neutrally bouyant wetsuit??

[DivingDane]

i know this was spoken about back in 2002 however i figured there may have been some new products on the market.

So is there any wetsuit or similar that will have some thermal insulation but is neutrally bouyant. trying to find a way to dive without using a weightbelt, for both pool training and ocean dives, but mostly for Dynamic.

i seem to remember Will Trubridge wearing an ORCA suit or something that had almost no positive bouyancy???

anybody have any ideas about a product and where to get it from.

DD

 

[Mullins]

For constant weight it wouldn't really matter how buoyant it was, it would just need to be incompressible i.e. contain no gas. I'm not aware of anything like this, but there are hard neoprenes that contain fewer gas bubbles than those normally used for wetsuits. Unfortunately though it's the gas that provides most of the insulation...

Will's Orca was pretty thin but still made of neoprene. Orca are making us 1mm suits for world champs that should compress very little, but of course they won't be very warm.

 

[gingko]

Fourth Element produces some neutrally buoyant wetsuit (I saw an adv' link on DeeperBleu homepage)...
Here is one of their products : Fourth element

.../...

 

[Mullins]

They make a very thin, lightweight suit that seems to have a fleece inner and rubber outer. Handy for the tropics, but if you're wearing a suit that thin then using one made of compressible neoprene won't give you much of a buoyancy-change penalty anyway. I'm guessing this system isn't flexible enough for use on thick suits as their 5mm is still made of neoprene.

 

[DivingDane]

Yep that the kinda thing i was thinking about, mullins your probably right about constant weight that it prob doesnt matter, i just figured that it would negate me having to wear any weight wich would be great. also neutrally bouyant would meen that i could wear it in the pool without any need for anything more than maybe a neck weight.

there are a couple of brands in Oz with similar products, Sharkskin and Probe thermocore.

but was wonderring if there might be anything else that anybody has used.

DD

 

[efattah]

First of all you can use speed suits like Speedo Fastskin and Orca RS1. However they do trap some air so you need to drench them and move them around to get the air out.

Then you can try Polartec style materials and clones. They also trap air so they need to be drenched and moved to get the air out. I have a full suit that was custom made from polartec. Sadly the suit builder wasn't very good and it doesn't fit that well. It has silver smoothskin on the outside and polartec on the inside.

Then you can try making a wetsuit out of silicone sheets, which offers significant insulation without air bubbles or buoyancy shift. However you need some skill to make it. It is quite heavy on land.

I have also tried using butyl rubber sheets (12"x12") under an existing suit -- extra insulation with no extra buoyancy change.

You can also smear vaseline all over your body, which extends your time in the water to about double or triple than without any suit, but is extremely messy -- it gets everywhere and it is very hard to get rid of.

You can work on cold tolerance and dive without a suit, which also gives the best dive reflex and is my favourite option.

The last option is to use a speed suit or polartec suit, drench & get rid of the air bubbles, and then put sodium acetate heat packs under the suit, which offer huge warmth without buoyancy shift.

A more advanced option is to get incompressible air filled microspheres, and make a stretchy fabric with melted silicone embedded with microspheres. This would offer huge insulation with no buoyancy change.

 

[DivingDane]

Well Eric you have outdone yourself again, what is your background or are you just and accidental genious??? Polartec lined silver smoothskin idea sounds very appealing where would i find a material like this.

i have found shark skin which is a trilaminate material with a fleecy innerlining a abrasion resistant outer shell and a windproof middle layer but it does not come in a smooth skin outer.

i agree with the cold water tolerance build up but i find that i dont enjoy my training as much so generally only use this option when the water is VERY warm. also because we train for extended periods its not really an option. even in the 24degree celcius water we have up here in Northern queensland (Winter temperature) i still get uncomfartably cold after about 45min if i dont wear a suit.

now this microsphere fabric you talk of is it commercially available or is it still only in trial stages, because it does sound very interesting and i can imagine it could be made to really contour the body.

DD