No matter whether you are diving in the tropics or under the ice, there is one thing you are going to need and that is a scuba diving wetsuit or an exposure suit.
Scuba Diving Wetsuits perform two very important functions:
1. Prevents loss of heat from your body.
2. Protects you from scratches, cuts and stingers.
What are Scuba Diving Wetsuits?
A scuba diving wet suit is a protective covering that scuba divers wear on the outside of their bodies. It provides
thermal and physical protection.
Our bodies lose heat underwater 25 times faster than on land, hence the reason for scuba diving wetsuits. Even in tropical water of 30 degree C or about 86 degree F for you imperials, heat is rapidly lost from our bodies. The wet suit is the ideal piece of scuba equipment to ensure we are nice and snug and warm for the duration of our scuba dive.
The other reason for a scuba diving wetsuit is to protect us. Protection! Are you kidding, what do we need protection underwater for? Good questions, simple answer, ourselves. Yes, scuba divers are notorious for poor buoyancy control, harsh but true.
Any minor bump underwater will
generally end up being a cut if we do not have an exposure suit on, you know how soft your skin gets after you have been washing the dishes, well that's how your entire body becomes underwater, so put the wetsuit on and protect yourself and also hone your buoyancy skills.
How Do Scuba Diving Wetsuits Work?
When you wear a diving wetsuit you are putting on insulation. You are insulating yourself from the cold of the water.
Upon entering the water with your wetsuit on, water will enter the wetsuit and form a layer between the neoprene of the wetsuit and your body. This water is colder than your body temperature, but the water will heat up and stay nice and warm throughout your dive so long as you have a snug fitting wetsuit.
If your wetsuit is too big for you the water will not stay trapped against your skin and will continually be replaced by cold water and will never heat up. The energy you use to try and heat this water will slowly make you colder.
It is extremely important to get correctly fitted scuba diving wetsuits. Do not buy one that is too tight as it will restrict your circulation, comfort is the key.
What are scuba diving wetsuits made of?
Wetsuits are made from neoprene foam or rubber. The neoprene is actually made up of tiny bubbles or closed cells. these closed cells help keep the cool water out and the warm of the body in, it insulates.
These tiny bubbles also prevent water from passing through the wetsuit.
Various thicknesses are available depending on the type of scuba diving you are doing.
Types of Scuba Diving Wetsuits
There are numerous types of scuba diving wetsuits.
Thin ones and thick ones, one for all the different water temperatures. As a general rule, the thicker the wetsuit the colder the water.
Here are some of the different styles you can get in the diving wetsuit range. Don't forget all these styles come in a variety of thicknesses, from your 1.5mm Lycra suit suit through the 3mm, 5mm, 7mm and Drysuits.
Two Piece Wetsuit These wetsuits are being faded out as technology becomes better. The two piece wetsuit has long-john pants which cover the legs and chest with straps over the shoulders and a jacket over the top.
Drysuit Drysuits are used where the water is real cold. They are designed to stop water from entering the suit.
Custom Wetsuit These are for those of us that are odd shapes. Nothing to be embarrassed about, we all come in differing shapes and sizes and sometimes the wetsuit on the rack does not fit you in the places it should!
Putting Scuba Diving Wetsuits On (tips)
There are a few simple techniques that you can use for those stubborn wetsuits that have shrunk over winter. Do you want to know what they are?
Have a look here for some simple tips on how to put on a stubborn scuba wetsuit.
Care and Maintenance of your wet suit
As with all scuba diving equipment, if you want your gear to last you need to know what to do after the dive. Washing in fresh water is always a good start.....
Now that you have sorted out how to keep your body warm, with a diving wetsuit, what about your hands, head and feet, what do we do about keeping them warm?
Gloves Your hands will love you for it, not only will it keep them warm but will also add some protection.
Hoods Hoods are fantastic if you really want to keep warm, don't forget you can lose more than 75% of your body heat through the back of your head.
Wetsuit Booties Booties are a must if you use open heal fins, not only will they give you protection but also keep you warm.
Choosing the right Wetsuit
There are a number of things to consider before parting with your cash.
Before trying a scuba diving wetsuit on, you will need to decide what type of diving you are going to do, no use buying a lycra suit when most of your diving will be in water temperature under 70F or 21C.
