I was skeptical about hot water dive suits until I tried one on a 45 minute job in Puget Sound last December

The surface temp was 39F and I figured anything over a 7mm wetty would be overkill, but my buddy swore by his hot water system and after shivering through 30 minutes I finally caved and borrowed his spare hose, now I'm wondering if any of you have switched from drysuits to hot water and actually stuck with it or was it just a temporary fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesm3813d ago

That's the thing with Puget Sound, 39 degrees just sneaks up on you no matter what you're wearing. Once you feel that warmth spread through the suit on a cold bottom it's hard to go back to shivering through the last half of a dive. The real test is if the hose doesn't get in your way and the heater keeps running, but for long jobs it seems like a no brainer.

jade_johnson13d ago

@jamesm38 you hit the nail on the head about that warmth spreading through the suit. Once you feel it, going back to shivering through the last half of a dive just feels wrong. I've been using a heated vest on my cold water dives up here in the Pacific Northwest and it's made a world of difference for those longer bottom times. The trick is finding a heater that doesn't make you feel like you're tangled up in hoses, but once you get that sorted it's hard to go back.

the_linda13d agoProlific Poster

My heated vest died mid-dive last week and I screamed like a little kid.