Drysuit Undergarment Questions

[lamont]

But even if you're just doing NDL dives there's always the chance that you could get your suit ripped and have something happen (particularly getting caught in a current) that make it difficult to get out of the water immediately. And even if you're NDL diving you'd still care about the bouyancy characteristics when it gets flooded. I don't think these considerations are necessarily unique to wreck/cave/deco/tech diving...

 

[Mo2vation]

Hey Grunz

A lot of people I know have gone the "you build 'em" route with their drysuit undies. One such guy is Arnaud. I dive with him often - he's out of the country for a few more days, but he'll find this and chime in, I'm sure.

 

[Genesis]

I use a layered approach.

Bottom layer is a thin polypro shirt/longjohn pair. This is just to promote airspace and trap the oils from my skin, which is what makes your underwear stink. It also provides a small amount of warmth.

Second layer is 200wt Polartec fleece, two-piece. This provides a reasonable amount of warmth and is perfectly fine to aroudn 70F or so all on its own. Mid 70s and above I dive wet.

Third layer is 100wt Thinsulate, union suit. I put this on if I expect temperatures from the mid 50s up to 70F or so. It provides me with additional insulation in that range.

With this combination I can dive water from the mid 50s to upper 70s in my drysuit in comfort, tailoring the combination to suit conditions. However, with water temperatures above 72-74F I switch to a 3 mil wetsuit with 3 mil hooded vest, and in the upper 70s I lose the vest.

If I dove water under mid 50s I'd buy a warmer undergarmet and ditch the fleece and thinsulate for the thicker one-piece, reserving the second later of polypro for REAL cold water.

This works well for me and keeps me toasty even for fairly long exposures (an hour to an hour and a half) in water temps down to the mid-to-upper 50s.

A key part of this is a well-fitting hood. If your hood flushes significant water you will get cold FAST, irrespective of anything else. You want a "sharkskin in" style of coldwater hood so that it makes a good seal around your face and neck, a warm-neck collar on your drysuit, and the hood MUST fit properly.

 

[Bob3]

There's a transcript of a George Irvine lecture here:

....argon in a flooded Thinsulate works better than dry Thinsulate with air. ''

Does that sound like good advice and a good reason to shell out for the thinsulate over just going with sweats?

I'd advise against going with a water inflation system for your suit, Thinsulate or no.

3-M, the maker of Thinsulate, says the material retains 80% of its insulative properties when wet.

Just like you wouldn't go around wearing mucklucks in Florida, you don't want to go around wearing heavy undies in warm water. You'll cook.
Flooding a drysuit doesn't make that much difference in its bouyancy characteristics, you can easily swim it up, as long as you're not starting out grossly overweighted.

 

[FAW]

Since most drysuit undergarments are made of fleece, is there any reason not to just buy fleece pants, jackets, etc. from some place like maybe Old Navy?

If there is a valid reason to get the real undergarment, what weight would you recommend.

Everything said so far should be valuable to your decision making. My $0.02 is the final decision is personal, i.e., your needs, your tendency to stay either warm or cold. The only way to find out is to try some various garments which is hard, but not impossible.

First, I bought what you're talking about--inexpensive polypro underwear liner and low-grade fleece or polartech type material. My suit is a DUI 200. This initial set up cost me about $90 US and it is fine for water down to about 48 F. After that I CAN dive repeatedly, but after the first one I start to get cold. Not TOO cold, just colder than I want to be.

So, I tried a DUI 300s from a shops training stock. It was much warmer, but I still got a bit cold second dive in 47F water. One of the experts at DUI told me the 300s with their vest is the answer, however, my shop didn't have the vest.

So, I bought DUIs coldest ug, 400G. Haven't dived it yet, but after taking it out of the bag, my only concern is being too warm. Kind of doubt it, but that will be the issue if there is one. VERY nicely put together ug.

Bottom line is partly bottom line. How much do you want to (can) spend? The other issue is everyone is way different in their cold tolerance and needs. You can read the ads that say rated to such and such a temperature, but it totally depends on you, what you like and what you want to put up with in terms of being cold.

See if you can find a friend or two with a Weezle or a DUI 300 or 400 and try them. Otherwise, first buy your inexpensive set up because it'll be fine in warmer (for me above 50F) water. Then, IF it isn't enough, start shopping for something warmer for colder days. It ends up being a bit more money to own two set-ups, but it gives you more flexibity than just owning the super warm suit.

rw

 

[mogwai]

Started diving in September and was using a 100g undersuit, Typhoon i think, and after 30 mins was very cold. Am actually pretty susceptible to the cold. Not much in the way of excess body fat, relatively slim build and get chilled pretty quickly. Over the past few weeks i have been diving in my new suit and new undersuit. Undersuit is a Weezle Extreme + and i have yet to get cold. Have spent 40 mins in 7Degree water and came out warm. Is a fantastic bit of kit and i could not recommend it more.

 

[Arnaud]

Hey Grunz

A lot of people I know have gone the "you build 'em" route with their drysuit undies. One such guy is Arnaud. I dive with him often - he's out of the country for a few more days, but he'll find this and chime in, I'm sure.

I use the Polartec stuff made by Patagonia with their Regulator system (double or triple layer). In short, good quality ski stuff. The Patagonia Regulator system is really good at moving perspiration away from the body, which is what I need with the warm weather/cold water here in SoCal. Also, I like having a sweater/pants deal instead of a jump suit. It makes it easier during our SI's. Wouldn't probably go that road for long tek dives in water colder than 50°. I'm also looking at the Weazel for a cheaper alternative to Thinsulate (even though GI3 hates it, but I'm just a dedicated rec diver).

If you don't ski and don't want to spend a bundle, Bob3's option is probably the best one.

 

[grouchyturtle]

Thanks for the help everyone. I decided to go with the custom Softwear 300 weight one piece, and got some cheap polypro thermals too.

Did my dives last weekend and they worked out great.

May need to get the fleece vest too, though, for this time of year, when the water is extra cold!