Thermal protection under dry suit

[SAR_diver]

Has anyone done or heard of wearing a wetsuit (say 3mil) under a drysuit for warmth in say mid 30deg water?

 

[loosebits]

The problem with that is that the wetsuit will compress and lose it's insulating properties inside the drysuit just as it would on its own. Traditional materials such as thinsulate, fleece, etc don't have that problem because the compressed air inside the suit permeates the material as opposed to the closed cells inside a wetsuit.

 

[Paco]

SAR__Diver,

Interesting idea. I just dove wet in 42 F water. Though I was comfortable through much of the dive, I was chilled at the end. I wonder how warm I would have been with the same wetsuit covered in a trilam drysuit. Souds kind of crazy I guess, but I'll keep looking for a reply from someone who's tried it. I wonder how much more weight just for the trilam. Sure would save money on the whole dive dry initial investment.

 

[SDAnderson]

SAR_diver once bubbled...
Has anyone done or heard of wearing a wetsuit (say 3mil) under a drysuit for warmth in say mid 30deg water?

No. Emphatically.

 

[cavanhills]

I tried this once - wore my 6.5mm wetsuit under my trilam drysuit in 38 d water. I found that I got colder much quicker than when wearing my thermal underwear. I added some extra lead to my belt as I was unsure how if would effect buoyancy - didn't seem to make much of a difference.

Mark

 

[TDunbar]

The only advantage to wearing neoprene under a shell dry suit would be having a little bit of thermal protection if your suit flooded.....

The downside might be forgetting you're in a dry suit and taking a whizz like in your wetsuit - Thank God for pee valves


Todd