Diving is a very complicated sport. It’s not the skill set required for basic recreational dives that makes it complicated. You could even argue that some of the most advanced technical diving is not so much complex as it is dive-table-intensive, or training-heavy. What makes diving so complicated is the equipment that we rely on for each and every dive. When you go skiing, you’re effectively strapping two flat sticks to your feet and sliding downhill. When we go diving, on the other hand, we’re relying on a carefully machined system that provides us an exact amount of breathing gas depending on our depth. And that’s just the most basic of open-circuit scuba systems. Another critical difference between scuba and other sports is that the equipment we use quite literally keeps us alive. Nonetheless, many divers do not fully understand the amount of care and precision craftsmanship that goes into perfecting the design of these life-support systems. Instead, we simply rely on dive magazines to tell us what the top-rated gear in our price range is.
This week I had the pleasure of working at Diving Unlimited International to see first-hand just how much care goes into each and every drysuit they produce. DUI is a sponsor of the scholarship, so I’m incredibly lucky to get to use what’s considered the gold-standard in drysuits this year. What surprised me so much when I arrived at the DUI factory in San Diego was that it’s much closer to a small business than the huge company image that it has. I had envisioned precision machinery cranking out dozens of suits an hour with a couple of employees drinking coffee and pushing buttons behind the scenes. In fact, the DUI factory is filled with dedicated craftsmen (and –women), many of whom have been working there for over twenty years. Each and every suit is assembled, stitched, and glued by hand, whether it’s a custom order or simply a stock size that will be shipped out to a dealer. Hours of work go into each and every suit, reducing the total number of drysuits that can be produced per day, but ensuring that they’re of the highest quality and meet the highest standards possible (as Faith Ortins, Sales Manager and my host for the week explained, there aren’t really any set standards for equipment testing in the dive industry, but after 500 hours in a cement mixer one can reasonably assume that a product is durable).
DUI has been a leader in the dive equipment industry, from developing the first hot-water suits to their numerous innovations and revolutionary products that make modern drysuit diving what it is today. While I was in town, I was privileged to be helping out with what will no doubt become another innovation in diving dry. One thing that plagues drysuit divers is bulky undergarments. If you’ve ever been diving in freezing-cold waters, you know exactly what I mean. Sure, it’s better than diving in a wetsuit, but there’s something about climbing into that inch-thick, fleece teddy-bear suit which really makes you question how much you want to go diving today. The reduced mobility is one thing, but the thirty pounds of weight stuffed into weight pockets and mounted on tank straps in every possible way to avoid destroying my lower back with a weight belt that should have a safety warning is what really kills me. But there’s just no way around it. We can’t go diving in 40-degree water with a dinky little undergarment, right? Wrong! This is where DUI comes in.
For years, divers have dreamed of heated drysuits. They’ve taken chemical hand & foot warmers and shoved them by the handful into their undergarments and their socks in an attempt to stop their extremities from freezing solid. Well, now the problem is solved. DUI has developed electric-heated undergarments which will drastically reduce the number and thickness of layers required under your drysuit on cold dives. A heated Stretchliner, essentially a millimeter of fleece, will get the same job done as a jumpsuit that’s almost an inch thick. For a week I’ve been working with the engineers and product development specialists at DUI cranking out prototypes and production models for testing, and I have to say: this is going to be big. Imagine diving into 50 degree water with your drysuit on and wearing less weight than your buddy with a 7mm wetsuit! The heated suit will keep your core warm while allowing you the flexibility and range of motion to dive freely. Heading to Antarctica? No need to worry about frostbite: the heated gloves and socks will keep your fingers and toes toasty, allowing you to take photos right up to the end of your hour-long dive.
The demo models are still going through some finishing touches to make sure they’re streamlined and easy to use, but check out a DUI Demo Day near you and you might just be lucky enough to try out a prototype heated suit (if you’re a DUI owner, of course)! I’ve got one of the demo models (which I made!) with me now and I’ll be testing it out at Catalina Island during my rebreather certification’s open water dives – I’ll let you know how it turns out next week.
