DUI Polartec vs. Others

[cummings66]

A drysuit diver shouldn't get the shivers, I can tell you where the thermocline layers are but they sure don't make me cold. You just feel it.

I describe it as wearing a snowmobile suit in the Winter. You're not hot, nor cold. You can tell it's cold out but it won't stop you because you're comfortable in the clothes you've got on.

 

[scubadobadoo]

I (personally and respectfully) disagree. Cold is cold. I get cold in my dry suit (TLS 350) below 55 degrees. I feel the cold and I get cold. I get colder in a wetsuit, true.

For me, the big dif. between using a wetsuit and a dry suit is I will dive in a dry suit when it's cold and I won't dive in a wet suit when it's cold. Everyone is going to have a dif. experience and everyone's body reacts in dif. ways to the cold. I think a dry suit is a wonderful thing but it ain't magic. That said, I love not having the rush of cold water hit me when I first get into the water. Missing that feeling is priceless! Not to mention after if the wind is howling!

If you don't get cold at all in a dry suit when the water is in the 30's then you may not need that dry suit in the first place ya big polar bear!

 

[jepuskar]

I have shivered my butt off underwater when it was 45 degrees and I was in a wetsuit after about 20 minutes. In a drysuit with my undergarments just this past weekend I did 3 repetitive dives in 56 degree water and my feet and hands were a chilled, but everything else was ok. Pretty soon it will be in the 40's and I wont be anywhere close to shivering....chilled possibly, but not enough to call the dive.

 

[gcbryan]

It's also somewhat of a trade-off between more undergarment and more weight. You can have an undergarment so thick that it will keep anyone warm regardless of the temp but the thicker it is the more weight it will require on your weightbelt.

I'm generally warm in 46 degree water until longer stops at the end of a dive and sometimes I'll start to chill a little then.

 

[cummings66]

I might be a Polar Bear, I used to do 1 hour dives in 42F water at 100 feet max depth with no problems. Obviously I didn't do an hour at 100 feet, normally 10 - 15 minutes and up. I don't think I can do it now, drysuits spoil you a lot and for me they are nicer. For example when most divers need 400 gr undergarments I'm fine with 200 gr, so I do tend to tolerate cold better I suppose.

I'm not padded well either so it's not excess padding...

 

[jepuskar]

So far I find that a lack of a thermocline helps mentally. For instance...if its 55 degrees and then you hit a thermo that brings it down to 45 I feel colder obviously, but mentally i think about it more.

But if you get in the water and its 45 degrees and it stays that way the whole dive I can seemingly tolerate it more and not think about it as much. Does that make any sense?

 

[scubadobadoo]

So far I find that a lack of a thermocline helps mentally. For instance...if its 55 degrees and then you hit a thermo that brings it down to 45 I feel colder obviously, but mentally i think about it more.

But if you get in the water and its 45 degrees and it stays that way the whole dive I can seemingly tolerate it more and not think about it as much. Does that make any sense?

Yes it makes perfect sense. Also, I can seemingly tolerate colder water when it's a place I really want to dive instead of the quarry again, lol.

 

[jepuskar]

Everytime I go out on the lake the conditions suck, at the quarry I am almost guaranteed no waves or current...almost!! I prefer the quarry to the lake..its cheaper and its easier on the stomache.

 

[scubadobadoo]

Everytime I go out on the lake the conditions suck

Then it wouldn't be one of those places I would "really want to dive." I hear ya on the stomache thing too!

 

[Mverick]

When I had a weezle it flooded and I got cold fast. I had my DUI200 thinsulate and it flooded. I was cold but it wasn't that bad. That's why I like Thinsulate.

Temp also depends on a GOOD hood and Gloves. I use drygloves. Make a big difference.

Both the floods were in the Great Lakes. Both were full floods. Heck, I flooded the DUI dumped the extra water on the boat and went in and flooded it again. LOL... Water temp 45. It just wasn't that bad. Now, it wasn't a 4 hours dive. It was only an hour. That was with the Thinsulate. And polypro underlayer.