First time flooding the Drysuit !!!!!

[Scott M]

Holy C**p thats cold. Went out for a couple of easy dives yesterday with some friends. the lake has been really strange lately due to the massive amount of rain and winds. The water is turning over much quicker than usual so there is no way to predict what you will be diving in. Our mission for the day was to dive a shallow wreck and then swim out to a ledge and back to the boat on first dive then hit something shallow on the the back to shore.

First dive: 20' of water, I splash first and immediately hit a ripping current which for our lake is very unusual. After some discussion it is decided I would drop down to see if the current was just at the surface which is typical. The current on the bottom is equal to the top with not much chance of swimming against it with out blowing through our air and with out a boatsman on baord no way to do a drift so abort that dive and tuck behind a small island. This works fairly well until we hit a thermocline at 20' which was completely unexpected. One of the group had no were near enough thermo protection so we stayed at 20' did a loop and headed back at 15' Still a nice dive with a lot big bass around. I caught a little chill because I only had lite undergarmants since we were expecting 60 degree temps. The cold gave me a bit of a stomach ache but nothing I couldn't deal with. Not a bad dive over all and I am really there to work on D.S. any ways.

Second dive: Headed back to the wreck as the current was subsiding. I am still pretty chilled but I'm sure I can do the dive. We get there, gear up and splash. No issues to speak of. We drop down and immediately my chest feels cold I do a quick pat down and sure enough I am soaked and freezing now. No choice but to abort the dive for me. That was not so much fun and just nasty taking all that heavy wet undergarment off.

Lesson learned; check the neck seal better next time. It's all a learning experience.

Regards

 

[medical1]

BURR - You paint a picture with words. I read to the end & actually got a chill. Guess I need to turn down my air conditioning

 

[TSandM]

The first time I flooded a suit was a failed neck seal, and I knew I had a leak, but didn't realize how bad it was until I got almost thirty minutes into the dive and felt water sloshing in my feet. I signalled my buddy (no signal for "my suit is full of water", so I used "cold") and we turned back toward shore. Unfortunately, my buddy is a photographer and kept running into stuff he wanted to take pictures of, so I repeatedly had to signal "cold, cold, COLD!!!!". When we surfaced, I found to my chagrin that my wing wouldn't hold my flooded suit up high enough to have my face out of the water very well; I was able, with some adroit positioning, to hold enough gas in the drysuit to stay on top of the water long enough to get to shore. Water temp was 50 degrees; I was very, very cold when I got out, but I think my Thinsulate undergarment probably kept me out of the hospital.

I've had a couple of flooded suits since, and I have a deep respect for the ability of good quality undergarments to keep you safe (and sometimes even comfortable!) when you're soaking wet.

 

[JeffG]

I've had a couple of flooded suits since, and I have a deep respect for the ability of good quality undergarments to keep you safe (and sometimes even comfortable!) when you're soaking wet.

Yep. and it always makes me cringe when I read the threads about the cheap undies that people buy.

 

[Scott M]

BURR - You paint a picture with words. I read to the end & actually got a chill. Guess I need to turn down my air conditioning

I guess I do go on a little too much.

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

Just wait until you flood one from the inside - at least it's warm ...

(BTW, is there any particular reason why the Title of a posting cannot be arbitrarily capitalzed? Kind of makes it hard to use acronyms)

 

[Scott M]

The first time I flooded a suit was a failed neck seal, and I knew I had a leak, but didn't realize how bad it was until I got almost thirty minutes into the dive and felt water sloshing in my feet. I signalled my buddy (no signal for "my suit is full of water", so I used "cold") and we turned back toward shore. Unfortunately, my buddy is a photographer and kept running into stuff he wanted to take pictures of, so I repeatedly had to signal "cold, cold, COLD!!!!". When we surfaced, I found to my chagrin that my wing wouldn't hold my flooded suit up high enough to have my face out of the water very well; I was able, with some adroit positioning, to hold enough gas in the drysuit to stay on top of the water long enough to get to shore. Water temp was 50 degrees; I was very, very cold when I got out, but I think my Thinsulate undergarment probably kept me out of the hospital.

I've had a couple of flooded suits since, and I have a deep respect for the ability of good quality undergarments to keep you safe (and sometimes even comfortable!) when you're soaking wet.

Brrrrr. I could not imagine a complete flood and having to first swim that back much less get out of the water with a bag full fo water.


On the signal for cold you brought back to mind my exact thoughts when I flooded. My buddy was looking at me as I was calling the dive but with no hand signal for flooding I improvised. I pointed to myself than gave him the finger and the up signal as in I'm f'ed I'm heading up.

 

[Scott M]

Just wait until you flood one from the inside - at least it's warm ...

(BTW, is there any particular reason why the Title of a posting cannot be arbitrarily capitalzed? Kind of makes it hard to use acronyms)

When it flooded I was tempted to warm it up. lol

 

[Scott M]

Question for you D.S. guru's, stupid question actually, have you ever thought about wearing a wet suit for undergarment? I mean the idea is to stay dry and warm which a wet suit would accomplish and if it does flood you have back up. You would still have to abort the dive though.

 

[300bar]

That brings back some memories(and not good ones)
Last year my frontzipper desided to fully open during the dive and thus flooding my DS.
Glad I had a 500gr thinsulate underneath.

Darn that was cold.