Dry Suit

Southeastern Divers, Inc.

2720 Governors Drive SW, Huntsville Alabama 35805 - Phone: 256-536-8404

"Training the best divers in North Alabama since 1980."

Max Gilbert PADI IDC Staff Instructor

I LOVE my dry suit.

Love it, love it, love it. When the rest of you are out of the water for the winter, I’m in the water enjoying some of the best visibility of the year, and most of the time, my buddy and I have the whole place to ourselves. Even in the summer, if my dive plan calls for a journey to deeper colder water, I’ll dive dry.

My first ever dry suit dive was an Adventure Dive with my instructor, Rick Natividad. The water was 45 degrees, and the undergarment that came with the rental suit was just a thin fleece. It took about 34 pounds of lead to get me sunk, and I was miserable and cold the entire time. After I finished my Deep Adventure Dive, also in a dry suit, I promised myself “Never again!” It took me several years to finally eat those words.

There were lots of things I didn’t like about diving dry

- I couldn’t get in the suit by myself. The zipper on some suits runs diagonally across the diver’s torso, and I never had the flexibility to zip it completely. Likewise, zippers that run across the back confound me.

- I had a fear of going feet up and losing control of my buoyancy. I had to do this skill on my Adventure dive, and it was NOT pretty!

- It takes more fussing and mussing to get in the water.

Here’s why and how I got over it and started diving dry.

- I was helping out with classes as a dive master, and later teaching classes on my own at Vortex Spring. I noticed that most of the pros were wearing dry suits, and I wanted to look like a pro too!

- Even though the water at Vortex is 68°F year round, when the wind blows on a January afternoon, it’s COLD. While I was shivering, I started thinking… ”Would I be warmer if I was dry, or if I was wet?” Dry won the debate.

- I HATED giving up diving for the winters. October to May is a long time to be out of the water, and I wanted to dive!

While my wheels were turning over the idea of getting a dry suit, Southeastern Divers became a Whites Dry suit dealer, and the Whites representative came to SDI with a whole trailer load of dry suits. I tried on a suit that fit me correctly, and much to my surprise, I was able to completely self-don the suit! I no longer had any real problems with buoyancy control, so I thought I’d be able to handle myself in the suit, maybe with a bit of coaching. It still took a bit of fussing to don the suit, but with some practice, I have gotten pretty quick at it.

My first dive ever in my Whites Catalyst was at Vortex Spring. I was teaching a small class of Open Water students, and an even smaller class of Advanced Open Water students. I didn’t try the suit on the first dives with the Open Water folks. Instead, I dove in my old familiar wetsuit. Later that afternoon, I put on my dry suit, and did a practice dive, to get the hang of it, and then I dove dry with the students in the Advanced class. No problems in the water at all!

For those of you considering extending your dive season to 12 months a year, here are some tips for “getting dry”

- Get some dives under your belt diving wet. Get your buoyancy control under control using a BCD first

- Get some instruction. The PADI Dry Suit Diver class is a great investment.

- Practice. You have two air bubbles to manage, the one in your BCD, and the one in the dry suit. It isn’t difficult, but it takes a bit of focus.

There are lots of choices to be made when it comes to picking out a dry suit. Let’s go over some of the options.

- Shell suits – made from a rubber backing, laminated to a cloth outer layer. The zipper is usually in one of three locations… diagonal across the torso, across the shoulder, or across the chest. Divers wearing shell suits have to wear an undergarment when using the suit to provide an airspace. It’s this airspace that provides the warmth. My personal suit, a Whites Catalyst 360, is a shell suit with a zipper across the chest.

- Crushed Neoprene and neoprene suits. With these suits, the suit itself provides some of the insulation a diver needs in cold water. Depending on the water, you may be able to dive the suit wearing only a dive skin underneath.

- Public safety, commercial and military divers sometimes wear suits that are made from heavy rubber. These suits can be rinsed perfectly clean after dives in truly yucky water.

- The latest innovation in dry suits is called the Fusion, and Whites came out with it first. It’s a shell suit without the fabric covering laminated to it. Instead, the diver wears a “skin” over the suit. That skin makes the inner shell conform to the diver’s body and makes “bubble management” very simple. There are several skins available, from a lycra skin for sport diving, all the way to a heavier neoprene skin for technical diving.

When you’re ready to get in the water without getting your tuxedo wet, drop by SDI and set up a dry suit demo. We’ll help you get set up, fit the suit in the shop, and then we’ll head to the pool where everyone else will be wet. You’ll be nice and dry!

See you soon ~ underwater… and DRY!

max

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