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Had to pick between a drysuit and a hot water suit for a 40-foot wreck dive off San Diego last month

I was on a salvage job near Mission Bay and the surface temp was 68 but the bottom was 52. I went with the drysuit because the hot water unit was acting up on the boat. Ended up spending 45 minutes fighting a stuck valve on a piling and came up dry but my hands were froze. Anyone else ever pick the wrong thermal protection for a job and regret it later?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_felix23d agoTop Commenter

Shoot, I gotta disagree with you on this one. A drysuit with frozen hands is still way better than getting a hot water suit failure halfway through a valve job. You were smart to bail on the hot water unit if it was acting up. I've seen guys get cooked or suddenly freeze when those systems crap out at depth, and that's a much worse problem than cold fingers. Your hands were cold, sure, but you were dry and alive and could still work. I'd take that trade every single time, especially on a 45 minute bottom time where you can't just surface and fix the suit.

david_henderson623d ago

You mentioned "a hose pops off the dump valve and you're soaked in 38 degree water by the time you hit the bell." Man, I had that happen once on a dive to 180 feet. Wasn't even a dump valve failure, just a cheap zip tie that broke on my drysuit inflator hose. Went from dry to a chest full of icy water in like 3 seconds flat. Had to abort the whole job and we burned through almost 20 minutes of deco coming up. So yeah, I'll take frozen hands any day over a sudden flood. At least with cold fingers you can still work the valves if you shove some chemical warmers in your mitts.