestly, I think the closer you get to 40F, you need to start thinking of adding a Thinsulate vest in addition to 400g undies. Obviously, this depends on how long your dives are going to be - do you know this information? 45min to an hour will most likely be OK with just with the 400 but if you're getting closer to 90min, it won't be enough.

I'm not exactly sure of dive length, but I doubt we'll be near 90 minutes. Thanks for the info. Building around a 400g garment sounds like a good plan.

 

[Jake]

My partner and I did the Silfra crack among other dives a few years back.

We spent a few months getting ready, trying and testing kit and various configurations.
We where intending long dives for photographic purposes. All our dives where around the hour mark.

We used dry gloves, with good thermal liners.
I wore a base layer followed by a forth element tech vest, and forth element arctics. Forth element hot socks with forth element arctic socks over the top. My suit was a whites fusion.
We both had heated vests, which we both set on low power on entering the water.

We took our own clothing, suits, gloves, and heated vests. Plus a ton of photographic kit. Scuba kit was provided locally by our dive company. The guide only got in the water for one dive - to guide us to the site. Even then he left us to it and got out early. He new we where going to be a long time and new he would get cold.

We did
'the garden' - a sea dive along a pier, the warm up dive
'barney crack' - an inland fissure with a salt water feed, very small with a halo cline.
'silfra' - three times, although this was for photographic reasons.
'Pingvallavatn' - which was probably visually the most spectacular.

It should also be noted we where there in August - and still had every variation of weather from snow to sunshine.

photos are here
St Ives Sub Aqua Forum - Iceland Aug 2015

Thanks for the reply. Do you know roughly what the water temperature was?

 

[Gareth J]

Thanks for the reply. Do you know roughly what the water temperature was?

Jake.

From my log book, the sea temperature was around 10C, and Silfra around 4C.

i.e 10 degrees and 4 degrees above freezing.

The landscape is very interesting. Part of it is very Scottish looking - the granite area around Silfra. The volcanic areas are different still.
From comments from some of the Americans we met, who had been hiking, there biggest surprise was the lack of large or medium sized animals. They where used to having to put there food up off the ground to avoid tempting predators, in the USA, in Iceland there was no need to do this.

We found all the houses and restaurants very hot, they have a lot of geothermal energy. Which seems to be free, so the heating all seems to be on full bore. We had all the windows open in our room to keep cool enough.
We always wanted to go back to Iceland to experience the Aurora Borealis during the winter months.

I would recommend visiting the cathedral in Reykjavik and going up the spire to look out across the city (which is very small).

Gareth

PS it is very very expensive place to be.

 

[ahereng]

Where in Norway will you be diving?

 

[Jake]

Where in Norway will you be diving?

I don't know exact spots, but mostly in areas around the northern fjords.

 

[ahereng]

I have never dived up north, but the temp-range you mentioned sounds about right. A 400g undersuit with a wool baselayer will cover most folks for dives up to an hour, if diving with a trilam drysuit.
If the drysuits you can borrow are neoprene-suits, a single or double layer of wool baselayer shoud be enough.

 

[KathyIGH]

Hi Jake. This is Kathy Long with DUI. I came across your thread. I would highly recommend a warm and toasty undergarment like our Xm450 Thinsulate. Personally I would wear this diving of San Diego all year (below thermocline).

You mention she is petite. Repetitive dives over repetitive days will lead to heat loss. Stay as warm as possible for the best enjoyment.

Sounds like a fabulous trip. Have a great time.

 

[Storker]

I'm from the country and dive more or less year round. The coldest I've dived is 3-4c water, -10C air, but most of my winter diving is in 5-7C water and around 0C air. 7mm three-finger wetgloves are doable, but drygloves are recommended. As is a good, thick, snug-fitting hood. My undersuit is a 200g thinsulate thing with fleece inside, and in the winter I layer it with a thin wool baselayer and one or two semi-thin wool midlayers. And I don't have a heated vest. Works pretty fine for 45-60 minute no-stop dives, but my fingers tend to get a little cold when I'm approaching an hour's run time.

As always, since everybody's cold tolerance is different, YMMV.