The Drysuit and the Wetsuit

[SteveAD]

Okay so it sounds like she at least needs to try the dry. I have an associated question though. On my first 6 dives I used a bc with a full wrap-around inflate, when I bought one I went with the back-inflate as that was recommended. I spent a significant amount of time (well as in most of the time on my next ten dives) adjusting to not feeling the amount of air in my bc and adjusting for how air seemed to roll around in the wing if I was "playing" in the water.

I sometimes dont just want to be facedown, in fact completely inverted head down to check out rocks and bottom is much more comfortable to me as I dont have to worry about silting the area or hitting stuff with my fins. Its hard to do this with a back-inflate as the dam thing trys to keep me face down. I am learning to adapt though.

Problem is, in a dry-suit she cant swim head down she has to be either horizontal or head slightly up (more of a question than a statement). Or am I misunderstanding the air in the feet problem that requires you to ball up so you can re-stablize? Or am I learning bad habits (by inverting head down) that will affect us negatively in the future and should stop doing what I am doing? She swims currently slightly head down (her feet are ankle-weighted) but she is scared of wanting to look at something below her where she cant get to it horizontal and then ends up stuck feet up.

the air in the feet issue is more a matter of being over weaighted, if you're weighted properly you won't have a big bubble in the suit

 

[RS]

That makes perfect sense, but anecdotaly I hear woman complain about being cold more often than men. I didn't mean to imply that it is exclusively a gender issue, just that it is a very common complaint among our female divers. What else did they speaker have to say on this issue?

I believe more muscle mass and the ability to perform physical work with less effort has the benefit of a greater short term resistance to the effects of cold in both women and men.

I also read on the net that in general;

• Women have a lower basal metabolic rate (basal?)
• Women's blood contains more water and 20% less red blood cells
• Women have 50% less strength (but muscle mass doesn't necessarily = strength)
• Women have lower lung capacity

I don't know if I believe all that, but what do I know?

Does insulating body fat have much of an offset? Having been both very fit and very out of shape in the last 8 or 10 years, I'd say I was more cold tolerant when I was fit. Soon I'll be able to say "Now that I am fit again"...

 

[grazie42]

Originally Posted by Twiddles
Problem is, in a dry-suit she cant swim head down she has to be either horizontal or head slightly up (more of a question than a statement). Or am I misunderstanding the air in the feet problem that requires you to ball up so you can re-stablize? Or am I learning bad habits (by inverting head down) that will affect us negatively in the future and should stop doing what I am doing? She swims currently slightly head down (her feet are ankle-weighted) but she is scared of wanting to look at something below her where she cant get to it horizontal and then ends up stuck feet up.

I´d suggest that you:
-Get her a drysuit that fits her (this may mean going custom, DO NOT compromise on quality because of cost. A good drysuit will easily last 5-10 years with minimal maintanence, being "stuck" with a bad DS put you of diving).
-Get whatever undersuit she needs to stay warm and comfy.
-I would strongly recommend drygloves.
-Get her training and stay shallow for a few dives after training so that mistakes are embarassing rather than dangerous...

People do OW with Drysuits, it´s not difficult but if she´s already uncomfortable a drysuit-class is two dives with instructor guidance to help her get comfortable and avoid the most common mistakes...

I did 5 dives locally last year in my semi-dry, anytime I do more than one dive per day I use my DS (and most other times as well)...IMO, wetsuits/semidrys are for tropical diving, for everything else there are dry-suits...

ymmv