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Freedive Suits

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

freediver48

Offline
Apr 5, 2001
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Hi,

This is a continuation of the suit discussion that was happening under the Freedive Fin thread. In that thread Apnea Newbie was asking about the use of freedive suits for scuba and their durability. I bought the Picasso Commercial because of its durability. My thoughts at the time were that I might well end up using it for windsurfing as well as freediving, at least sometimes.
The Commercial is named that because it was built for regular hard use. All of its seem are coated with silicone and it has elbows and knee pads. In terms of a scuba suit, if you are learning and not doing deep diving, it would likely do you very well. However if you are going to be doing extended deep diving
I suspect that you will end up wanting a dry suit. The reason for this is that the high nitrogen content of the suit that makes it so flexy also makes it even more prone to compression than a standard neoprene suit. Where the suit is routinely used for harvesting geoducks the water generally does not exceed 70 feet.

I remember trying for years to combine applications; hiking and technical climbing in one boot, down hill and ski mountaineering,
sports cars plus cargo, in the end I routinely failed.

It is likely that I will not use the Commercial for windsurfing it is just too hot, even for the winter, where I usually wear a 3-4 Dry suit.

Best wishes,

Freediver48
 
Special purposes

Freedivers48's point about trying to get equipement that can be used for multiple purposes is important and I think it is central to much of this discussion about suits and fins. He nicely pointed out how specialized suits have become which is an important aspect that has been lacking from this discussion. I have never scuba dived so all of my comments come from the freediving perspective. One aspect of that is continual up-down cycle which often means moving through a wide range of temperatures. It also involves a higher level of activity which translates into higher body heat. But much of the motivation to find the piece of universal purpose gear is driven by the desire to save money by buying one item to use for many activities. Like FD48, all I ever got when I bought something that was supposed to be good for a wide range of purposes was something that did work well for a wide range of purposes but was a little better than nothing at all. Which for me is the absolute worst. So the simple truth is that the multitude of factors is too broad to be incorporated into one suit. If money is tight, as it is for me, the question is what am I going use it for the most? Angus
 
Thx guys !

This really helps, perhaps i should go for a real freedive suit for now, and eventually get me another one later, i havent got the scuba certificate yet either so....

Im gonna ask the same question as i did in another forum, which thickness should i have ? 3,5,7 mm ?
The waters i dive in are 15-20 C (Celsius) in the middle of the summer, thats not to warm :)
So i need a suit that can keep me warm for endless hours of diving :)
 
My old suit Angus

U asked what happened to my old suit so i thought i take it to this forum instead...

My brother ripped it when he tried to take it of, hes 0.1 meter longer than me and borrowed the suit for a weekend. When he tried to take it of it ripped from the turtle neck and down to the chest, and not in the seem :( Might be hard to fix.

I will try the suit tonight to see if it still works, but first i have to fix it with some really good Tape... And i had planned diving this whole weekend, from friday to sunday. I've planned goin to a beatiful seacove for diving, without suit i willl be able to bee in the water for like 10 minutes :waterwork

Though my suit is like atleast 5-7years old, so one cant blame it for breaking. It served it purpose very good, with freediving, waterskiing, windsurfing as areas.But one cant help getting dissapointed.

/*SNIFF* Apnea Newbie :)
 
Hi Apnea Newbie,

Good question, get a 3mm for the pool and Southern diving, a 5mm for the summer, and a 7mm for the rest of the time, right!
I live in the Pacific North West and inJanuary it was 6 dgrees c or about 42 f on the surface, and I was warm enough for an hour or more, yesterday the surface temp was 21 c or about 70 f and I overheaded badly towing out my gear, at 40 feet I was fine but all during my breath-ups I was pretty hot.

Competition folks go for thinner suits, while sport and spearfihers tend to have thicker suits. I would be inclined to go for the thicker suit, and leave your hood off when possible. A thicker suit has saved my butt twice in self-rescue situations, where I ended up swimming about 5 miles in storm conditions as a result of gear failure while windsurfing.

Best wishes,

freediver48
 
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