I am cold!! Any ideas? (Drysuit diving)

[Maria Brogren]

Dear all,

I am a swedish drysuit diver who has severe problems with heat retention.

I am always cold when diving here, and I am now looking for tips on how to deal with this problem.

This summer I was using a DUI compressed neoprene drysuit, and the new Weezle Extreme undergarment. Underneath the Weezle I had a high quality, breathable thin undergarment + fleece "biking shorts" (to keep my delicate parts warm!!).

In spite of spending about 350$ on the Weezle, which is supposed to be some of the warmest on the market I was still cold.

The water temperature was about 18 Celsius on the surface and maybe 8-10 below. About as warm as it ever gets here.
No extreme dives, around 45 minutes at max depth of 40 meters.

I am an instructor and have to keep warm on longer dives (although shallower) and nothing seems to be working for me.

If anyone has any ideas of how to solve my heat problem, please let me know!!

Regards
Maria

 

[Beck_narco_diver]

I know exactly how u feel with the cold as i suffer from the same problem on my technical diver, i have found that improper eating can cause u more of a problem, so u can forget about that quick snack before u get in to the suit, also how close a fit is your dry suit, too close a fit can prevent your undersuit from working properly..
And a key thing, wear nothing but your underwear under your undersuit, unless u wear your old undersuit under your weasle, anything else will counter the effect of the undersuit

well good luck

beck

 

[Maria Brogren]

Thanks for your input, but I have tried the "naked approach", with wearing nothing underneath the Weezle, but was even colder...

I am thinking though, that the close fit of my drysuit is the problem...

Regards
Maria

 

[Beck_narco_diver]

do u still have your old undersuit, my boyfriend hsa a p vaulve fited but during our long deco dives he wears his old undersuit under his weasle, and he is as snug as a bug in a dry suit... My drysuit is now getting too tight for me, so i am instead getting a made to measure Otter Brittanic, this way i have a better fitting suit, and in my case with a front zip to prevent any problems reaching my manifold. I find that neoprene is not as good in as far as insulation is compared due to its compression at depth, but try and ask more manufacturese for trail of there dry suit, a know several that hire out or even provide for testing

good luck on your search

beck

You could always get a warm water suit. lol

 

[BillP]

Hi Maria:

I have an idea, but I don't honestly know if it's a good idea. My wife gets cold when she dives (wet). I bought her some heating pads to use when diving. They are plastic bags containing a concentrated solution of liquid sodium acetate and a little metal disk that acts as a catalyst. You "click" the disk and it starts a reaction where the sodium acetate precipitates and solidifies. As the solution precipitates it creates heat. This heat warms the water in her wetsuit keeping her warm as well. The heat packs stay warm for about an hour to an hour and a half in air (less time in water). They are recharged by boiling in water (forces the precipitated sodium acetate back into solution) and will remain ready-to-use until the catalyst is "clicked" again. The packs can be reused indefinitely. It works well in a wetsuit where it can warm the water, but I don't know how much it would help in a drysuit.

I don't know where you'd get one in Sweden, but we bought ours at a store in the US that specializes in products for people with back problems. It might be worth a try.

HTH,

Bill

 

[Mario S Caner]

Last year at Dema in Vegas there was a buzz about using heating pads that are battery powered. Companies like NiteRider Technical Lighting Systems and DUI have been experimenting with the concept. If you think about it, it's not that far fetched. The systems have a switch on them that's much like a thermostat. You simply put it on a preset temperature, and the pads will stay on only long enough to maintain the desired temperature. The batteries of course are rechargable so the cost of maintaining the system is minimal.

One other thing I've heard of divers doing that I don't exactly agree with is using over the counter weight loss pills to raise their inner core temperature. It sounds like a bad idea to me, but I suppose the only way to know for sure is to check labels and call DAN.

 

[Beck_narco_diver]

Surly both a slow cooling and rapid reheating are a major concern if you are doing heavy decompression dives in cool water, the heat pads seem a good idea, but how would they effect you in as far as raising your temperature too high, or even just enough to aid in dehydration.....
This is a hard subject to work with because obviously doing your deepest part of your dive first, you absorb the most nitrogen, so as you continue your dive you cool even more, to a point where the tissues do not release the same amount of nitrogen as they would if your were at the same tempertaure as you were at the start of the dive,... so the activation of these heat pads could result in a problem if you activate them during a dive????

The heated suits with preprogrammed temperatre setting were avaible on the uk market for about 6months then they were removed as futher research was needed, i think there were problems with the temperature settings when the undersuit came in to contact with large amounts of water but i am unsure

I think the DIVE REFLEX could also be a problem if anyone out there free dives, unfortunatually i had to let my diving take over my freediving practice in cold water immmersion, as i found my breathing rate in cold water dropped well below sensible levels for my height age and weight... something that should be at about 20 bpm, was 9....
does anyone else have this probelm or is this just me......??

 

[Mario S Caner]

Interesting info regarding the recall on heating systems in the UK. But like I said before, there are a number of companies researching other avenues. Perhaps one of them will unveil something interesting at Dema in January???

 

[King_Neptune]

Heya,

You might want to check this stuff out ... Chammyz!!

Until I found this stuff I thought staying warm AND comfortable was a myth! Seriously, and believe me you'll never want to take it off either. It'll only take wearing it once and you will want another set to wear on those cold winter nights. My only warning is it is addictive!

If you don't want to check out the chammyz.com website now you can wait until DEMA, they will be there too, but I know from the last few DEMA shows, they Always run out of stuff.

As many of you know, I do not like to plug specific brand names and will do all I can to stay away from doing so, but in this case I have definately caught the bug! I love chammyz, and yes, I'm so addicted I have bought at LEAST one of everything, hehe. We are also working with them to try to do some free give-a-ways of their products. It's just not that easy because products like theirs usually sells itsself without that kind of promotion, but we wont give up either. hehe, I myself could pass as a walking billboard for them.


Hopelessly addicted,

KN

=-)

 

[SubMariner]

I "feel your pain", fellow Instructor!

Although the DUI CF material is heavier than trilam, it's still not as warm as 1/4" neoprene. However, the neoprene is very buoyant, so you have to wear more weight. A real "catch-22" situation!

Sometimes wearing one very thick garment (like "woolie bears") with a skinny one underneath is not nearly as good as several multiple layers. The heat retention seems to be better with this latter method, especially since the loft or insulation of the heavy garment sometimes lessens over time because of wear or compression of the material. (Compression can even happen with new "woolies" if it's a somewhat tight fit under the suit.) It's the smaller airspaces that are warmed & kept warm by your body that make for more comfortable diving.

For example, In water close to 0 I often start with a thermal t-shirt, leotards, and long thick socks. On top of that I put on a long sleeved thermal shirt, and leggings or sweat pants. On top of that I may put on a sweat shirt or similar long-sleeved shirt. The main thing is to keep your "core" warm.

This method worked for me when I was living/diving in Canada in temps as I described above. I use a variation here in the US when I dive in Florida Springs; the waters there about 18-20C all year 'round. (Somewhat warmer temps in the Gulf of Mexico during the Fall & Spring.)

BTW, I used to dive in a 1/4" neoprene drysuit. For the past 2 years I have been using a DUI 350 TLS (trilam).

Good luck!

~SubMariner~