Comments Off

By admin, July 31, 2010 12:02 pm

Whats the difference between diving with a wetsuit or a drysuit?

I am doing my PADI Open Water Dive Course next week and the week after in Gildenburgh Water lake in the UK. I will be diving with a drysuit as the water temparature is around 4oC! I did my Discover Scuba in Thailand in a wetsuit. I would like to know if it is more difficult diving in a drysuit and what differences are there?????

To expand on the previous posters.
A wetsuit works by trapping a thin layer of water between you and the suit which heats up relatively quickly. Decent seals ensure that the water doesn’t flush through and thus keeps you warm.
A dry suit works by keeping a layer of air between you and the suit. Depending upon what materials are used the suit itself can offer little or no thermal protection (i.e. Trilaminate suits) which is why you usually wear an undersuit.
Because a dry suit contains air it acts as another airspace and must be regulated. To allow this it has an inlet valve and a dump valve. This adds to the complexity of your setup, an extra inflator hose for one; and because of it you will need training on how to use the suit. Generally you use the suit as well as your BCD, keep enough air in the suit to be warm and comfortable, as you descend you will need to add a little air to the suit to prevent a suit squeeze, they can really hurt if your ‘bits’ are not tucked out of the way properly!. Dry suit also have 1 or 2 other potential problems, such as air in the feet which can cause a feet first runaway ascent if not handled correctly and quickly.

In general a drysuit is almost as easy to dive in as a wetsuit but far bulkier, and requires more lead to get neutral buoyancy because of it. The advantage is that in theory at least you are completely dry and you wont suffer from the wind chill effect that you get from a wet wetsuit.

PADI Enriched Air Nitrox Course at Aquanauts Thailand