Add neoprene to hood

[Tody]

HI

Yesterday I Was diving in a pretty cold sea and it became obvious why it is better to get a made to measure suit. My whole face is not covered by neopren.

Did anybody glued additional neoprene onto the hood?
The forhead is rather easy to get in shape, for that i need only a flat piece of neoprene.My problem is to shape the area around the chin.

:friday

Tobi

 

[Simos]

HI

Yesterday I Was diving in a pretty cold sea and it became obvious why it is better to get a made to measure suit. My whole face is not covered by neopren.

Did anybody glued additional neoprene onto the hood?
The forhead is rather easy to get in shape, for that i need only a flat piece of neoprene.My problem is to shape the area around the chin.

:friday

Tobi

I think there are special, ready made 'hoods' for that Tobi... Unfortunately I don't know the term to look for or manufacturers but if you start by looking at hoods by the main brands you should come across them

 

[Simos]

Maybe search for full face hoods

 

[EARL1220i]

go get some new wetsuit two piece Apnea Legend wetsuit, 5 mm, X-Large | eBay and it has a 3mm to

 

[sjurba]

may I guess the problem is a big gap between the mask and the hood in the forhead area? Not all of the south european suit manufacturors take cold waterdiving into the consideration of their suit design.We discussed this abit on a course I was at this weekend.The conclution was this; elios hoods are the best,some manufacturors have copied this design,a company called frivannsliv in Norway have their "own" suit brand, that is made to their spec by apnea in turkey,with a elios inspired hood,whether the other apnea suits have this hood design I dont know.Mares also have some decent hoods, same with sporasub, omer, h.desshault, some imersion and cressi suits,I do not know about any other makes as nobody here had tried any of them,It helps to look closely at the comersial pictures, is there a gap between the mask and the hood,then the suit is useless for coldwater diving. you will also need atleast 6,5mm neoprene.

 

[Tody]

[ame="http://www.flickr.com/photos/54994311@N03/7148283527/"]suitface | Flickr - Photo Sharing![/ame]

[ame="http://www.flickr.com/photos/54994311@N03/7148283527/"]suitface | Flickr - Photo Sharing![/ame]

As you can see there is realy a huge gap in chin and forehead area. It is a mares suit. Imersion sells some cold water hoods, but i'm afraid that they won't fit me, because my head is really big. I need special helmets for work special breathing masks etc...
sjurba 5,5 mm is fine in sorlandet some times already too warm. I know frivannsliv very well ( at the moment i try to transfer money to them, not easy from the EU to norway). A costum made is no option at the moment , scince i try to get rid of some lovehandles rofland I need the suit in July already.

 

[Simos]

I think there are some full face hoods for commercial divers but never seen one used by a freediver. They have no gap if I remember right... Google them...

 

[sjurba]

I can understand you might get a "icecream head-acke" with that.Since you say that you have a fairly big head, a off the shelf suit might not fit no matter which make.Neoprene is fairly easy to glue as long as you are careful with degreasing and use proper glue,Ive glued my smoothskin a couple of times,one time a really big (30-40 cm ) rip with aquaseal "sealcement",got it in a scuba shop, they use it for gluing cuffs on drysuits.And sofar no problems with the glue coming undone.so why not just try to glue on some neoprene, atleast in the forehead, thats where you would loose the most heat,if it dosent work just cut it off again.

 

[Tody]

:friday

Got my vaccation approval from my company. *happy*.(Will arrive in Mandal on the last friday of July) Now it is really time to glue some neoprene to the hood. . Is there a way to glue nylon lining to a open cell surface? I never did this kind of glueing, only did opencell to open cell.

I already made some testing to get the shape of my chin, works quite well.

Happy

Tobi

 

[sjurba]

I would glue the pieces "butt to butt" like a smoothskin suit ,not overlapping,Im not shure how well the glue sticks to the nylon coating.

 

[Massin]

A made to measure suit isnt completely out of the question if price scares you, try Custom Wetsuits for Spearfishing, Scuba, Triathlon | Oceanos Wetsuits I have heard many good things from people who have purchased from them and I am just about to place an order. Great customer service, Spiros is very helpful, sent me a load of samples when I asked.
I was quoted £161 delivered to the uk from Greece, 2 piece 5mm camo suit with integrated hood plus reinforced knees, elbows and chest loading pad. Bargain considering 'off the peg' suits from the main handful of companies start at that price

 

[Tody]

It is not the price. It is the piontless investment if it is a suit for only one season.
sjurba i will try it. i hope i will find some neoprene of the sam thickness.

Tobi