How Wetsuits Really Work
Okay, I’m not making this one up. It actually says this in a popular diving textbook:
“A wetsuit works by trapping a thin layer of water between the skin and suit. Body heat warms the trapped water to a comfortable temperature. If the suit is too loose, cold water will flow through without providing warmth….”
Oh. My. God. (Did we, like, flunk high school physics or what?)
Come on, boys and girls. Repeat after me:
- Water is not an insulator, it is a conductor.
- Unless it is already warmer than 88 degrees Fahrenheit, there is nothing water can do to “provide” your body with warmth. The only thing water can do is rob your body of heat.
- Uncompressed neoprene foam, on the other hand, is an excellent insulator.
- The more uncompressed neoprene foam you can have next to your skin (and the less water), the warmer you will be.
The fact any water at all gets inside a wetsuit is a design flaw — not a function of “providing” warmth. By keeping the amount of water that circulates through your suit to a minimum, you minimize the amount of body heat lost to it. The warmest exposure suits of all allow no water to circulate, They’re called dry suits.
By the way, no exposure suit “makes” you warm or “provides” you with warmth. Only your own metabolism does that. What exposure suits can do is help reduce heat loss, so that you can complete your dive before losing so much body heat you feel miserable.
One further note: Wetsuits only work in relatively shallow water. Past 60 feet, the neoprene foam is so compressed, it provides almost no insulation whatsoever.
This is why you see cave divers in north-central Florida donning dry suits and thick undergarments in August to dive in 72-degree water. Most north-Florida cave dives are in the 70- to 100-foot range. At this depth, wetsuits are damn near useless. A Florida cave diver in a wetsuit will most likely have lost so much warmth during the dive, his deco — even though made in shallow water — will be cold and miserable (and much less effective).
Water is a more powerful conductor of heat than most divers realize. When selecting exposure protection, always remember that, while it is almost impossible to be too hot under water, it is very easy to be too cold.
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