Northwest Dive Club

Hello all.

I am looking at getting set up for a new dry suit and have gone down the rabbit hole of undergarments. What have you found to be warm, functional and long lasting?

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the club!!!
I love my Weezle Extreme Plus!
Let me know if you need more info. I sell them

https://weezle.co.uk/collections/unders ... -undersuit

The weezles are awesome. I tried one once and found it amazing. I’d try one again as they seem comfortable and affordable and toasty. I went with a fourth element 3D. It was expensive but has eliminated any need for Argon. My secret weapon and must have cold water items are the DUI 11mm hood and kubi dry gloves. Are people upgrading to electric vests? I love my cold water diving but love being warm and dry and comfortable.

Another Weezle Extreme Plus fan here. I am an old fart, so I like to stay warm.

I’m a fan of Fourth Element. This time of year I will be wearing an Arctic one piece over a Xerotherm vest and Drybase or similar base layers.
There have been a couple times when these undergarments were able to keep me functionally warm with a leak in my drysuit.

Weezle Extreme+ plus a Venture Heat heater makes for a spoiled diver

Excellent, thank you for info! There are so many options out there it is nice to hear from folks that are out using the gear.

Jess I would love to get some info on the Weezle Extreme+ when you have some time.

I've got a size large White thermalfusion you can have

Jeff Pack wrote: ↑Wed Dec 22, 2021 2:03 pm I've got a size large White thermalfusion you can have

Jeff, That is a very generous offer! Thank you!!!

Hi,
Learning what I can about dry suits. I see the price of dry suit under garments and go ouch. I have hiking under garments an fleece that are made to keep you warm if you get wet and do not weigh a lot. Now th hiking stuff is not cheap either, but not in the range I have seen for dry suit undergarments. Am I missing something?

Thanks
Martin

Redleg0811 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 19, 2022 11:14 am Learning what I can about dry suits. I see the price of dry suit under garments and go ouch. I have hiking under garments an fleece that are made to keep you warm if you get wet and do not weigh a lot. Now th hiking stuff is not cheap either, but not in the range I have seen for dry suit undergarments. Am I missing something?

Hi Martin, you're not missing anything except, maybe, added comfort. A lot depends on your cold tolerance, what kind of diving you do, and what your drysuit is made of.

For instance, my usual buddy dives in a neoprene drysuit (which has a lot of inherent insulation) and his undergarments are a couple ratty sweaters and pair of jeans(!). I'm much more of a wimp and dive in a trilam suit, so I use a Weezle Extreme+ with synthetic long underwear, and I'm thinking of getting a heated vest too.

Summer diving needs a lot less insulation, and you may find a cheap fleece onesie or hiking fleece will do okay. Also, if you're moving slow, you'll get colder. As I got better at diving, I moved slower, stayed down longer, and got a lot colder. YMMV.

Have fun!

Good information.

+1 on the heated vest for us old farts!

This is all great info. Part of making this work for us is making sure my wife is comfortable, so know this will help. I have become more of a wuss as I have gotten older, but will deal with more cold than my wife.

Check out Venture Heated vests. Quite a few of us are rocking them, they work great. I know my local dive shop in Olympia carries them, possibly other shops as well.

11w of heat? I got cold eventually with 55w of heat and Michelin Man undergarments'.

I havent gotten to level 3 of the heat. Its just too hot. I get chilled, hit level 1, then later level 2. It works really well.

Gdog wrote: ↑Mon Oct 24, 2022 1:39 pmCheck out Venture Heated vests.

Argh. Their web site indicates that they're working on a new model, which isn't out yet. The old model is not available.

https://www.ventureheat.com/pages/dive

I saw that. Hmmm. V2... I wonder if our LDS has some left

Got my first drysuit experience last year working a slow-spot in snow melt. I just took what what fit from the rental shop, including the DUI drysuit. With all the air out and the 36lbs I used to sink my old school wetsuit, I couldn't get down and I was functionally chilled at best in a pond where its deepest point is 10ish feet ..... so I can only figure deeper would have been worse. I wasn't warm-ish until I added 2 layers of modern thermals and stuck to surface work. All in all, I clearly haven't found the right combination and sorted out drysuit science yet.

A lot of the dive groups around here look like ads for Fourth Element undergarments. I like the one-piece Arctic as an outer layer with a Xerotherm vest or long sleeve top as a mid layer. Base layers can be Underarmour Coldgear or similar. Will stay warm enough even if slightly wet (it happens).
A warm hood (10mm) is a must as well.

I'm a wimp with Raynaud's (fingers and toes go dead white/cold/numb if they get cold) and I could not dive here without taking a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker (they are mostly used as blood pressure meds - e.g., amlodipine, nifedipine, felodipine) before diving, plus dry gloves. I really like the Bruceriver wool+thinsulate gloves underneath the dry gloves - the big yellow things that came with my drygloves are worthless. I dive a bilam Bare drysuit. I now use and like a Weezle Extreme (maybe not plus? got lucky and got it used), with a midweight fleece jacket underneath that in the winter, and long underwear under that. That usually keeps me warm through a dive, even if I get a small leak. Oh - liner socks, wool socks, and oversock things on my feet, under the drysuit's neoprene booties. The Michelin Man's got nothing on me!

My wife suffers with that. She ended up only diving warm water. I use dry gloves, that are open at the cuff. That way, if my fingers are cold, I raise my arm and the warm air bubble flows up into my fingers and warms them. However, I sympathize with you dealing with Raynauds.

If she wants to dive here (or do snow sports, the other time I use it), seriously, have her get a prescription from her doctor - and use dry gloves with good liners. It's the only way I was able to keep diving here.

Trust me, I'm a doctor :-) (Really - though I never use that phrase IRL.) In case her doc is unfamiliar with treating Raynaud's, maybe bringing in something like this (https://evidence.nihr.ac.uk/alert/calci ... henomenon/) to the visit would help.

Dry gloves make a big difference to any drysuit. I use the KUBI system that can be added to latex wrist seals.
My preferred liners are surplus wool liners underneath the latex seals (for equalization) and the Forth Element Xerotherm wrist warmers over those.