Drysuit undergarments

[Robert Phillips]

DUI's 300wt Actionwear fleece can be found for less than $175 and is good from 45° to 60°. Get some good poly underwear and you will be comfortable for way less than $300.
Scuba.com
AquaTech dive center

 

[dsteding]

Cabela's sells some 300 weight fleece pants for around $30 when they are on sale, and they also sell tops that would work-I did a few dives with those before I broke down and bought a DUI 300 weight from my LDS (it was less than $200).

DUI undergarment is much warmer, but I was able to dive in the upper 40s around here without getting anything more than a slight chill with the Cabela's stuff.

 

[SilverSurfer7]

Wool is the way to go. I recently dove in 49 degree water with a motley crew of under garments. In particular, I wore a wool sweater. My upper torso was warm.

 

[TSandM]

Living in the PNW, I have a lot of polarfleece -- sweats, overpants, turtlenecks and anoraks. I dove for the first several months in water in the 50 degree range wearing several layers of this stuff. It was not as warm as the Thinsulate I now use, and was more buoyant, but it was quite usable. The dives were just a bit shorter.

 

[dannobee]

I'll second the Carol Davis jumpsuit. I use one under my 200 gm thinsulate when the water's colder than 50 deg. I was diving with NWGratefulDiver on Friday and would have been ready for a 3rd and 4th dive if the darn park didn't close so early. It works, and it's only $105. You could spend more than that on top and bottom backpacking thermals, and they aren't (normally) Polartec.

 

[airsix]

...and don't forget ebay. I picked up my nearly-new 300g thinsulate for $80.

-Ben M.

 

[Peter Guy]

A different POV here. I was using "regular" polar fleece over poly-pro long johns and was warm -- BUT, I always had problems with venting my suit. I just assumed it was a problem with the valve -- that it was just "slow" in venting.

I WAS WRONG!

After about 40 (?) dives in my DS, I finally spent the money to get a dry suit undergarment (Mobby's -- about $130) -- guess what -- the problem with venting was with the undergarments I was wearing -- NOT the suit or valve. What was going on I can't say -- perhaps air was just getting trapped or perhaps material was getting sucked up to the valve and blocking it. In any event, my experience is that getting the right equipment is worth it -- and abover water polar fleece is not designed to be used under a drysuit.

 

[JKSteger]

I've thought about buying the carol davis jumpsuit to layer under my USIA undies, which are quite warm and I really love but I do start to get a little "chill" after about 40min in 45-50 degF water.

But Now I'm just looking at purchasing the Bare C-200 (or whatever they're called) 200g type B-Thinsulate undergarment for this winter. I do have a few months to wait until I order it and in the mean time since I just get a chill I'm going to wear a fleece pullover under my USIA undies to help keep me a little warmer at the end of the dive. But Peter is right, undies that are Designed for drysuit diving are without a doubt better, IMHO.

Jeremy

 

[cummings66]

I used to use fleece undergarments from Andy's and liked them well enough, but then I started diving in my Viking Thinsulate undergarments and love them. The biggest difference is not in warmth but rather how much easier it is to vent air.

Not to mention during the DUI dog days rally I got to test the thinsulate for it's claimed warmth while wet claims, it's true and to be honest I didn't realize that the drysuits had leaked a lot until I got out of the suit. That further convinced me that thinsulate is what undergarments should be made of.

 

[dannobee]

The Carol Davis stuff uses the same material as DUI's Polartec Powerstretch, so the venting should be similar. I have never had a problem. FWIW, my DUI 200gm thinsulate doesn't vent very well, and it IS designed to be used as drysuit underwear. If you want fast, reliable venting, go with the Bare stuff. I also have a Bare T100 polarwear jumpsuit, and they at least have hollow rivets on the shoulder/arm to help get the air vented. It works quite a bit faster than the DUI's.

If you want to hear about venting problems, ask some people who wear Weezles. And they were designed exclusively for drysuit use.