open cell advice needed please

[Marwan]

im new to the whole open cell concept of wetsuits but boy am i enjoying it, what i used to do with the other suits is wear my socks before i put on the wetsiut and so make sure that it will be secure, last time i tried doing it with my open cell omer med, although i was using a lot of shampoo and water, it wasnt very easy and messed up my lubrication of the long kohns making them harder o put on as well, what am i doing wrong? what do you guys do for the socks?

[Marwan]

and while we are on the subject of socks, for all you guys doing shore diving where you walk along some rocks, gravel to get into the water, what sort of socks would you recommend, anything out there with more "durable" soles?

[demasoni]

Hi Marwan,

I'm relatively new to open-cell suits myself and I can tell you what works for me. I turn the suit inside out first and using a squirt bottle I filled with warm water and conditioner, I liberally spray every part of the open cell using a wide spray pattern. I then flip it right side in and and put the suit on.

I use waist high pants instead of a long john for comfort and breathing ease, but for lj's I guess you'd need to liberally spray the outside part of the lj overlapping the top.

I dive on beaches with rocks and pebbles often and I use these 3.5 mm Sporasub neoprene socks with some kind of coating on the bottom - I think its called "Mettalite" - it looks likes a print of a bunch of hexagons that seem to give more support and strength to similar socks I have without such a print.

[dave]

put the socks on last. If you want to tuck them under the suit just roll the legs up a bit.
All soft socks wear out fairly quickly if you walk around in them (including "kevlar" soled socks, although I am very dubious about how much actual kevlar is in them)
Either wear a pair of cheap sandals over the top (which you either attach to your float or hide somewhere on the beach whilst in the water) or do what I do; cultivate tough feet so you just walk barefoot to the waters edge and put your socks on there (this method does hurt a bit for the first few seasons but in the longrun it is worth it! )
cheers
dave
www.spearo.co.uk

[Groupermadness]

Marwan! , you are in Egypt, warm water and all. why would you want to wear socks?. I have not worn socks since i started Med Fishing.

[Marwan]

the back of my ankles get hurt from the fins
dave, i do put the socks on last but thats not very good, i end up having a bulge in my akle and its not very comfortable