How warm is a Dry Suit ?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I think the best way to look at it is not whether the drysuit is warm but the fact that it's warmer than a wetsuit. With that said, it's up to you and your body type to decide if you get cold in a wetsuit.
 
I'll give my take on the issue based on dozens of dives in an uncompressed 7mm drysuit but only a couple in any other style - a White's bag suit. Here in northern California the water temps are typically 7-12C on the surface I'd say, but I haven't paid attention to sub-surface temps.

Once I got the 12mm hood and 7mm neoprene gloves, I *do* stay toasty warm even on very slow-paced dives. I've had many where I honestly barely give a thought to the cold temps aside from awareness around my lips.

Where my take may differ from others is the practicability of drysuit use during the pre-dive surface period on warm sunny days. I hate over-heating, but find that with some care about timing and sun exposure I have a decent "donning and waiting" interval with the uncompressed neoprene suit before I start to overheat. The thick stiff shell perhaps provides some temporary barrier to radiant solar heating, and stands off my skin and thin undergarments enough to provide some circulation before I zip it up, at least round the torso. The undergarments themselves are not particularly insulating on their own.

With the heavy undergarments needed with the White's suit, I found that things became intolerable well before I even had the suit fully on. To the point of real distress, but I know over-heating is just a particular problem for me. Perhaps with time I would have learned to manage the White's process better, but I decided the neoprene suit was already working for me, and sold the White's.
 
I'll give my take on the issue based on dozens of dives in an uncompressed 7mm drysuit but only a couple in any other style - a White's bag suit. Here in northern California the water temps are typically 7-12C on the surface I'd say, but I haven't paid attention to sub-surface temps.

Once I got the 12mm hood and 7mm neoprene gloves, I *do* stay toasty warm even on very slow-paced dives. I've had many where I honestly barely give a thought to the cold temps aside from awareness around my lips.

Where my take may differ from others is the practicability of drysuit use during the pre-dive surface period on warm sunny days. I hate over-heating, but find that with some care about timing and sun exposure I have a decent "donning and waiting" interval with the uncompressed neoprene suit before I start to overheat. The thick stiff shell perhaps provides some temporary barrier to radiant solar heating, and stands off my skin and thin undergarments enough to provide some circulation before I zip it up, at least round the torso. The undergarments themselves are not particularly insulating on their own.

With the heavy undergarments needed with the White's suit, I found that things became intolerable well before I even had the suit fully on. To the point of real distress, but I know over-heating is just a particular problem for me. Perhaps with time I would have learned to manage the White's process better, but I decided the neoprene suit was already working for me, and sold the White's.

I have seen some of the guys in our club doing exactly that even with trilaminates, they went unti the very last moment before donning the top half.. I sweat when hanging around in a wetsuit so I presume that I will probbly suffer the same0:eek:


If you have a lot time to read :)

Seaskin Nova on Scubaboard

Wooah there are 150+ plages... I will take the time and go through them anyway, since they start in 2018, it will be interestingto see if Seaskin have evolved. I also did a quick proce check with all of the options that i would have taken... It came out at 993 GBP.... which is simply incredible... It's far less than a Waterproof D7x which is not even custom made... So Seaskin definately be discussed with the Wife, as we are buying 2 sutis and not just one, the price difference really does make a huge difference..
 
I have seen some of the guys in our club doing exactly that even with trilaminates, they went unti the very last moment before donning the top half.. I sweat when hanging around in a wetsuit so I presume that I will probbly suffer the same0:eek:




Wooah there are 150+ plages... I will take the time and go through them anyway, since they start in 2018, it will be interestingto see if Seaskin have evolved. I also did a quick proce check with all of the options that i would have taken... It came out at 993 GBP.... which is simply incredible... It's far less than a Waterproof D7x which is not even custom made... So Seaskin definately be discussed with the Wife, as we are buying 2 sutis and not just one, the price difference really does make a huge difference..
For those in the US, we can knock off the 20% vat and as of right now the exchange rate is $1.16 to one GBP!
 
For those in the US, we can knock off the 20% vat and as of right now the exchange rate is $1.16 to one GBP!
And the Euro's less than a dollar!
 
Wooah there are 150+ plages... I will take the time and go through them anyway,
The last pages are more or less about delivery time, which is about 3 months, and taxes
 
Real world example... I am a fairly warm person. Did a dive in 45F water in a 7mm wetsuit and was fine on the first tank but by the end of the second tank, I was ready to get out and be done for the day. I wasn't shivering but was cold enough to know a third tank that day was no longer going to be fun. Same site, time of day and depth, same water and surface temperatures a week later, I wore an old school neoprene drysuit with some $20 Walmart long Johns on underneath. Was warm on the first tank. The whole second tank, I was not warm but was not cold either. Could have done a third tank that day I think. Limiting factors were feet and hands. There's a perfect apples to apples comparison.
 
And that is why you order a set of Kubi rings on the seaskin drysuit. Add in those dry gloves and the cold hands are no longer the limiting factor.

Pretty soon you will be looking at a rebreather in order to utilize all that time you can stay comfortable in cold water.
 
And that is why you order a set of Kubi rings on the seaskin drysuit. Add in those dry gloves and the cold hands are no longer the limiting factor.

Pretty soon you will be looking at a rebreather in order to utilize all that time you can stay comfortable in cold water.
Hahaha, I'd like to try a rebreather sometime for sure.
 

Back
Top Bottom