Exposure Suit Advice Wanted

[diver60]

Requesting assistance. Wife and I will be going to Cape Town June/July. Will spend seven days of cage diving to film Great Whites. Water, of ourse is cold and we will just be spending hours stationary in the cage waiting and, hopefully, filming.

Need to stay warm. We are, basically, warmer water divers and have multiple "wet suits" from skins to 3- and 5-mm wet suits. Feel a dry suit better for what we will be doing. However, do not want to spend a lot of money and likely only need a dry suit for this trip.

Any thoughts, ideas will be appreciated. Have looked at trying to secure a used suit on e-bay but nothing yet. Wife has found an O'neil neoprene dry suit with boots that might work for her for a reasonable cost. (seems a bit heavy and bulky but could work) I'm still looking. I Would prefer a laminate outer and wear multi fleece and silk layers beneath.

Can rent suites for approx $30/day for each but we will be on the trip for a month and a half (3 1/2 week of safari following great white encounters) so rental does not sound good. No rentals availal in the area we will be in -- have checked.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, etc. will be most appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[DivingCRNA]

If you are near 5' 10" and 190 pounds you should buy a really nice drysuit, use it on the trip, and then sell it to me at a greatly reduced price. The seal blood in the water will greatly reduce the monitary value of the suit!

Not to mention what it does to the value if you "stain" the inside of the suit during a Great White encounter:11:

Requesting assistance. Wife and I will be going to Cape Town June/July. Will spend seven days of cage diving to film Great Whites. Water, of ourse is cold and we will just be spending hours stationary in the cage waiting and, hopefully, filming.

Need to stay warm. We are, basically, warmer water divers and have multiple "wet suits" from skins to 3- and 5-mm wet suits. Feel a dry suit better for what we will be doing. However, do not want to spend a lot of money and likely only need a dry suit for this trip.

Any thoughts, ideas will be appreciated. Have looked at trying to secure a used suit on e-bay but nothing yet. Wife has found an O'neil neoprene dry suit with boots that might work for her for a reasonable cost. (seems a bit heavy and bulky but could work) I'm still looking. I Would prefer a laminate outer and wear multi fleece and silk layers beneath.

Can rent suites for approx $30/day for each but we will be on the trip for a month and a half (3 1/2 week of safari following great white encounters) so rental does not sound good. No rentals availal in the area we will be in -- have checked.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, etc. will be most appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[tedwhiteva]

Not sure how far you are going to reach Cape town, but:

1) any chance of shipping drysuit to you to save about 3 weeks of rental?

2) I have a dry suit and a 7mil semi-dry (henderson) (my drysuit brand isn't sold by store I now work with). I have found that the semi-dry is fine down to about 50 (F) even on repetitive dives (so long as you can warm up between). The semi-dry has a cross the chest zipper (not water tight) with an attached hood and is considerably less than a dry suit.

 

[san diego diver]

i dive a tri-lam drysuit and love it,"BUT"the cost of the undergarment as well as the cost of the shell is a lot more than the cost of a neoprene drysuit that my dive buddy spent.he only wears thermal underwear under it,and stays warm.i wear an undergarment that cost $350.00(and that's cheap compared to DUI prices !!)
also if the seals on a tri-lam are too big,figure in the cost and time to replace them!!
neoprene suits have seals that don't need triming,and are easier to get used to if your not a drysuit diver in the first place,and if your cold, just add layers underneath !!
if i only wanted a drysuit for a month or so,i wouls go with the neoprene(not crushed,there more expensive)also in a cage in the standing position,the air in a tri-lam tends to come out of the latex neck seal,leaving you cold.i know,i've dove in a cage in my tri-lam!! good luck and looking foward to seeing pic's !!!

 

[diver60]

Sorry for delay in getting back to you -- computer video board fried and was out of commission most of week.

Water temp when we will be in Cape Town will be about 60 so not "cold", but for us Orlando warm water people, this is cold. There will be four of us spending a every morning of six days cage diving. Will be rotating two at a time for the 4-6 hours per day. Idea is that we find two dry suits -- one the girls can share and one the two of us guys can share -- as have similar body sizes. The girls picked up a neoprene dry on e-bay recently and that appears will work okay for them. Since neoprene they will wear thermal underwear for warmth. Had been thinking they would find a laminate suit and layer with fleece beneath, but they jumped on a suit they saw on e-bay that sounded promising and did not break the bank (and, it was "their" color).

Semi-dry probably not best idea as when out of rotation will be sitting on the boat that will not have a great deal of wind/weather protection so feel dry suit better idea. The afternoons of each of the 6 days we will be on the boat, towing a seal dummy to, hopefully, filming breaching whites so we will be out in the open and breeze throughout that time, bundled in fleece I am sure. The cummulative affect has to be considered -- again leaning to dry versus semi-dry and not wet suit.

Money clearly a consideration.

 

[diver60]

Forgot to mention. The other guy and I are each 6 ft and 205. None have used a dry suit before and have not been certified, however, for this trip -- cage at the surface -- do not feel that is an issue. Would clearly take the course if we were going to be actually diving or if we plan to dive with a dry suit in the future.

Our present wet suits, 5 mm layer systems, clearly inadequate. Did two trips to Galapagos last year and at some of the locations did dive 60 degree water and got cold, especially the girls, and we were moving around rather than stationary.

 

[crlavoie]

Forgot to mention. The other guy and I are each 6 ft and 205. None have used a dry suit before and have not been certified, however, for this trip -- cage at the surface -- do not feel that is an issue. Would clearly take the course if we were going to be actually diving or if we plan to dive with a dry suit in the future.

Our present wet suits, 5 mm layer systems, clearly inadequate. Did two trips to Galapagos last year and at some of the locations did dive 60 degree water and got cold, especially the girls, and we were moving around rather than stationary.

If it was me, I would look into a Bare CD4 or D6 (4 & 6MM neo, respectively). Either one will help you save $$$ on thermals and are generally cost effective to begin with. My guess is that you would probably take a large off the rack (same dimensions as my bro who just bought one). Order it with standard latex neck/wrist seals and no pockets.

I think you can get them on divetank.com for around $800 give or take. When you return, you could probably ebay it and get 1/2 or more back (assuming you don't realize what you've been missing all these years and keep it). The CD4 would probably have a broader appeal for resale. When all is said and done, it would probably be cheaper than renting.

If reselling is not attractive, you might consider an O'Neill. Their neoprene's are about $600, new (maybe less). From what I've read, they're good suits. They just aren't as popular.

Eiter way, I would stay away from any shell suits or hyper compressed neo's simply because you will never stay warm enough without spending the $$$ on proper thermals and they're more expensive anyway.

My $.02