A diving suit is an item of clothing or device designed for protecting diverss from the ocean environment. Diving suits can be divided into two kinds: "soft" diving suits and "hard" diving suits.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Hard diving suits 3 External links |
"Soft" diving suits are a form of exposure protection for scuba diving or free diving. They protect divers from the cold, but do not protect them from pressure. They may be made from neoprene, heavy duty fabric coated with rubber, or PVC.
Soft diving suits may in turn be divided into wetsuits and drysuits.
Wetsuits are also commonly worn for water sport activities other than diving, such as wind surfing.
A wet suit is a piece of clothing intended to be worn in the water, in order to keep the wearer warm. A modern wetsuit is mostly made from neoprene and lined with a nylon fabric in order to make it easy to put on and take off.
A wetsuit works by allowing a small amount of water into the suit, and then trapping this thin layer of water between the skin and the neoprene, which body heat then warms up. The neoprene itself insulates this warm layer against the surrounding water. A close fit is therefore essential in order for the suit to work, as too loose a fit will simply allow the warm layer to flush away.
There is some controversy over who invented the wetsuit. Most say it was Jack O'Neill who started using neoprene, which he found lining the floor of an airliner, to make a simple vest. He went on to found the successful wetsuit manufacturer, O'Neill. On the other hand, Bob and Bill Meistrell, a couple of kids from Manhattan Beach, California, claim to have started experimenting with neoprene around 1953. Their company would later be named Body Glove.
Wetsuits come in different thicknesses depending on the conditions for which it is intended. The thicker the suit, the warmer it will keep the wearer, but mobility will be restricted. A wetsuit is normally described in terms of its thickness. For instance, a wetsuit with a torso thickness of 5mm and a limb thickness of 3mm will be described as a "5/3" Different types of wetsuit are available, from a "shorty" (short arms, short legs) to a "longjohn" (full length arm and legs).
A dry suit is a suit worn by scuba divers that keeps water away from the diver's body. It is typically worn in water too cold for a wetsuit. Unlike a wetsuit, which traps a thin layer of water between the body and the suit, a dry suit has a neck and wrist seal to prevent water from entering, and the feet are usually enclosed. Divers add air to the suit to keep it from squeezing too tight on the body. In order to keep warm, dry suit wearers use either special underclothes or an electrical heating system.
The use of a drysuit will require the diver to add more weight to offset the positive bouyance of the air in the dry suit.
Although soft diving suits can be used for deep diving, great care must be taken with breathing mixtures and gradual pressurisation and depressurization to avoid the bends.
"Hard" diving suits are effectively man-shaped single-person submarines for deep-sea diving. They can operate in the deep sea with the interior of the suit remaining dry, at normal atmospheric pressure. They look like suits of armour, with elaborate pressure joints to allow articulation while resisting the large difference between the inside and outside pressure.
Hard diving suits may either have their own air and power supply, or have air and power supplied through a tether cable.
See also:
Soft diving suits
Wet suits
Dry suits
Hard diving suits
External links
