Had to pick between a drysuit and a wetsuit for a wreck dive last week

I was supposed to dive a 100-foot wreck off the coast of Maine and my drysuit had a leaky wrist seal... so I grabbed an old 7mm wetsuit instead. Figured I'd just tough it out for the 20 minutes on the bottom but I was shivering so bad by the time I surfaced I could barely sign my logs. Any of you guys ever tried a wetsuit in near-freezing water and regretted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

abby_martin2824d ago

Cold water dives are no joke man, I remember reading this one forum post where a guy used a wetsuit in 40 degree water for a wreck and ended up in the ER with mild hypothermia. They said the body's core temp drops way faster than you realize when you're moving around, even with a thick suit. The heated vest trick can work for a few minutes but it's like a bandaid on a bullet wound honestly. I'd rather cancel a dive than go through that shivering mess again, especially when you need your hands steady for sign-offs or gear checks. Just fix that drysuit seal, it sucks way less than risking a hospital trip over one wreck dive.

anderson.spencer24d ago

Did you try putting a heated vest under the wetsuit? Honestly, I did a similar thing off Block Island in November and it was brutal. I ended up buying one of those cheap rechargeable heating pads from Amazon and taped it to my chest under the suit. It only lasted about 15 minutes but it kept the shivering away long enough to get through the dive. Better than nothing, but next time I'm just fixing the drysuit.

kellymurphy24d ago

Wait, isn't taping a cheap heating pad to your chest kind of reckless? That thing could short out or shift around underwater and mess up your whole dive. A 15 minute fix with a plastic discount item seems way riskier than just canceling or fixing the real problem.