Drysuit Diving: Wetsuits vs. Drysuits
Wetsuit or Drysuit: Which Works Best for You?
It’s not such a simple question. Both wetsuits and drysuits are designed to keep you warm in the water – they just do it in distinctly different ways. As with most gear choices, it all depends on how you dive, where you dive, and your individual likes and dislikes.
Which is going to work best for you, depends on your unique needs. But here are a few points to consider.
Trillam vs. Neoprene
For sheer diving warmth and comfort, it’s hard to beat a drysuit. As all divers know, water is a heat-stealer; immerse your body in it and your core temperature starts dropping fast.
But in a drysuit, water never touches your body; only air does. And since you lose body heat 25 times faster in cold water than in cold air, it stands to reason that you’re going to stay warmer for longer when wearing a drysuit.
Trilaminate drysuits, like the Evertech Dry Breathable, act as a protective shell by keeping water out. Trilaminate suits have no inherent insulation, so you regulate your at-depth comfort by varying the thickness of your thermal undergarments – the colder the water, the thicker the undergarments (either two-piece top and pant combos, or one-piece jumpsuits), and also by adding air to the suit as needed.
Another option in drysuit diving is to go neoprene. Neoprene drysuits like the Everdry 4 and Exodry offer something closer to the fit, comfort and flexibility of a wetsuit, but with the water-tightness of a drysuit. Because neoprene drysuits derive a portion of their thermal properties from the neoprene itself, they can be worn with a thinner undergarment or sometimes with no undergarment at all. Both of these suits fit like a glove, offer excellent range of motion, and most importantly, keep body heat in and cold water out. If you decide that a drysuit is the right fit for you, be sure to check out our sister article on improving drysuit comfort and performance.
Wetsuit Diving
If you’re comparing drysuits to wetsuits, chances are you’re a temperate to cold water diver, so you’re probably considering a drysuit versus a 7mm wetsuit like the Everflex 7/5mm steamer.
Wetsuits are made with neoprene rubber, a closed-cell foam that traps millions of tiny gas bubbles within its structure. When you climb into a wetsuit your 98.6-degree body temperature warms the gas bubbles in the neoprene, which act as insulation. This, combined with a snug, sealed fit that minimizes the amount of water that enters the suit and flows across your bare skin, is what keeps your body heat from escaping into the watery environment.
So in order for a 7mm wetsuit to do its job it has to fit like a second skin, and it has to have seams, seals and zippers that minimize water intrusion. Also, because 7mm neoprene is a relatively thick material, it has to stretch. The more flexible the suit, the easier it is to climb into it, the more comfortable it is to wear, and the more range of motion it offers. But when all the right elements are in place, diving in a wetsuit is a good option for divers who feel more connected to the underwater environment when they’re as wet as their surroundings.
Another Option Worth Considering
Between the drysuit and the wetsuit is a suit that some divers say captures the best of both designs. Its concept is simple: Combine the snug fit of a wetsuit with the rear horizontal dry zipper and some of the sealing elements of a drysuit. By doing so you eliminate the bulk and hydro-drag that’s inherent in most drysuits, while minimizing heat-stealing water intrusion that’s inevitable in most wetsuits. Wetter than a drysuit, but drier than a wetsuit. In other words, a semi-dry suit like the NovaScotia 7.5mm.
So what to choose? It all comes down to your personal preferences, your diving style, and perhaps your budget. Drysuits occupy the highest rungs on the pricing ladder, wetsuits the lowest, with semi-dry suits falling somewhere in between. But whichever form of thermal protection you choose, with SCUBAPRO dive suits you simply can’t lose.
