For the first two years of diving I used my neoprene drysuit and only wore a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and never got cold. Recently I have been getting cold every time I dive. I'm not sure why this is. I have two fairly long dives in 44-47 degree water coming up next week and I have been considering wearing my 7 mm wetsuit under my neoprene dry suit to stay warm. Is this too extreme?
Suit within a suit
- Thread starter beesonj
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Floridawannabe
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Hope you have a lot of LEAD 
Fiend
Registered
beesonj:
I have heard about people using a 3mm shorty underneath their drysuit but I don't have a lot of info on how it works or how it affects bouyancy. Seems like you might be better off using some thin fleece undergarments. If you don't want to spend a lot of money you could go to your local surplus store and load up on expedition weight polyster fleece.
I have a 3mm wetsuit that I might try out sometime on a short experimental dive. The thing that is nice is that if you get a flood you will have some insulation while wet with a shell drysuit. Since it would be the air in the neoprene keeping you warm you would want to squeeze your suit to the max of comfort. That would cut down on your weight requirement.
Report back to how it works out. 7mm does sound like it might be too warm and too bouyant though...especially if you are already using a neoprene drysuit.
marc s.
beesonj:
It won't work nearly as well as you think it would. I've tried it with wet-gloves under dry-gloves and it didn't work well at all....
I would suggest layering your clothing. Wear (or buy) good quality thermal underwear as a the bottom layer. Something fleece on top of that and if you can fit it in without it feeling uncomfortable you could try a light sweater over that. If you've got room for a 7mm wetsuit then you'll have room for several layers of proper clothing too....
Definitely do *not* wear anything cotton (like most t-shirts) next to your skin. That's deadly because cotton retains water, which cools down and acts like a heat sink drawing warmth out of your body.
R..
dumpsterDiver
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You do not want to wear a wet suit under the dry suit. It would be way too constricting. You may be getting colder because the suit is getting compressed and thinner. I used to use wool socks, sweat pants, a sweat shirt, a thin wool sweater and sometimes a down vest under my suit. Think this was before they had fancy polar fleece.
Tamas
Contributor
I tried the 3mm wetsuit under the drysuit once.....works ok for the first little while and if not too deep, under 60' it's like not having anything on at all.
Fiend
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Tamas:
Ah well, that saves me from experimenting. Probably best to take care of your seals and zipper and try to prevent a serious suit flood. A question for another thread perhaps but how can you tell if your seals/zipper need to be replaced BEFORE they fail. I'd rather replace them a bit early instead of waiting for them to fail.
marc s.
Sweat or other moisture next to your skin can make you fel mch colder, so a layer designed to wick moisture away, like the thin and stretchy polypropolene underwear used by climbers, cross country skiiers, etc, is a good idea to have under whatever breathable insulating layer you are using (wool, fleece, etc.)
Flexibility and movement issues aside, using a neoprene suit as an undergarment would be uncomfortable as if you did sweat it would be right there with you with no place to go.
A worn dry suit zipper starts to fray as the nylon threads come loose from the black rubber coating applied over them. Your best bet to increase the life of the zipper if you see these is to carefully singe them off with a lighter to slow their progression.
Your best preventive maintence is to keep your zipper well waxed and never store it in a closed state.
Neoprene seals tend to last virtually forever.
Flexibility and movement issues aside, using a neoprene suit as an undergarment would be uncomfortable as if you did sweat it would be right there with you with no place to go.
A worn dry suit zipper starts to fray as the nylon threads come loose from the black rubber coating applied over them. Your best bet to increase the life of the zipper if you see these is to carefully singe them off with a lighter to slow their progression.
Your best preventive maintence is to keep your zipper well waxed and never store it in a closed state.
Neoprene seals tend to last virtually forever.
Thanks for all the great responses. I guess the reason I thought of it was from a National Geographic special on Antarctic Diving. I thought the narrator stated that these diver were wearing 3 layers of neoprene, but I probably misunderstood. He probably meant they wore 3 layers of various types of clothing under there neoprene drysuit. I think I will try the long underwear and Helly Hanson fleece vest I have before I get too extreme.
Thanks again!
Thanks again!
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