At first i would like to say hello to all of you!I`m from Sweden so my English is not always correct.I work as a fireman.We use drysuits for rescuing in the surface.We are going to start freediving in our suits.I would be grateful for any help I can get.At first how much weights do you think we will need?I`m 178cm 78kg//Svensson
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Freediving with drysuit
- Thread startersvensson
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Thread Status: Hello
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Hei, Svensson!
Freediving in a drysuit is not a good idea. It contains quite a lot of air so it will take a lot of weights to get you down. And it is going to be difficult to get up again as the air will compress and you will be very heavy at even a shallow depth. In addition the suit will squeeze your body as you get deeper. Try it in a pool and you will see what I mean. Freediving in a drysuit can be very dangerous, so I would strongly recommend to use wetsuits. Drysuits are only for surface and scuba.
Erlend
Freediving in a drysuit is not a good idea. It contains quite a lot of air so it will take a lot of weights to get you down. And it is going to be difficult to get up again as the air will compress and you will be very heavy at even a shallow depth. In addition the suit will squeeze your body as you get deeper. Try it in a pool and you will see what I mean. Freediving in a drysuit can be very dangerous, so I would strongly recommend to use wetsuits. Drysuits are only for surface and scuba.
Erlend
I use a dry suit when scuba diving and just to find out how it felt, I descended once without inflating the suit. After 5 meters it starts to get tighter. At 10 meters it's downright uncomfortable and even a little painful in the wrong places and you loose almost all your insulation (the working of a dry suit depends on the amount of air in your suit) and because of the tightness it starts to decrease your mobility. That's how far I went, but go deeper and it will become very painful, moving becomes really hard because of the tightness of the suit and you'll even get large bruises. Go deeper still and you can injure yourself really bad because of the squeeze.
So like Erlend said, not a good idea. Use a thick wetsuit.
So like Erlend said, not a good idea. Use a thick wetsuit.
Yes I know it`s not best combination to freedive in a dry suit.But drysuit is the equipment we have.I have been scuba diving in both drysuits and semi dry.But i have not tried freediving in a drysuit .There wont be any large depths.We are only suposed to be able to get a person out of a car from surface down to ca 6-8m.//Svensson
I have used many types of suits for all sorts of diving over the last 40 years. I have used drysuits for scuba and freediving.
For scuba I have used membrane drysuits like polar bears, solid neoprene suits like vikings and compressed neoprene suits like Dui's. In recent years I have used custom made to measure 5mm compressed neoprene suits manufactures in the UK to my exact requirements.
For freediving I have used the very thin membrane suits (Typhoon) more usually sold for use in sailing, water sports etc, although with the addition of valves they can be used for scuba. I used the type with ankle seals rather than attached dry boots and with wrist and neck seals. I used wet suit boots and hood with wet gloves if needed. All seals were latex. I fitted valves so I could scuba in them as well.
Down to 8 or 9 metres I can honestly say I never got a squeeze nor suffered bouyancy issues. I used a 20lb weight belt which was the same as my 5mm wet suit belt. I wore a thinsulate undersuit and vented most all air out at the surface. This sort of suit is more a waterproof membrane over a thermal layer. A wooly bear might not be such a good undergarment as it would compress more.
This was a great set up for relatively shallow water spearfishing and gave a great deal of freedom of movement and good warmth in water down to 8 deg C. I think for someone who wants to experiment and has no preconcieved prejudice, then there is some merit in a dry suit.
I mainly stopped using it when it got a bit leaky and now I an older and sort of semi retired from serious diving I scuba and spear in a wet suit.
Dave
For scuba I have used membrane drysuits like polar bears, solid neoprene suits like vikings and compressed neoprene suits like Dui's. In recent years I have used custom made to measure 5mm compressed neoprene suits manufactures in the UK to my exact requirements.
For freediving I have used the very thin membrane suits (Typhoon) more usually sold for use in sailing, water sports etc, although with the addition of valves they can be used for scuba. I used the type with ankle seals rather than attached dry boots and with wrist and neck seals. I used wet suit boots and hood with wet gloves if needed. All seals were latex. I fitted valves so I could scuba in them as well.
Down to 8 or 9 metres I can honestly say I never got a squeeze nor suffered bouyancy issues. I used a 20lb weight belt which was the same as my 5mm wet suit belt. I wore a thinsulate undersuit and vented most all air out at the surface. This sort of suit is more a waterproof membrane over a thermal layer. A wooly bear might not be such a good undergarment as it would compress more.
This was a great set up for relatively shallow water spearfishing and gave a great deal of freedom of movement and good warmth in water down to 8 deg C. I think for someone who wants to experiment and has no preconcieved prejudice, then there is some merit in a dry suit.
I mainly stopped using it when it got a bit leaky and now I an older and sort of semi retired from serious diving I scuba and spear in a wet suit.
Dave
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I learned to freedive in a drysuit, out of necessity. I don't now, but when I did it, it was in a compressed neo suit with attached boots. I needed a 25lb belt for this to work, and if I got too deep it was near-death experiences haha! Usually I'd come out covered in whip marks from the suit squeeze too.
It can be done.
It can be done.
come on guys whats a matter with you....... we freedived last saturday in 5mm elios suits and my buddies had 3mm smoothskin elios suits complete with 1 mm undersuits we were in the water for a good hour the water temp was 5c how bloody cold is the water to need a drysuit i thought we were hardcore 25lb belts near death experiences .... ha ha scary shit
Freediving in a drysuit is a good reason to keep recovery divers in business!
NOT saying it can't be done -- but it is freeking dangerous. Something to do with the basic laws of physics.
NOT saying it can't be done -- but it is freeking dangerous. Something to do with the basic laws of physics.
I've done some freedives with a dry suit when I was acting as a surface rescuer on a scuba diving trip and got bored.
Bottom line is that it can be done, but all of the above is true. Max depth for me was 12 meters, after that the suit was starting to enter body cavities
Comfortably you can dive to about 5-6 meters, but buoyancy has to be carefully selected and the comfortable depth area is very narrow (move one meter up or down and you're sinking or rocketing up). Of course you could go deeper if you pre-inflate the suit, but the buoyancy change would be so enormous it would hardly serve any meaningful purpose.
I think I had about 8 kg of weights, but the needed amount will be totally different depending on the suit type and what kind of insulation you have.
By far the most enjoyable way of diving was free immersion because there the buoyancy change issue is not so big.
But if you choose to do it, please be aware of the inherent risks! (not being able to control descent and ascent very well and the very real risk of suit squeeze)
Bottom line is that it can be done, but all of the above is true. Max depth for me was 12 meters, after that the suit was starting to enter body cavities
Comfortably you can dive to about 5-6 meters, but buoyancy has to be carefully selected and the comfortable depth area is very narrow (move one meter up or down and you're sinking or rocketing up). Of course you could go deeper if you pre-inflate the suit, but the buoyancy change would be so enormous it would hardly serve any meaningful purpose.
I think I had about 8 kg of weights, but the needed amount will be totally different depending on the suit type and what kind of insulation you have.
By far the most enjoyable way of diving was free immersion because there the buoyancy change issue is not so big.
But if you choose to do it, please be aware of the inherent risks! (not being able to control descent and ascent very well and the very real risk of suit squeeze)
I've done some freedives with a dry suit when I was acting as a surface rescuer on a scuba diving trip and got bored.
Bottom line is that it can be done, but all of the above is true. Max depth for me was 12 meters, after that the suit was starting to enter body cavities
Jome - shouldn´t you be sleeping by now?
A couple of months ago I had to do an UNWEIGHTED freedive to 13 m in a 7mm uncompressed neoprene drysuit with a thick thermal undersuit... THAT was the hardest freedive I have ever done,- it took 20 kicks just to get 9 feet under. The trip up was fast though ;-)
But Svensson, for a 6-8 m quick down-and-up (plus dragging a dummy out of a car) you should be fine doing it. I would suggest a bit less lead than what you normally dive with,- rather have to push a bit at the surface to get down than be too heavy. So purhaps take about 20-30 % off the weightbelt (that is just a guess).
Not least if your are supposed to be dragging a practise dummy up with you, I would suggest that you have a line of some sort, either tied around the waist with a line man on the surface, or an anchor line up to a bouy so that you can pull yourself up. OH, and of course have dive buddies and surface support if anything goes wrong,- but if you are in the emergency services I guess you would naturally practice like that anyway.
Happy New Year and all the best.
Martin
P.s. where in Sweden are you located?
But Svensson, for a 6-8 m quick down-and-up (plus dragging a dummy out of a car) you should be fine doing it. I would suggest a bit less lead than what you normally dive with,- rather have to push a bit at the surface to get down than be too heavy. So purhaps take about 20-30 % off the weightbelt (that is just a guess).
Not least if your are supposed to be dragging a practise dummy up with you, I would suggest that you have a line of some sort, either tied around the waist with a line man on the surface, or an anchor line up to a bouy so that you can pull yourself up. OH, and of course have dive buddies and surface support if anything goes wrong,- but if you are in the emergency services I guess you would naturally practice like that anyway.
Happy New Year and all the best.
Martin
P.s. where in Sweden are you located?
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Hi Micke
Looks cool on Google Earth. Will you be training in Osbysjön or the sea? I willb heading up to Tjärnö i January, but don't know how much time I will have for freediving there. It seemed pretty nice last time I was there.
// Martin
Looks cool on Google Earth. Will you be training in Osbysjön or the sea? I willb heading up to Tjärnö i January, but don't know how much time I will have for freediving there. It seemed pretty nice last time I was there.
// Martin
How much are new fireman?
I don't know if it was an urban legend but i was told a story of a guy in the forces sorting out an anchor in a drysuit and not coming bck up. The problem is if you train to 6m then on the day the kit your using is the same and the depth is deeper are you going to go for it?
Wetsuits are the safe option. The amount of extra energy and also the lack of movement the deeper you go becomes a problem. And if you leave your fire engine keys in the wrong place in your pocket...... ouch!!
We use to practise ice and surface saving in Osbysjön,but we will be inside to do the freediving traing.The reason to practise freediving is that there have been some accidents with people driving off the road and into the water ending up drowning.There are not so many firedepartments who have scubadivers.The nearest to us is Helsingborg and Malmö, ca120km.//Micke
I can see the problem with response time if the nearest SCUBA unit is that far away.
I thought the whole freediving in a drysuit thing was mainly to serve as a backup. If all searching for a car wreck and inspection is to be done by freediving I think you will get exhausted doing it in a drysuit. You could get a proper freediving wetsuit with nylon/coating on the inside, so it could be donned pretty quickly. With smoothskin sealing at the neoprene gloves and socks you should still be able to dive in the winter for at least an hour, and you would be able to wear proper freediving fins.
If any of you have a freediving wetsuit you could make a comparrison in donning time and diving efficiency.
No matter what I guess that you really have to work on the correct procedures for a bouy plus a line-man and/or buddy. Would you even have time to deploy a boat?
Remember your own safety first!
Cheers Martin
I thought the whole freediving in a drysuit thing was mainly to serve as a backup. If all searching for a car wreck and inspection is to be done by freediving I think you will get exhausted doing it in a drysuit. You could get a proper freediving wetsuit with nylon/coating on the inside, so it could be donned pretty quickly. With smoothskin sealing at the neoprene gloves and socks you should still be able to dive in the winter for at least an hour, and you would be able to wear proper freediving fins.
If any of you have a freediving wetsuit you could make a comparrison in donning time and diving efficiency.
No matter what I guess that you really have to work on the correct procedures for a bouy plus a line-man and/or buddy. Would you even have time to deploy a boat?
Remember your own safety first!
Cheers Martin
It doesn`t happen that often.Never in my 9 years,but we must be prepared to do it and only to save lives and nothing else.We have standard procedures that we follow.The first two people take one car with the boat and drive toward the accident.The next two dress up in drysuit.Then there will be two more who will act as driver and line men.//Micke
hi svensson, i dont mean to sound silly but if its a dry suit i presume it will have an inflation valve on it.so would it not be easier and safer to have a small crack bottle of say 1 litre which could be attached to your weight belt to compensate squeeze. i know its only a finite amount of gas but in a rescue situation wouldnt the victims also be in a similar situation.