Wet Suits: Types and How to Maintain Them
Wet suits keep a diver warm by trapping a thin layer of water between the wet suits and the diver’s body. Wet suits keep you dry. Designed initially for scuba divers and then popularized by suffers, the wet suit has evolved from a simple layer of protection from the wet and cold into a system that warms.
Modern wet suits use combination of Lycra or other synthetic materials to replace nylon sheeting. There are many different types of wet suits.
1. Well known full suit
2. “Shorty” suits have full torsos but do not cover the entire leg and arm areas.
3. The “Farmer John” style; doesn’t cover the arms but has a thickened “pants” layer that goes up around the shoulders.
4. Thin suits
Good wet suits are composed of three layers – an insulation layer, a wicking layer, and the outer protective layer. The wicking layer is to keep the diver’s skin dry; slowing down the loss of heat from the diver’s body by removes moisture from the skin and transports it to the next level of material.
The properly wet suits should be easy to put on and follow the shape of a diver’s body. But the suit that fits poorly will chill rather than warm the diver. There are many, many brands that combine a wide variety of fabric weaves, colors, designs, and types of material densities. Each brand offers its own unique take on one of the most essential parts of the diver’s wet suits. If you are planning to dive in temperate or moderately deep waters especially.
If you have good wet suits, you should maintain them, because properly maintaining a wet suit will help insure the comfort and thermal protection of the suit.
1. Always rinse the wet suits after every dive to remove salt and debris, with special wet suits shampoo in periodically
2. With wax or zip slip, the zipper should be coated regularly.
3. Do not place the suit in direct sunlight while drying you just need to place the wet suits on a hanger to dry.
4. Store it in a cool and dry place on the hanger once it is dry.
Other articles you might be interested to read: Scuba Equipment or Diver Scuba
