Lift measure of a standard Dry Suit

[Bak]

Hi there,
I have a question about the lift of a
standard dry suit. In the GUE Manual " Fundamentals of Rec Diving" Chap 4 the
example given to illustrate a balanced rig is given with a wet suit.What would
be the average lift of a DUI TLS 350 ?
I dive in warm sea waters (18°C at the
moment...) so my undergarment is minimal (a tee-shirt + panty hose)
Thanks
for your input
Bak

 

[TSandM]

You can't say anything about the lift of a dry suit -- you have to know the undergarments.

When I dive in Puget Sound, my dry suit and undergarments have about 28 pounds of lift. When I dive in Mexico, with thin undergarments, I don't know formally what the lift is (never got in the water in just the suit and undergarments to figure it out). But I use 30 lbs of negative stuff with a -1 tank in the Sound, and 7 lbs of negative stuff with a roughly neutral tank setup in MX, so my guess is that my dry suit/undergarment setup in MX is running me about -5 or so. Obviously, that is going to depend a LOT on how much air you want to run in the suit -- in the caves, I run my suit about as squeezed as I can tolerate and reach my valves, because I don't want a lot of air in my feet if I have to go head-down to get through a sloped area.

 

[antattack]

Think of it this way- if you have a custom made, well fitting suit with minimal undergarments, your suit will have little room for air and minimal lift. A poor fitting dry suit COULD be blown up like a balloon and have lots and lots of lift, regardless of the undergarment.

My shell dry suit, when diving in cold water, requires 28# of ballast when using a steel 100. My open cell neoprene dry suit, which I dive in cold water without fleece undergarments, only requires 18# with the same wing.

Hope that helps.

 

[Bak]

Thanks for your inputs guys.
Lynn: I usually dive with minimal air in my dry suit. I read on another forum that membrane dry suit "should" be around neutral . Do you agree ?

 

[NAM001]

my tls350 with the 100g undies are + 19 the 300g undies are +38

 

[Bak]

Thanks for the info KWS

 

[TSandM]

The suit itself is going to be neutral to a little positive, depending on the material the boots are made of. It's the undergarments and the trapped air that make dry suits so positive.

 

[KathyIGH]

Great question and awesome feedback!!!