Hi, everybody. Welcome to Scuba Diver Magazine. Today's video is a followup of this one from
a few weeks back, where I spoke about why you should be diving in a drysuit. And a few
of you had some followup questions so I thought I'd take another stab at it, just to talk
about some drysuits some more. So, yeah. Drysuits are a touch more intricate than your traditional
wetsuits. I mean, sure, if you boil it down there's plenty of features on wetsuits, but
drysuits can actually be really complicated, and you just have a ton of different options,
especially when you're buying new ones. So, taking your very first few steps in the world
of drysuits can feel quite intimidating, because they'll just throw a whole bunch of choices
and technical terms at you, and you can't really test them out to find out which one
is best for you before you buy it. So, in this video, I'm just going to talk about some
of the standard questions that come with drysuits, especially from new drysuit divers. Yeah.
Let's take another look at drysuits. The largest question that comes when investing
in a new drysuit, this is before you've bought it, is membrane or neoprene. Because drysuits
can be split into two basic types based on what material the main body is actually made
from, they're typically either a thin membrane or a compressed neoprene drysuit. And they
both have their pros and cons, which makes it really hard to decide if you're in team
membrane or team neoprene. So, membrane. Membrane suits are often called tri-laminate or bi-laminate
or even quad-laminate, but they're typically just a very, very thin material, just a shell.
The benefits of membrane suits is that they're much lighter than their neoprene cousins,
so they're much easier to travel and to carry around. They're lots smaller especially when
they're packed up, they're also a lot less buoyant in themselves so you don't need as
much lead to get down, only a little bit extra. Now because there are only a very thin layer
of material only one or two millimeters thick, the suit itself isn't particularly buoyant
so you don't need that extra lead just to get down. They're also a lot easier to get
into. Neoprene dry suits are typically quite form fitting. They fit to your body and they're
quite snug, but membrane suits tend to be a little bit bigger and a little bit baggier,
so that you can get in and out of them a bit more easily. The downside to membrane suits
are basically the flip side of their benefits. So, they're thin, which means that they're
usually more easily punctured. Because they're only a very thin layer of material the suit
itself has no thermal benefits, so you're purely reliant on your undersuit keeping you
warm. Because the suits are made to be quite baggy, if you're not wearing quite a thick
undersuit, the pinch of a crease can actually pinch on your skin as you descend and the
suit starts to shrink down, so it's best if you wear quite a clunky undersuit.
Neoprene dry suits are usually made from compressed neoprene, so they have their own insulating
warmth. And because of this, you usually don't need as much of an undersuit to keep you warm,
so that's a benefit for them. The neoprene is much thicker than membrane which means
that it's tougher too. You can scrape against quite a lot before it actually cuts through
that neoprene, so they're usually a bit tougher. As I said earlier, neoprene dry suits are
usually more fitted because you don't need quite as much insulation underneath, so they're
a bit more streamlined and you don't get the problem with pinching because thick neoprene,
it doesn't really fold over to be able to pinch, so you're good on that side.
The downside is that neoprene suits themselves are pretty heavy. So, carrying them around
isn't the easiest and they're very buoyant, so you need to add a bit extra lead onto your
weight belt, not just to compensate for the air that's making you a bit more buoyant,
but the suit itself is making you more buoyant, so you need to add even more lead on top of
that. There also isn't a way of making neoprene dry suits breathable. Some, but not all, membrane
dry suits are actually breathable so they're much more comfortable to wear on the surface.
Dry suits can get quite hot and stuffy after a while, especially if you're wearing them
on the surface for any length of time, so a small amount of breathability, even if it's
just on your top half, it can make things quite nice. But neoprene isn't breathable.
There's no way you can get any breathing ability through neoprene and make it a dry suit at
the same time. And neoprene suits, they're just clunky. Because of the thick material
reaching can be quite tricky and depending on the cut, they can be quite restrictive.
So, yeah. They're not so great for a lot of movements. Picking and choosing between the
two and which will be better for you, is really just a personal choice. And that personal
choice may actually change over time. I, myself, I started with a membrane dry suit. I switched
to a neoprene dry suit, which I used to teach in, and now I dive in a membrane dry suit
again. It goes backwards and forwards. They both have their own pros, they both have their
own cons, but one isn't necessarily better than the other, and there isn't a Goldilocks
middle ground neither. For me, I see neoprene dry suits as something
to wear for really tough cold water diving, where you're not moving around too much. Something
that can take a hit, but you accept that it's quite a heavy suit, but you're really not
planning on moving around too much. So, if you're diving somewhere quite sedentary or
you're going more for commercial diving. So, if you're going down to a job site, you're
doing a job there and you're not constantly swimming around, that's what neoprene dry
suits are really best for. For a more flexible suit, both in movement and warmth, you have
membrane suits, but you need to invest in more of an undersuit underneath, and be a
bit more careful around sharp objects. But I can't blindly say choose one over the
other. Right now, I dive in a membrane just because I like how our light is traveling
to and from the dive site, it's really easy to keep clean as well, and it just gives you
that flexibility and the warmth, because I can wear a really thick, heavy undersuit to
keep me nice and warm or I can wear a really thin one underneath. It's horses for courses,
which I've learnt is not a universal term that everybody knows, but you can always Google
it. And they're a tool for the job so I can't really promise, you should go for this one
or you should go for that one, it's a personal choice really.
One issue that some scuba divers definitely come across when diving in a dry suit for
their first time especially, is their feet floating up too much, so they can't hold a
horizontal trim position in the water. But there are a few ways that you can help prevent
this. So, if I find myself struggling to stay horizontal in the water because my feet are
going up, it's usually because my center of buoyancy is in the wrong place. When you're
diving in a dry suit, you have a sudden new buoyant layer of gas around your legs, around
your ankles and feet that you don't usually have when you're diving in a wetsuit. Usually,
especially in a shorty, all your positive buoyancy, from your exposure protection, is
around your core. But now you have stuff around your legs and your feet as well.
So, you might need to compensate for that positive buoyancy around your ankles, and
that's why you're going feet upwards, by moving some trim weight further down your body. So,
if you have some trim weight up behind your shoulders in some trim weight pouches or around
the cam band, then it's probably worth shifting that lead a little bit further down your body,
because you have too much negative buoyancy up around your shoulders which is pushing
that down. So, you can either move that lead a bit further down around your waist, just
to change it a little bit, or if you have a spare cam band, you can attach it to the
bottom of your tanks, and you can even invest in some ankle weights if you want to move
it even further down. Some dry suits would even have sections around their ankles to
hold small lead ingots, to actually help keep your ankles heavier in the water.
But you can always swap for some... Basically get rid of some lead blocks off of your weight
belt and invest in some shot lead ankle weights so that you're taking that lead off of your
waist and putting it down around your ankles, which will naturally keep your feet from floating
up. If you find yourself still floating up by the ankles, or it's only a small inconvenience
and you don't want to move any lead, then you can always try swapping to a heavier pair
of fins. So, a heavier pair of fins can act as a smaller amount of trim weight, as it
were, that could be all you really need just to get your feet down. Or it could be that
it's a little bit extra to help keep your feet down as well as ankle weights. Dry weights
doesn't necessarily mean negatively buoyant though, so if you're looking for a pair of
fins to keep your feet down, you can't just look at how heavy the fins are, because that
doesn't mean that they sink, it just means that on dry land they're quite heavy.
So, the main thing is, is that you basically ask around and see which fins sink the most.
Most divers have an opinion on which of their fins float or which of their fins sink, so
just ask around, check around the forums and see what other divers are diving and ask if
that might be a good choice for you. Some divers like to wear gators, which are basically
an elastic wrap that goes around your calf and your ankles. And the logic is definitely
there. It's because you have this elasticated section, it stops gas from getting down your
legs, down towards your feet, keeps the buoyancy from getting there, and while that is what
they're pretty much made for, they also have the exact opposite effect of trapping any
gas in your boot. So, they're a double edged sword, so double check that you're really
comfortable if you're putting on these gators, because they might allow some gas to get down
to your boots and then trap it there. If you've invested in your very own dry suit
then chances are you probably want to look after it, because they're not the cheapest.
So, it's good to make sure that your dry suit is bone dry inside and out between dives.
You never want to put your dry suit away wet, because just stuff and nasties is going to
start growing in it really, really quickly. So, make sure it's nice and dry. If you need
to, hang your dry suit upside down, you can get dry suit hangars that are basically like
a U shaped clip that basically go around the ankles and hold onto the boots, and hold that
as the highest point. That way, any moisture, any water trapped on the inside, any sweat,
will drip downwards to outside of the suit. And a lot of dry suit divers actually invest
in some kind of ventilation system to try and blow some fresh air inside their suit.
Now you can get coat hangers that have a fan built in, others just use a guttering that
they build their own suit hanger with two legs going up and air holes in the top, and
then they just blow a hairdryer or something going through it. And that just gets some
fresh, warm air to circulate throughout the suit, to basically clean out the inside and
make sure that's nice and fresh. So, after you've done that, check the valves are nice
and tight and make sure they're nice and clean as well, so that the valves, both your inflate
valve and your dump valve, are ready for the next dive and they're less likely to leak.
A lot of the time, the inside of these vowels can actually undo. They're just a two part
screw system. So, if it's been a while, they can work themselves loose.
So, just give them a little nip to make sure they're nice and tight and of course water
tight. So, yeah. Just give them a little turn and make sure they're finger tight. You don't
have to go too crazy. They're only plastic. If you start using tools, then you can crack
them, so just finger tight should be enough. Before a dive and before any longterm storage,
I like to powder my seals as well. An unscented, mineral talc is best so that it doesn't degrade
the seals. But plain seals, they just stick to hair if they don't have any kind of talc
or anything, they just stick to everything. They're going to stick to your hair and pull
that, they're going to stick to your skin, so they can be a real pain to actually get
on for the next dive without any kind of talc. So, talc will help prevent the seals from
splitting as well, because I've done it before. I couldn't be bothered to put any talc on.
I go to put the seal on, and yeah, I just pull a little bit too tight and it just splits.
It's really easily done, but give yourself a few seconds, just put a bit of talc on and
it will make a world of difference. If you try to pull your seals on without some kind
of lubricants then you can really easily tear them, especially your neck seal. It might
feel weird putting talc around the neck seal, but once you're actually trying to get it
on, they do stretch quite a lot and after a while, they will just split. So, pack a
little bit of talc on the inside before a dive and some on that inside and the outside
before storage. And when I'm storing them I also like to talc
the seals on the inside too, just to protect that delicate membrane from anything, just
in case it's dragging along the floor or something. You just want to make sure that the seals
don't get any nicks or cuts. But going back to the valves. Don't put too much talc into
your suit, because that talc doesn't really go anywhere and it can actually build up inside
of your valves. And it just gets claggy, especially when it mixes with water and it can stop the
seals from sealing properly, so eventually they just end up leaking, so don't use too
much talc. Just a small little spray, just enough to coat the inside before a dive, and
just coat the entire thing before storage. You also need to wax and clean your zipper
too. Zippers are stiff at the best of times to do up and undo, but if you have a traditional
brass zipper, then close the zipper and run some plain or bees wax down the teeth on both
sides, and check for any imperfections or any foreign bodies between the teeth, or any
loose teeth that could damage the zipper, especially before storage. Plastic zippers
are similar, just clean the teeth. You can use a delicate brush and a use a zip lubricant
to make sure that's moving nice and freely. And I like to run the zipper backwards and
forwards throughout the entire zipper a couple of times, to make sure that it's coating each
of the teeth in that zipper, lubricants, and it just keeps the zipper going for longer,
and it just means it's much easier to do up. And make sure that you do do it up all the
way on your next dive. Packing away your dry suit is quite tricky,
and I'm actually quite surprised there isn't a specialty just for this. Because whilst
you're definitely sure that this is definitely the bag that your dry suit came out of, just
like a tent or a sleeping bag, it really doesn't seem to want to go back into that bag. And
it was so neat and tidy when it came out of that bag for the very first time from the
factory. But of course, like an idiot, you let it unravel so that you could try it on.
When packing away your dry suit, your primary focus should always be on the zipper. Your
dry zip is the most important part of your dry suit, and it tends to be the most expensive
part to replace, so do your best not to break it because it will take both time and money
to replace it. So, whether you have a back or a front entry dry suit, the zipper goes
flat on the deck first. And I've assumed that you've waxed the zipper
and powdered the seals, you've done all of that, and your dry suit is nice and dry. Now,
zipper down flat on the floor. There are two methods, but they're both basically the same.
The quickest is to grab the boots and fold the suit so that your boots sit over your
shoulders. And then you fold the suit in half again, and then just pull the arms through
the inside of your suit, just to make a nice, neat little parcel. The alternative is to
turn your boots out and roll basically. The rolling method tends to give you a cylindrical
shape, which is good for duffle bags. And the fold tends to give you more of a rectangular
square flat shape for flats like clamshell bags.
Either way your zipper is as straight as possible and be careful not to stuff it into your bag
too much, you want to keep that zipper nice and straight, stop it from folding over and
never ever push down on the zipper, because you could bend it and snap it. And that's
a really expensive way to be without your suit for a few weeks. So, if there's anything
else that you'd like us to cover about dry suits, or indeed anything really, just let
us know in the comments below. Don't forget to like and subscribe to the Scuba Diver Magazine
channel because let's face it, you've watched the entire video haven't you? So you must
have enjoyed it. So, yeah. Click like, subscribe to the channel. Thank you for watching, and
of course, safe diving.