Question Very cold water undergarment

[grantctobin]

Hi,
I I'm looking for a new undergarment to wear under my trilam. I dive in Canada where water is always icy cold under the thermocline. I currently use the aqualung fusion udergarment, but I find it not warm enough.

I'd like to do longer technical dives, but cold is always the limiting factor.

Two undergarments caught my attention. The waterproof Nord X300 and the Fourth Element AR. What do you think about those? Do you have any other suggestion?

Thank you.

Post in thread 'Bottoms of feet cold (drysuit, 39F / 3.9C water)'
Bottoms of feet cold (drysuit, 39F / 3.9C water)

Post 3 has a pdf that had my thoughts at the time. A few other suits have come onto market, some people have had better experience w Santi than others, etc, but gets to the crux of the issues.

 

[TrimixToo]

That's over 46 F, he is asking about very cold water. 46 is what we bask in when we come up through the thermocline.

I have ~60 dives in 42F water in a Weezle Extreme for exposures of about 2 hours each. It's quite warm for the working part of the dive. I use a heated undergarment for the deco stops. I've dived in water that cold without the latter for dives of similar duration but with no deco (a shallow but large flooded former cement mine where unless you stop to look at something you fin all the time). YMMV.

 

[runsongas]

if you prefer to stick with layering the fusion, see if a 100 to 150g fleece undersuit is all you need. if you need more than that but don't want to go with something heated, maybe consider a kwark navy shipped from europe

if you want to replace the fusion outright, the weezle extreme+ is warmer but is quite bulky. the santi bz400x is the expensive option but not as bulky as the weezle

 

[broncobowsher]

BZ400 heated? How warm do you want to be? I have done winter dives in a drysuit and the next guy was in a shorty, in 60°? water

 

[Snusmumrik]

I I'm looking for a new undergarment to wear under my trilam. I dive in Canada where water is always icy cold under the thermocline. I currently use the aqualung fusion udergarment, but I find it not warm enough.

I'd like to do longer technical dives, but cold is always the limiting factor.

Not knowing diving conditions in Canada, but i can suggest that you should try to combine 3 items:
1. top-most undergarment that not restrict your movement in dry suit,
2. thermal layer underwear
3. and most essential component - heated west (or west + gloves, if you can buy this).

Me use noname underwear, Subgear 490 undergarment and 35W DIY heated west. No issues in 2 deg.C water with up to 1 hour dives.