I think WetSuits are Safer and Better than Dry suits for the vast majority of divers

[Kevrumbo]

A serious wreck diver on a penetration in cold water would use something like a DUI CLX 450 that's abrasion/puncture resistant & durable.

But using such a heavy weight cordura trilam in tropical Truk Lagoon? Not at all comfortable or practical. And any lesser trilaminate like a TLS 350 or a 30/30 would be shredded after 3 weeks of continuous diving on the inside of these historic warm water wrecks, in both conventional backmount and sidemount gear.

Much more convenient & cheaper to replace an entire wetsuit/skinsuit as needed in this instance, rather than continually patching up the holes & tears of a drysuit exposed to the rigors of tropical wreck penetration diving. . .

 

[Peter69_56]

Well I have dived all over the south pacific from Tasmania Australia to the equator. I have 3mm wet, 5 mm wet semi dry, 6.5 mm wet semi dry, BCD, waterproof hybrid dry suit, wing.

I think its horses for courses. Each fits the right environment as well as a preferred choice.

I now love my dry suit and wing particularly the colder it gets but hate the additional setup time etc, however also love the ease of a 3mm wetsuit, minimal weight required and ease of BCD, when in the tropics but its so so cold when in 10C water and has no lift ability.

Wet or dry each has its own inherent risk as well as good points. For anyone to say one suit "suits all" is really living in dreamland or taken more than their allocation of bias pills.

I have no barrow to push (and don't live in WPB either however have dived in 8C to 30C water with no to full on currents) and just think that each of my suits serves a purpose and has its best environment and situation to be used in. Use any of them outside their best situation and you don't get the best out of the dive. You could use a drysuit in 30C, but I wouldn't like to, and I have used a 3 mm in 10C and DID NOT enjoy the pain.

Horses for courses.

 

[Diver0001]

when I got my first drysuit my training literally consisted of this:

1) air goes in here
2) you can let the air out through this one
3) use it in shallow water until you get the hang of it

and in reality it wasn't much more complicated than that. We do things a little better now than we did back in the day but my impression is that some people over think it.

R..


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Hickdive]

We do things a little better now than we did back in the day but my impression is that some people over think it.

Over thinking or monetization? Sometimes it's difficult to distinguish between the two nowadays.

 

[danvolker]

Only the oceans in FL have currents...i guess that means rivers dont flow and theres no current in any of the northern oceans....LOLZ

If they anchor dive , then the currents are so incredibly mild, that they "can" anchor. When currents become "currents" you need to drift....this would be my personal semantics. If they have NC dive sites that need to be drifted, then yes, they have currents, and I should have asked the NC divers about this before making this observation.....On this issue, I don't recall any of them ever discussing the need to do drift dives off NC.

If they anchor dive, and they have some days when they struggle with the current....then suddenly my concept is extremely relevant.....if they find themselves struggling then the gear choice is extremely relevant....the slick wetsuit ( or a drysuit that is as slick--though I have not seen one such as this in Florida), the right fins, the slick bp/wing, etc.


As to some dry suits being neoprene and slick....I will believe this when I see them in action, and the action proves this.... To this point, many scuba wetsuits with their over texturing and anti-tear beefing up, are actually high drag...whereas the freedive suits tend to be much slicker in the water--better for this purpose...the downside is that the freedive wetsuits need to be doffed and donned more carefully, and they are not so great for "crawling around on your hands and knees on the bottom---as some wreck divers will do in low vis conditions while searching for artifacts.

 

[Tigerman]

Ok, so now its specialized freedive suits and not the regular ol wetsuit either?
Why dont we all just dive nude while at it..

 

[danvolker]

Ok, so now its specialized freedive suits and not the regular ol wetsuit either?
Why dont we all just dive nude while at it..

You know what is so hard for me to understand, is the reluctance of so many here on SB to SEE the relevance of Drag and efficient propulsion to achieving either better adventures or more safety.
There are many divers that get this, and use it...not just me....but SB seems to be a place where this is not understood.

Tigerman, in trying to make the drag concept clearer--the trilam suit or the neoprene version.....it makes sense to offer the easily experienced drag differences in wetsuits....

To me, being able to make one kick and then glide for 10 to 15 feet before needing to make another kick, is very serene and enjoyable...not to mention a great way to keep heart rate and breathing rate insanely low....How is it that none of you guys can take an interest is going from your kick once and glide 2 feet...to kick once and glide 15 feet ?

 

[Tigerman]

My point was that youre going from drysuits being unsafe to freediving suits being THE ****!
If you started out with how to make your tropical diving more streamlined and not come out as "Im the superDan and everyone else are muppets that dont have a clue about diving" then maybe people would bother discussing it in a much more creative fashion with you..

 

[tracydr]

How many mls do these freedive wetsuits come in? The ones I've seen look very thin. I get cold easily, especially now that I have the bone disease. I'm strong and flexible if warm,stiff and weak if cold. Not thinking that would work for me.
I'm wearing 1.5 ml in the swimming pool when everyone else is in a swimsuit. Of course, everyone else is complaining about the cold,they just don't know what to do about it.
Personally, While I love diving wet,I've found my tolerance for cold has gone way down. I think the days of 3 mls are nearly gone for me,except in the lake when its 88 deg. Otherwise, I'm going to be like TSandM for the most part. I just love diving dry. I may end up getting a used 30/30 as a back/up for tropical diving, sing my DC seems like overkill at times.

 

[danvolker]

My point was that youre going from drysuits being unsafe to freediving suits being THE ****!
If you started out with how to make your tropical diving more streamlined and not come out as "Im the superDan and everyone else are muppets that dont have a clue about diving" then maybe people would bother discussing it in a much more creative fashion with you..

I thought I was being very careful NOT to say this is big because of what I do.....each of my examples are things we can do with practically anyone that reads SB...and most of my descriptions a use a reference like you do this one way, and your evil twin does it the other way....This was heavily utilized by me in this entire thread..... It may bother some that I have already experienced this...and that I am not saying that I read about some streamlining and efficiency differences---because then it would not reference me in any way....but there is no way I am going to wait 10 years for some group to suddenly discover this and publish on it.

For people to understand "Drag" in dive gear, I think it is necessary to give enough examples of gear with very different drag...because so many divers have no conception of what gear will impart drag that they would experience in propulsive efficiency...which is directly related to bottom time, distance over a reef or wreck you can cover, and to safety.

I am trying to offer easy tests that each SB member can try on their own, wherever they are....and for any that come to Florida, I will help anyone try these with my gear ( or gear I can get my hands on) --and I extend this even to the 4 or 5 personalities here that we can be pretty certain are constantly offended by my ideas and comments, so are constantly on the attack when I post.....these people are pretty evident. But even with their animosity, I would still extend the gear to them so they can see for themselves that I do not just make this stuff up.....and this works for a majority of divers that are willing to try it.