Hi SD fans, and welcome back. There is nothing worse than being cold on a dive, and in this
video, I will be looking at all the different types of exposure protection on the market, from
rash guards through wetsuits and semi-drysuits, to full-on drysuits and thermal undersuits.
For those here for the first time, my name is Mark, I am the editor-in-chief
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Everyone has their own tolerance for feeling cold, but I absolutely hate it, so for me,
exposure protection when I am diving is one of my primary concerns.
There are a whole host of different options out there helping keep you warm
and/or protected in everything from warm, tropical waters to those of the more-frigid nature.
First up – rash guards. One of the most-basic forms of exposure protection
are rash guards, and most manufacturers, including Fourth Element, Scubapro, Mares and so on
make their own versions. These are handy bits of kit to have with you on your trips to warm-water
locations, for a variety of reasons. You can wear them when you are on the surface,
be that the beach or on the dive boat, and they will protect you from the sun,
as the majority of rash guards feature some form of UV protection. If you do get wet, from maybe a
quick swim in the sea, they will rapidly dry when you are back on shore or on the boat.
This protection from the sun is also useful if you are snorkelling. Here you get a double whammy –
the rash guard stops your back getting sunburnt, and also gives you a degree of thermal protection
as well. Not only that, but it also gives some protection against jellyfish and no-see-um stings.
I have, on occasion, dived in just a rash guard and a pair of board shorts,
and it is very liberating – after being so used to diving in wetsuits and drysuits,
it almost felt like I had forgotten something! However, I tend to feel the cold,
and even though I was in 29 degree C waters, I was still chilly after 40-45 minutes.
On the flipside, I know people who will happily do a week on a liveaboard in the Caribbean,
for instance, just using this sort of thing and feel fine. It is all down to personal preference.
Rash guards were, at one time, quite tight-fitting, which did put some people
off wearing them, but more and more companies are now releasing loose-fit, more-relaxed rash
guards that are not so form-fitting. You can now also do your bit for the
environment when buying rash guards – some companies, such as Fourth Element, make their
products from recycled ghost fishing nets, so you can look good and know you are helping our oceans.
And that brings me nicely on to this new Xscape range from Aqualung.
There are two men’s tops, a long-sleeve and a short-sleeve, in this eye-catching
olive green and red combo. The women’s range comprises a long-sleeve top and matching leggings,
with a very-tropical pattern so you stand out from the crowd. Both feature mesh on the armpits
for comfort and breathability. All the rash guards are made from recycled polyester made
from plastic bottles, so you are helping in the fight against plastic pollution every time
you buy one. They also come in recycled and biodegradable packaging,
including a reusable mesh bag – just the thing for collecting rubbish when you are on the beach.
Let’s move on to wetsuits and semi-drysuits. Wetsuits come in all shapes,
sizes and thicknesses. Traditional neoprene wetsuits can range in thickness from 0.5mm
right up to 7-8mm, but generally, you will find most manufacturers offering
models in the 3mm, 5mm and 7mm categories. Wetsuits can come in various forms – shorty
wetsuits, which as the name suggests have short arms and legs, and full-length, or steamer,
suits, which have long arms and legs. You can then also get suits with built-in hoods, though
these tend to be 5mm or thicker. Wetsuits work by trapping a layer of water between the suit itself
and your body to keep you warm. In the old days, this trapped water would continually get flushed
through due to warm entering and exiting through the zipper, wrists, ankles and neck, reducing
the effectiveness, but these days, better seals and insulated zippers mean that trapped water
remains in place much longer, keeping you warmer. I have used shorties in the pool, but in the open
water, just find that for me, they do not provide the thermal protection I am looking for. I also
like having my arms and legs covered up, which provides protection from any stinging organisms
in the water. But as with rash guards, it is all down to your own tolerances for the cold.
A 3mm full-suit is ideal for tropical waters. It is lightweight, so won’t
take up too much of your luggage allowance, and it is comfortable and flexible to wear,
so you won’t feel restricted. 3mm suits are usually easy to get on and off,
particularly if they are made from some of the super-stretch neoprene on the market today. If you
are on a week-long liveaboard and start to feel the chill towards the end of your trip, as your
core temperature begins to drop, you can always chuck a rash guard on underneath to give you
that bit more thermal warmth around your torso. See, I told you rash guards were handy to have.
A 5mm full-suit is great for when you are diving in the tropics in the winter months,
or somewhere like the Mediterranean, where the water can be in the low-20s degree C.
These are generally a little more bulky and heavy than their 3mm siblings, but again, with the
super-stretch neoprene out there now, they are often still relatively easy to get on and off.
Some 5mm suits are equipped with zippers on the ankles to make this process even
easier. Pair one up with a 3mm hood or even a thin hooded vest and you
will even be able to tolerate when the waters dip below 20 degree C.
A 7mm suit is significantly heavier and bulkier than even a 5mm suit. Often these
will have zippers on the wrists as well as the ankles to aid with getting them on and off.
A thick wetsuit like this will even let you dive in places like here in the UK
during the summer months, particularly if used with a 5mm hood and gloves. At this thickness
you start to see the occasional accessory appearing, such as a pocket on the thigh.
Once you get to this thickness of wetsuit, the lines start to blur with semi-drysuits.
Most semi-drysuits are made from 7mm or 8mm neoprene, such as those from Apeks, Mares,
Beuchat, Waterproof and Bare, among others, are essentially a wetsuit with more-robust seals at
the wrist, ankles and neck that prevent flushing, keeping your body heat trapped inside along with
a layer of water. Semi-drysuits often have full-on drysuit zips, either plastic or metal,
and can have one or two thigh pockets, more like a drysuit, and some have a built-in
hood. I have used semi-drysuits in the past which hardly let any water inside, and kept me
warm and comfortable in waters in the mid-teens degree C when used with a 5mm hood and gloves.
One downside to all that neoprene is the buoyancy characteristics. The thicker the neoprene,
the more weight you are going to need to dive, so that is also worth bearing in mind.
So that’s wetsuits and semi-drysuits, but this being the modern era,
there are some different forms of wetsuit available on the market.
Aqualung’s Xscape range also includes 3/4mm wetsuits – the male version as modelled here
by Dexter, and this a colourful female version. At first glance these look like a traditional
neoprene suit, but are actually made from Yulex, which is an eco-friendly composite material made
of natural rubber, laminated with water-based glue and a fabric made of recycled plastic bottles.
They are super-stretchy, so very easy to get on and off, and this flexibility means they would
also be good for surface watersports such as stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking.
They feature a recycled fleece on the torso for added warmth and comfort,
and have a semi-dry zipper and silicone bands inside the wrists and ankles to minimize flushing.
As with the rash guard range, as well as being environmentally friendly themselves, they come
in recyclable and biodegradable packaging. There are then several manufacturers,
including Fourth Element, Lavacore, Apeks, Sharkskin and Mares,
making suits that blend a thermal fleece inner layer with a wind and waterproof outer fabric,
offering similar thermal protection to a 2-3mm neoprene wetsuit. These come in a range of styles,
from full-suit, long-sleeve tops and leggings to shorts, short-sleeve tops, vests and more. There
are many benefits – they are machine washable, they are neutrally buoyant, they are lightweight
and, in many cases, they are made using recycled material, so environmentally friendly as well.
Finally, on to drysuits and undersuits. Drysuits represent the pinnacle of exposure
protection, and there are a multitude on the market, from established brands such as Santi,
Scubapro, Fourth Element, Aqualung, Mares, O’Three, Otter, the list is seemingly endless.
Drysuits come in two basic guises – neoprene, and trilaminate, or membrane, as it is also known.
Neoprene suits are usually quite form-fitting, and because of their inherent stretch, they can
flex as you move. The neoprene construction offers a degree of thermal protection by itself, though
you will still need to layer up with thermal undergarments when you venture into cold waters.
These days, neoprene suits are often compressed or crushed, which means it has been through a
process to reduce or remove the tiny bubbles found in neoprene. These can compress at depth,
meaning buoyancy is affected throughout your dive, so by crushing or compressing the neoprene before
constructing the suit, this characteristic is reduced. Neoprene suits are still heavier and
more bulky than their trilaminate counterparts, but should the worse happen and you puncture
a hole through your suit, neoprene suits are usually easier to do a quick-fix on in the field.
Trilaminate suits, as the name suggests, as made from three layers of material,
usually a durable outer, waterproof middle, and a soft, comfortable inner. However,
you can also get dual material versions, or even those made from four or more layers.
Thanks to their construction, these suits are very quick drying,
and don’t present any buoyancy issues due to the compression of the material they are made from.
A downside is the fact that there is next to no thermal insulation in the suits themselves,
so you have to wear appropriate undergarments, and due to the nature of the material, they tend to be
a little looser-fitting than neoprene suits. Take this Seal SL:01 drysuit from xDeep,
as modelled by Dexter. It is made from a very strong but lightweight and flexible trilaminate.
The exposed parts – shoulder area, top of the forearms, around the pockets – are covered with
military-grade 500D Cordura, and the knees and the bottom parts of the forearms are reinforced with
so-called Superfabric, a resin-protected fabric that is almost impossible to cut with a knife.
Uniquely, the base layer and the protection layers are not bound together, and instead can move
against each other, providing an unprecedented level of comfort and maneuverability.
Once you have your drysuit, you are going to need some thermal protection to wear
under it. Now if you are wearing your neoprene suit in the Mediterranean, for instance, you
could probably get away with something lightweight underneath, like Fourth Element’s Xerotherm or a
similar base layer, however, that is the beauty of drysuits – you can alter what you wear underneath
according to the temperature of the waters you are diving in, and how much you feel the cold.
You can add vests on top of base layers as the temperature drops,
and when it gets to a certain level, ramp it up to thicker undersuits such as Weezle’s Extreme,
O’Three’s Point Below Base or Fourth Element’s Arctic Expedition or Halo 3D. These can then be
combined with base layers if we are talking really cold, like the Arctic, or Iceland.
If you really feel the cold, then you might want to draft in some technological help to
keep warm. Several firms, including Thermalution, O’Three, Santi, Mares and Ursuit, make heated
vests and suits, which take undergarment thermal protection to a whole new level.
There really is nothing else that can compare with that feeling of battery-operated heat
when you are in seriously chilly conditions. You can even get heated glove liners to go
inside drygloves – now that is the ultimate way to avoid frozen fingers.
What is your take on exposure protection? What do you use to
keep warm when you are diving? Leave your comments below, and if you have a question,
fire away – if we can’t answer, maybe someone in our community will be able to. Remember,
if you enjoyed this video, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel,
and don’t forget you can grab a free digital magazine subscription in the description below.
As always, stay safe – and if you are going diving soon, enjoy!