Semi-Dry Suits

[rivers]

I'll echo what others have said: go dry. I made the jump from wet to dry with 50 dives (made th jump from warm to cold water at the same time. So a 2mm shorty to a drysuit was massive). Find yourself a good instructor or mentor to teach you. Keep the dives nice and shallow to start with, then get progressively deeper as you become more comfortable. I had an absolutely appalling drysuit course, but did okay I the end with much help from a mentor. A drysuit will take some time getting used to. And not all drysuit a are $2k. You can find them new and used for much cheaper!
i dive my drysuit all year in the UK. Temps range from a balmy 17/18*c to why the **** are we diving. The water is 2*c and the air temp isn't much warmer.

 

[RJP]

You can pee in a wetsuit or a drysuit.

While you could pee in a semi dry, it would be icky.

I know several folks with p-valves in their semi-dry suits.

 

[Lemna]

I appreciate all of the comments. What I meant about the added dangers of a drysuit, is the danger of having the air gather in my feet and shooting the surface upside down. I realize that it's a small risk, but with a wet/semi dry suit, I don't have to worry about that. Also, from what I understand, dry suits are fairly maintenance heavy, and a wet suit or semi...you just wash it and you're pretty good unless the zipper fails. I do appreciate how great dry suits are, especially where I'm diving, I just would rather stick with something that I'm comfortable diving in for another 50-100 dives.

So.... with all of that additional information, does anyone have any further info for me? I realize that I'll be wet regardless of whether I'm in a wet suit or semi-dry, but I'm going for an increase in warmth as I don't have a lot of body fat and my current 7mm wet suit isn't really cutting it anymore.

In a year or so, you'll read this post again and wonder why you hesitated to go dry... it's really not that hard. Just practice in the shallows first with an experienced drysuit diver.

I dove a 7mm semi-dry for a year after certification. Liked it in summer, but switching to a drysuit got me:
- longer, warmer dives
- a comfortable surface interval - no more toweling off in a cold windy parking lot
- and since you aren't cold after your first dive, more than one dive per day
- more flexibility than that thick 7mm neoprene

Of course you'll need to take care of the drysuit, but in practice this costs you a few minutes per dive (to wax the zipper and take care of the seals). A Whites Fusion, for example, costs about $1K - I was horrified by the cost, until I got out of the water after my first dive with it. Haven't used the semidry since then.

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

Whites Fusion One, rondel's eBay garments, military ecws base layer, enough said.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[dkktsunami]

Three classifications of exposure protection: wet suits, less wet suits, almost dry suits. Moisture will find you one way or the other........

 

[Capnhook]

I just ordered the Henderson Thermoprene 7/8mm semi-dry as well. Should have it in about a week. Came upon this thread searching for opinions. I'll let you know how it goes if you're interested. I'm in Winnipeg, so if it keeps me warm here, it'll work for pretty much anywhere.

 

[Stoo]

Three classifications of exposure protection: wet suits, less wet suits, almost dry suits. Moisture will find you one way or the other........

I'll echo the others... Go dry or go home. Most people can get the hang of a drysuit in 3 or 4 dives. For some, it's one. I also disagree with the quote above. I've been diving Viking drysuits for 30+ years, and unless I puncture it, or unless it's very old, I stay 100% dry on every dive... my body, my hands and even my head.

I'm in the market to replace my current Viking Pro (9/10 years old, 700 dives) and until the end of last season, it was completely dry, and had no patches. It does appear that many suits are not routinely dry (as I have learned in my research) but they should be.

Personally, I have never seen the point of a semi dry suit. It's just an over-priced wetsuit. One of the things that many people fail to realize about diving dry, is how much warmer they will be are AFTER the dive has ended. Undressing on a boat or by your car in a cold wind while you're wet is very different than removing your shell drysuit, leaving you in the adult equivalent of Dr. Denton's. If it's "that" cold, just leave your undies on until you drive home...

"Warm" in a wet or "semi-wet" suit is entirely different than "warm" in a drysuit. I sometimes explain the difference to people by using the analogy of a blizzard. Wearing a wetsuit is like standing outside in the storm. No matter how well you're dressed, eventually the wind cuts through you and you get cold. A drysuit is more like standing in your living room, beside the thermo-pane window. You know it's cold outside, and if you touch the window, you can even feel the cold outside, but you just aren't exposed to it in the same way.

 

[Token]

A semi-dry works for _me_ because I don't plan to do more than 6-12 cold water dives a year, and the flexibility of semi-dry+vest/hood/Thermalution vest will do for those.

If I lived in the PNW and dived there regularly...I'd bite the bullet and go dry, despite the issues I'd have with fitting, subsequent cost and the issues unique to drysuits.

Having said all that....I looked long and hard at the Waterproof Combat semi-dry. Unfortunately the range of fitting at Waterproof doesn't include me, so I got a custom Seasoft semi instead.

 

[Dive-aholic]

I appreciate all of the comments. What I meant about the added dangers of a drysuit, is the danger of having the air gather in my feet and shooting the surface upside down. I realize that it's a small risk, but with a wet/semi dry suit, I don't have to worry about that. Also, from what I understand, dry suits are fairly maintenance heavy, and a wet suit or semi...you just wash it and you're pretty good unless the zipper fails. I do appreciate how great dry suits are, especially where I'm diving, I just would rather stick with something that I'm comfortable diving in for another 50-100 dives.

So.... with all of that additional information, does anyone have any further info for me? I realize that I'll be wet regardless of whether I'm in a wet suit or semi-dry, but I'm going for an increase in warmth as I don't have a lot of body fat and my current 7mm wet suit isn't really cutting it anymore.

You don't have to worry about this with all dry suits. While many dry suits can be baggy and increase the difficulty of managing that air bubble, not all dry suits are like that. I have hundreds of dry suit dives and there are dry suits I still have issues diving because of the poor design. Dry suits are also not really that maintenance heavy. Wax the zip at the beginning of each dive day. Rinse it off at the end. Store with the zipper open. Nothing more to it. Also, dry suits don't have to cost $2k. The dry suit I'm diving now retails for under $1k. I have about 100 dives on it and consider it the best dry suit I've ever owned, and I've owned quite a few. It's also form fitting, like it was custom made for me, and doesn't have the air bubble management issue you mention. For less than $500 more than you will pay for a semi dry you can be in a brand new dry suit that comes with a 2 year warranty. And you'll be a lot warmer!

 

[KCDO]

Thank you Dive-Aholic. Based on everything that has been shared here I'm going to probably have to go in the dry suit direction when I decide to upgrade. I'm in school right now, so funds are tight, and sadly, there isn't a ton of time to go dive.

Just out of curiosity though, one of the previous posters mentioned that Viking makes a good dry suit, what are you diving? You mentioned that yours is really great, but you didn't say who made it, or what the model name was.