samsp
Registered
The thread on cheap suits from ebay, and the ingenious DIY scuba gear got me thinking about what is a dry suit. Its basis is keeping you warm under water by keeping you dry so the underlying insulation can keep you warm. The most expensive parts of dry suits are those which allow the suit to be don'ed and doff'ed and be waterproof - namely the seals and zipper. What if you made a one-time suit so that these seals weren't a problem. How many dives will a suit last on average and therefore what is the cost per set of dives?
Last time I was flying through MIA, I saw a service where they would clingwrap your luggage - not sure why people did it, but there was a line for it. Could you take the same approach for a one-time dry suit production. Say you took a pair of gloves, and rubber boots, donned the thermals and those and then had your dive buddy wrap you in cling film. Kind of like kids dressing for halloween as a mummy using TP. Could you make a suit that would be waterproof and durable enough for a couple of dives. At the end of the dives you would cut yourself out of the suit and recycle the plastic. No need for complex zippers and seals. Inflation and dump valves could be done as today, but mounted to pad that would be woven into the binding as part of the suit production. Shoulder vs cuff dump would be a matter of pad placement during production.
The pro's and con's I could see are:
Pro's
Has this ever been tried? How durable would the plastic need to be? Assuming the goal of inflation U/W is just to relieve the squeeze and the BC is used for bouyancy, it should not need much pressure capability.
Sam
Last time I was flying through MIA, I saw a service where they would clingwrap your luggage - not sure why people did it, but there was a line for it. Could you take the same approach for a one-time dry suit production. Say you took a pair of gloves, and rubber boots, donned the thermals and those and then had your dive buddy wrap you in cling film. Kind of like kids dressing for halloween as a mummy using TP. Could you make a suit that would be waterproof and durable enough for a couple of dives. At the end of the dives you would cut yourself out of the suit and recycle the plastic. No need for complex zippers and seals. Inflation and dump valves could be done as today, but mounted to pad that would be woven into the binding as part of the suit production. Shoulder vs cuff dump would be a matter of pad placement during production.
The pro's and con's I could see are:
Pro's
- The suit would always be a custom fit and would take into account the underwear you had on that day
- Suit repair would be facilitated by duct tape.
- No more need for rental suits, just the values would need to be rented by LDS's, they wouldn't need to account for different sizes
- Tearing the suit would just mean that dive was ruined, you would create a new suit for the next dive.
- You get strange enough looks as it is when diving in a public place
- Needing to urinate after the suit is produced would be inconvenient, but could be solved by scissors and duct tape.
- Cost per dive - depending on material cost this could be prohibative
- It could get very hot for an SI, not being able to remove the suit
Has this ever been tried? How durable would the plastic need to be? Assuming the goal of inflation U/W is just to relieve the squeeze and the BC is used for bouyancy, it should not need much pressure capability.
Sam
