Scuba Diving Wetsuits
Scuba Diving Wetsuits Neoprene is a porous material containing literally millions of tiny bubbles. This material is an excellent insulator because it places a barrier of air, in the form of the nitrogen bubbles, between your body and the surrounding water. A thin layer of water will enter and it is quickly warmed to body temperature. As you dive deeper and deeper - neoprene compresses against itself, which makes the wetsuits become looser, and looser, making it easier for any water that did enter the scuba wetsuits to leak out.
The insulation depends on the type of scuba diving wetsuits. Materials used for manufacture wetsuits include rubber, PVC, open and closed-cell neoprene which contains low thermal conductive nitrogen gas allowing for the separated bubbles to trap heat, insulate and protect. The thicker the wetsuit, the more insulation they provide in accordance with the depth you plan on scuba diving. Add spandex to the mix and you get what is marketed as Superflex with added advantages of countering neoprene’s’ age shrinkage. Neoprene is naturally buoyant and facilitates easy flotation, adding to the buoyancy considerations underwater depth does however affect not only buoyancy but thermal protection due to pressure compression.
Water affects human temperature differently to air making it just as possible to suffer from hypothermia in warm water on a sunny day. Cold water suit seams are sewn to ensure optimal insulation and newer ones have wool and titanium fibre to keep the scuba wetsuits as streamline as possible. Wetsuits are made for a wide variety of uses includes snorkeling, water skiing, surfing, jet skiing and of course scuba diving. Most scuba diving wetsuits are completely interchangeable between sports – the 3mm Shorty that you use scuba diving can be used next weekend back home water-skiing. Women tend to get colder easier than men. This is because women tend to have more surface area (curves) then men do. If a couple is traveling together it will almost always make more sense for the woman to have a warmer suit than a man would to the same destination at the same time of year. If in doubt, always buy a wetsuit slightly warmer than your needs. If your suits is keeping you too warm you can always let water in to cool you down, but if you are cold during a dive there is not much you can do except stop diving.
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