Diving suit
A diving suit is a garment or device designed to protect a diver from the underwater environment. A diving suit may also incorporate a breathing gas supply, but in most cases the term applies only to the environmental protective covering worn by the diver. The breathing gas supply is usually referred to separately. There is no generic term for the combination of suit and breathing apparatus alone. It is generally referred to as diving equipment or dive gear along with any other equipment necessary for the dive.
Diving suits can be divided into two classes: "soft" or ambient pressure diving suits – examples are wetsuits, dry suits, semi-dry suits and dive skins – and "hard" or atmospheric pressure diving suits, armored suits that keep the diver at atmospheric pressure at any depth within the operating range of the suit. Hot water suits are actively heated wetsuits.
Function
The diving suit is worn as protection from the diving environment. This has several aspects, the importance of which may vary depending on the specific environment of the dive. Atmospheric diving suits primarily isolate the diver from the ambient pressure, and all the complications it brings as consequences of breathing gas under pressure. Ambient pressure suits – dive skins, wetsuits and dry suits – have no pressure isolation effect, and are usually primarily worn for thermal protection, and thermal protection can also influence decompression. A common secondary purpose of dive skins, wetsuits and dry suits is protection from abrasion, stings from sea animals and minor cuts and impact injury. In some environments containing hazardous materials or microorganisms, the dry suit has the primary function of isolating the diver from the hazardous materials or microorganisms. This type of suit relies on full watertight coverage for effective protection. These additional functions are inherently available from the atmospheric diving suit.History
created a waterproof and windproof fabric which could be made into early diving suits. The first diving suit designs appeared in the early 18th century. Two English inventors developed the first pressure-resisting diving suits in the 1710s. John Lethbridge built a completely enclosed suit to aid in salvage work. It consisted of a pressure-proof air-filled barrel with a glass viewing hole and two watertight enclosed sleeves. This suit gave the diver enough maneuverability to accomplish useful underwater salvage work.After testing this machine in his garden pond Lethbridge dived on a number of wrecks: four English men-of-war, one East Indiaman, two Spanish galleons and a number of galleys. He became very wealthy as a result of his salvages. One of his better-known recoveries was on the Dutch Slot ter Hooge, which had sunk off Madeira with over three tons of silver on board.
At the same time, Andrew Becker created a leather-covered diving suit with a helmet featuring a window. Becker used a system of tubes for inhaling and exhaling, and demonstrated his suit in the River Thames, London, during which he remained submerged for an hour.
German-born British engineer Augustus Siebe developed the standard diving dress in the 1830s. Expanding on improvements on the Deane brothers' helmet already made by another engineer, George Edwards, Siebe produced his own design: a helmet fitted to a full length watertight canvas diving suit. Later suits were made from waterproofed canvas invented by Charles Macintosh. From the late 1800s and throughout most of the 20th century, most standard dress was made from a thin sheet of solid rubber laminated between layers of tan twill.
The oldest preserved suit, named "Wanha herra" can be found in Raahe Museum, Finland. It was made of calf leather and dates from the 18th century. Its exact origin is unknown but the foot parts suggest a Finnish origin. The suit, which was used in short underwater work like checking the condition of the bottom of a ship, was donated to Raahe Museum by Captain Johan Leufstadius, who was a master mariner, merchant and ship owner. The conservator of Raahe Museum, Jouko Turunen, tailored an accurate copy of the old suit in 1988, which has been successfully tested underwater several times.
The Sladen suit was a type of heavy dry suit made by Siebe Gorman which was used with rebreathers by British navy divers during the Second World War. Lighter dry suits made of latex rubber by Pirelli were used in World War II by Italian frogmen. They were patented in 1951.
Ambient pressure suits
Ambient pressure suits are a form of exposure protection protecting the wearer from the cold and in the case of dry suits, from contact with the surrounding water. They also provide some defense from abrasive and sharp objects as well as some forms of potentially harmful underwater life. They do not protect divers from the pressure of the surrounding water or barotrauma and decompression sickness.There are five main types of ambient pressure diving suits; dive skins, wetsuits and their derivative semi-dry suit and hot-water suits, and dry suits. Apart from hot water suits, these types of suit are not exclusively used by divers but are often used for thermal protection by people engaged in other water sports activities such as surfing, sailing, powerboating, windsurfing, kite surfing, waterskiing, caving and swimming.
Added buoyancy due to the volume of the suit is a side effect of most diving suits. A diving weighting system can be worn to counteract this buoyancy. Overalls may be worn over the diving suit as additional protection against cuts and abrasion. This is more usual for professional divers. Overalls increase drag while swimming and are not popular for recreational scuba.
Dive skins
Dive skins are used when diving in water temperatures above. They are made from spandex or Lycra and provide little thermal protection, but do protect the skin from jellyfish stings, abrasion and sunburn. This kind of suit is also known as a 'Stinger Suit'. Some divers wear a dive skin under a wetsuit, which allows easier donning and provides additional comfort.The "Dive Skin" was originally invented to protect scuba divers in Queensland Australia against the "Box jellyfish"
In 1978, Tony Farmer was a swimsuit designer and manufacturer who owned a business called "Daring Designs". Besides swimwear he also did underwear and aerobic wear which included a full suit in Lycra/Spandex. He became a scuba diver and that was the catalyst to the invention of the "dive skin" as we know it today.
Wetsuits
Wetsuits are relatively inexpensive, simple, expanded neoprene suits that are typically used where the water temperature is between. The foamed neoprene of the suit thermally insulates the wearer. Although water can enter the suit, a close fitting suit prevents excessive heat loss because little of the water warmed inside the suit escapes from the suit to be replaced by cold water, a process referred to as "flushing".Proper fit is critical for warmth. A suit that is too loose will allow a large amount of water to circulate over the diver's skin, taking up body heat. A suit that is too tight is very uncomfortable and can impair circulation at the neck, a very dangerous condition which can cause blackouts. For this reason, many divers choose to have wetsuits custom-tailored instead of buying them "off the rack". Many companies offer this service and the cost is often comparable to an off-the-rack suit.
Wetsuits are limited in their ability to preserve warmth by three factors: the wearer is still exposed to some water, the suit is compressed by the ambient pressure, reducing effectiveness at depth, and the insulating neoprene can only be made to a certain thickness before it becomes impractical to don and wear. The thickest commercially available wetsuits are usually 10 mm thick. Other common thicknesses are 7 mm, 5 mm, 3 mm, and 1 mm. A 1 mm suit provides very little warmth and is usually considered a dive skin, rather than a wetsuit. Wetsuits can be made using more than one thickness of neoprene, to put the most thickness where it will be most effective in keeping the diver warm. A similar effect can be achieved by layering wetsuits of different coverage. Some makes of neoprene are softer, lighter and more compressible than others for the same thickness, and are more suitable for wetsuits for non-diving purposes as they will compress and lose their insulating value more quickly under pressure, though they are more comfortable for surface sports because they are more flexible and allow more freedom of movement.