Skuba23:
I have bought all my own gear except for a wetsuit because my local store lets me borrow one for free since I bought my equipment from them. I'm going on a trip to the Cayman Islands and I didn't want to have to buy a wetsuit. I have an Ironman Stealth triathlon wetsuit that's made for swimming but I'm wondering how it would work at depth. It is sleeveless with full leg coverage. Here's a link to it:
http://www.ironmanwetsuits.com/products/stealth.html
Any thoughts on how this would work for scuba diving??
Thanks much,
Brian
No, no, no, no, no. Bad, bad, bad triathlete and bad SCUBA people for encouraging him to do this. <g>
SCUBA wetsuits and triathlon wetsuits are two different animals. You will absolutely destroy your very expensive ($439 msrp) triathlon wetsuit. Hold your Stealth in one hand and any off-the-rack SCUBA wetsuit in another, and it will be plainly obvious. It's like showing up to a construction site wearing racing flats instead of steel-toed boots. There are literally several more POUNDS of rubber holding a SCUBA wetsuit together than in a triathlon wetsuit of the same thickness.
Why? Triathlon wetsuits are designed for buoyancy first, lightness second, and warmth only because it comes along with the other two. The neoprene has much larger pockets of gas that are very difficult (i.e., expensive) to form. More air, less rubber means the neoprene is much, much weaker than you find in a SCUBA/surfing wetsuit. Durability is just not an issue because surface swimming is not that hard on the material, so we can get away with it in exchange for greater flexibility (which means less energy to swim in it) and less weight (which means you ride higher in the water, also less energy).
These gas pockets will crush at depth rendering them useless for swimming your next triathlon...
...but it will also take you a heap more lead to get you to sink in the first place. So, now you're at depth wearing a whole lot of lead, and your source of buoyancy just imploded throughout your wetsuit as you're looking thousands of feet down over the edge of the Cayman wall. How much buoyancy do you have in your BC to keep you from becoming an anchor?
Also, the slick outer skin of a triathlon wetsuit is extremely fragile- thinner than rice paper. It is designed to be slippery in the water, not to hold up to weightbelts, BC/harnesses, etc. It is very, very common for people to put their fingers right through this skin when merely putting the wetsuit on before a race (which is why you should only grab your wetsuit on the inside). This coating would probably shred from your dive gear before you even got in the water.
If I haven't swayed you yet, just call Ironman Wetsuits directly- they'll be happy to answer your question. Beside, you should be able to rent a SCUBA wetsuit in Cayman, anyway.
Cameron