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Warnings Of Diving Risks
When you have finished diving for the day, thoroughly rinse the outside of the
drysuit with fresh clean water to remove any dirt, sand or salt. Any stubborn stains
can be removed by rubbing the area gently with soapy water. Clean seals with
fresh water. Occasionally rinse the inside, which can be treated with a proprietary
deodoriser.
Always wear socks inside your drysuit, over a 1 hour dive i.e. kitting up to taking
your drysuit off, you will perspire and produce an average half cup of liquid. If you
are wearing light coloured under garments you may notice patches of liquid on the
suit in the areas of the valves and zip where the perspiration condenses around
these cold areas. Without socks your feet will become wet in some cases and this
can make the suit smell.
Inspection intervals
In addition to the checks listed above to be performed before every dive, the
valves should be inspected and serviced on an annual basis.
Risk Assessment
Drysuit diving, as with any other aspect of advanced SCUBA diving activity, carries
a degree of inherent risk. These include:
Hyper/hypothermia
Drysuits are often used in extreme temperature conditions, where there may be
combinations of cold surface conditions and cold water, or hot surface conditions
and cold water. It is important to know your own personal thermal safe range, to
avoid over heating, or becoming chilled. While a drysuit and warm undergarment
have excellent thermal protection, they do have limits and your safe and enjoyable
time in the water is variable based on water temperature and condition, workload,
and your own body type. Hypothermia is the cooling of the body core to unsafe
levels. Hyperthermia is the overheating of the body core to unsafe levels.
Hyperthermia in drysuit use is most often experienced during surface intervals in
hot weather, or during periods of excessive workload in warm, shallow water.
WARNING
Learn your own limitations and learn to recognise discomfort as a danger
signal. Avoid Hyperthermia & Hypothermia as both can be harmful or fatal.
Monitor your work rate during all diving activities to avoid excessive air
consumption, fatigue, over heating and other symptoms.
Change of buoyancy with depth
Neoprene: all neoprene products used in scuba diving incorporate closed cell foam
to provide thermal protection. Under increasing pressure as depth increases, these
bubbles diminish in size, resulting in a loss of buoyancy as the diver descends.
Learning to compensate for this loss of buoyancy is one of the vital skills that must
be learned in the proper use of a drysuit.
NDiver Drysuit Manual | East Quarry, Appley Lane North, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9AE, UK
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