Tech dives in wetsuits in warm water?

[sea_ledford]

Curious - Why not use a QD hose with the dual bladder wing in this case?

The primary argument against dual bladder wings is having to deal with an inflator failure, specifically a small leak into the backup wing. To solve that you don't hook up the inflator hose. But then you have to fumble with connecting the hose to use it, plus have the additional hose in the first place and the failure points that introduces. In the time you reconnect the QD, you could have just orally inflated.

I would personally just use the backup to arrest decent, then get an SMB up as soon as practical, so I wouldn't be using the wing for fine tuning anyway. Oral inflation seems to be the simplest overall method.

 

[LFMarm]

Oral inflation seems to be the simplest overall method.

Not super pleasant when on CC but doable. I use inflator hoses 99% of the time to avoid closing the loop with risk of getting water in.

 

[sea_ledford]

Not super pleasant when on CC but doable.

Agreed. It isn't the easiest, just the simplest. We also practice regularly. With a BOV it is relatively painless. I don't think I would run this way with a DSV.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I have done many 240-foot-deep dives on the Wilkes-Barre in a 3 mil shorty. Also on the Northern light, 185 fsw and the Vitric 300 fsw.

 

[happy-diver]

Here's one of my tropical short deco tech rigs, gets a bit fresh if you have to wait to be picked up

 

[clownfishsydney]

I see many videos of divers doing tech dives wearing drysuits in tropical waters. When the water is 30.5 C (87 F), I don't want to be in a drysuit at all. A 3 mm shorty or less sounds good to me.

How common are 50 m (165 ft) tech dives in wetsuits?

All the time, have done probably 100 deeper than 50 metres over the years in places like Solomons, Chuuk, Vanuatu and PNG, all with 3 mm shorty.

 

[ToneNQ]

Tech dives in wetsuits are normal in warm water. Short wetsuits aren't that common in my experience, but you do see them. Same with guys diving in board shorts and a rashie. I have two DSMBs if I desperately need replacement buoyancy, and I'm diving very little lead so unless I get a full unit flood I only need a few kilos of lift at most. I've actually only see one guy committed enough to dive a drysuit in 30°C water, he did it for its trim characteristics.

For me in 30°C water, a 3mm is too much. I have to flood it to stay comfortable. I don't want a shorty for the lack of exposure protection. For summer I've long used a full length 0.5mm wetsuit. Chuuk, Vanuatu, North Queensland, my 0.5mm has is great, light, small to pack.

At the start of this year I switched to an Enth Degree two-piece polar fleece set up. Its the shizzle. Much nicer to put on wet, much nicer on a humid day as its super easy to put the shirt on at the last minute. I've been comfortable at 27°C for about 70-80mins. I just did BIkini Atoll, lots of 50m dives, the longest was a 3hr dive, all in 29°C water, perfect.

Lavacore also make equivalents, and I've seen Enth Degree and Sharkskin with polar fleece in a one-piece. I've seen ads for others, like Probe's Frogskins range, but I have not laid eyes on them.