Excess air in dry suit
Maybe conventional wisdom has changed in the past few years, but I was taught to always burp my dry suit completely. The reasoning behind this – and I have had this happen on two occasions – is that excess air could cause you to “turn turtle” and end up floating upside down rather than right side up. The other issue is that, should you go oops and then try and roll up, the air in the dry suit will prevent you from doing so.
Perhaps I’m wrong in my description of what can happen, but I always make sure I look like I’m kryo-vac’d when I’m paddling in my dry suit. I also paddle in some pretty cold temps and in equally cold water and I’ve not noticed any heat loss from being too burped or leaving a little air in.
Besides, what woman wants her dry suit to make her look FAT:)
you are kind of right.
You should burp the suit but if you roll upside down the air will not stop you rolling the boat.
Now if you end up in the water and air gets trapped at your feet you may end up with feet up out of the water and your head held under (but we all wear PFD’s so that should not happen.
If it does go to a fetal position squeeze your legs with your arm and do a hard breast stroke for the surface.
This is a survival suit trick that is shown to all offshore workers here.
Splash Nothing
In cool weather I use a dry jacket and hydroskin bottoms. In cold weather it’s a drysuit. Rolling is fun and if I have to swim it’s safe.
I like a dry suit.
But a dry top and neoprene works well most of the time.
Avoid a dry top and dry bottom arrangement.
If you wet exit it looks like a dry suit but fails for both top and bottom. Water rushes in flooding your torso and legs; friends rescuing you saw a dry suit so they are not to worried.
These errors can be worse than wearing a cotton Tee shirt and jeans. With a shirt and jeans no one has any illusions about the condition you will be in.
A wet suit is usually fine, this is life safety and you don’t want top be swimming for hours so a wet suit and spray top may be just the ticket.