Vintage Era Drysuit Diving

[DaleC]

In another thread some discussion came up regarding drysuit diving and it's vintage roots. The debate/discussion can be split into two sub themes I think; vintage era drysuit equipment and vintage era drysuit techniques.

I decided to look through some books to start off with and see what they had to say on the topic:

In "The Silent World" Cousteau/Dumas (1953) JYC prefaces his attempts to create a vulcanized rubber suit by describing Phillipe Tailiez's hypothermic adventure in 52F water. His first suit (1938) was less than optimal but he states he perfected (for practical application) the Constant Volume Suit by 1946. This one piece suit had a mask that sealed against the hood, allowing the diver to exhale into the suit and was vented by duckbills. Almost all other civilian dive books of the era discuss this CVS, along with other sheet rubber style suits.

In "Frogmen First Battles" Schofield/Carisella (1987), "Underwater Warriors" Kemp (1999) and "The Naked Warriors" Fane (1956) all describe rubberized drysuits worn by Italian, British and American frogmen/underwater swimmers from WWII to Korea.

"SBS The Invisible Raiders" Ladd (1983) describes three drysuits used by the British Special Boat Section in its equipment appendice. The Surface Swimmers Waterproofed Suit made of rubberized material had an orally inflated stole (like a Mae West). The Shallow Water Divers Suit had no method of inflation and was vented by pulling the hood away from the face. The Shallow Water COPP Diving Suit was also vented as above but had a chest tube to orally inflate an internal life jacket as well.

In the "Collins Pocket Guide to the Undersea World" Kenyon (1956) three drysuits are described. The EssJee, the Seal and the Typhoon. The Typhoon is of particular interest as it has a tube attached to the chest that allows the diver to either vent or inflate it.

Doukan's "World Beneath the Waves" (1957) describes both Cousteau's CVS and the Fleuss/Siebe-Gorman Self Contained Suit of 1878, which was one of the first untethered drysuit's for divers. It was a watertight, closed circuit helmeted dress that used an oxygen reservoir.

"Dive" Carrier (1955), describes the Cousteau CVS and Pirelli, Bel-Aqua Frogman suits. It also suggests the combination of rubber drysuit and neoprene hood to offset the problem of ear squeeze that occurs with rubber hoods.

In "Underwater Sport" Vanderkogel/Lardner (1955) drysuit diving is discussed with an emphasis on ditchable weight in case of flooding.

"The Skin Diver" Ciampi 1960 discusses drysuits and also suggests wearing a neoprene wetsuit hood with a rubber suit to avoid ear squeeze.

"The Science of Skin and SCUBA Diving" (1957) dedicates two pages to drysuits and emphasizes the need to wear ditchable weights to offset the loss of buoyancy from flooding.

"Mask and Flippers" Bridges/Barada (1960) has a whole chapter (#3) dedicated to cold water diving and the use of drysuits. Points emphasized are potential ear squeezes and the need for ditchable weight with quick releases worn on the outside of the suit. The idea of wearing a wetsuit underneath a drysuit for ice diving is introduced. Also an interesting DIY discussion occurs regarding the wearing of tin cans around the wrists so separate rubber gloves can be stretched across them.



In the end I came away with these points:

Drysuit diving was common place as far back as 1955. Nearly every book I sourced (with the exception of snorkeling/spearfishing texts) discuss drysuits and their use as part of the basic gear for cold water.

There were basically two types of vintage drysuits in the 1950/early 60's era. The Cousteau CVS (or some similar design) and sheet rubber suits.

Sheet rubber suits were either designed to be worn at shallow depths without equalization, or at greater depths by equalizing through the mask/hood interface. Small amounts of water leakage were common and anticipated.

Other methods of inflating and venting were explored early on. Someone could use an orally inflated drysuit with a wetsuit hood and be operationally period correct according to 1956 British Typhoon design.

Ear squeeze was a serious issue with rubber hoods and different ideas were used to try and avoid this. One common idea was to wear a wetsuit hood with a drysuit. When suggesting modern vintage equipment divers use rubber suits this problem should be noted.

Becoming negatively buoyant due to a major flood was also a serious issue and many sources emphasized the point of wearing ditchable weight with quick releases. Another good point to raise with modern divers.

That's it so far. I hope some of this might help shape a constructive discussion on the topic.

Dale.

[Chris]

I have dove without my inflator hose on some of my older single hose regs and been successful in blowing into my sleeve to equalize. But I have a fear of dropping my mouth piece and scrambling to find it with out any air in my lungs. When I got tired of using a weight belt compensator, as my cousin calls the bc, I tried to think of ways I could compensate an emergency at depth. If it's a tear I thought I could inflate whatever isn't torn, a leg or arms anything to get me up. I also thought about run away accents like if I dropped my belt, it has happened to me twice, I figure I could intentionally flood the suit to slow me down to avoid an embolism. I think its funny the instructions for my bare suit says I can use the suit to compensate buoyancy and save the bc for surface floating but instructors disapprove of that. One of the reasons other than comfort and speed that I ditched my bc is I think it's getting out of hand. you have a dry suite, then they want you to have a bc for emergencies, then they want you to have a bc with an integrated backup bc for the emergency emergencies. soon we will be expected to dive with an emergency dry suit under a hard robot suit equipped with sonar to keep us from bumping into anything under water. Oh, I'm rambling. My cousin and I think knowing how to adjust your weights is becoming a lost art. And we've only been actively diving for two years. One guy here thinks he needs over 40lbs of lead. Any way, Someone let me know if my emergency contingency plans aren't going to work if I need them too. Hate learning the hard way.

[Britmarine]

In another thread some discussion came up regarding drysuit diving and it's vintage roots. The debate/discussion can be split into two sub themes I think; vintage era drysuit equipment and vintage era drysuit techniques. (...) That's it so far. I hope some of this might help shape a constructive discussion on the topic. Dale.

Dale, thank you very much for bringing up this topic and doing some of the spadework in the way of diving literature sources. The first edition (1955) of the Carriers' book Dive is particularly good on period drysuits because of its splendid appendix listing diving gear by manufacturer and distributor. The prices and code numbers are all there and as well as the Cousteau Constant Volume, Bel-Aqua and Pirelli, you can find information about The Spearfisherman, Healthways Carib and US Divers Seal suits.

You mention the Collins Pocket Guide to the Undersea World by Ley Kenyon and its listing of the Essjee (Siebe Gorman), Seal (La Spirotechnique) and Typhoon drysuits. The books also mentions the Heinke Delta suit, that was something of a favourite among British recreational divers of the 1950s. The Delta suit also features in Barry J. Kimmins' Underwater Sport on a small income (1956). There is also Peter Small's excellent Your Guide to Underwater Adventure (1957) which describes in detail the Lillywhites suit, the Dunlop two-piece suit, the Heinke Delta and the Typhoon suit. All these played a part in the early days of British diving because of the notorious coldness of the waters surrounding the British Isles. For a more in-depth study of British drysuits of the period, Chapter IX (protective clothing) in Hampton's The Master Diver and Underwater Sportsman (1955) is very good, using the Sladen Suit, Dunlop suit and Heinke Delta as examples.

Returning to the American drysuit market of the 1950s once again, I can't recommend highly enough the Manufactures & Retailers portion of the Skin Diving History website at
http://www.skindivinghistory.com/mfg_retailers.html
Its period ads provide pictures, prices and other information about dry suits, from the early models such as The Spearfisherman to the later models such as the Skooba-"totes" range.

As for any conclusions that can be drawn from the drysuit designs of the time, I concur with the points you have so eloquently made, Dale. I'd add that the drysuits of the time were significantly cheaper than wetsuits. By way of example, see this price list, one of the latest offerings on Ebay's vintage scuba section:
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Vintage-1960s-Ma ... ~60_57.JPG
where you can see a Healthways wetsuit and a Skooba-"totes" drysuit side by side. The former retailed for $58, the latter for $26. Compare that with the wetsuit/drysuit pricing nowadays.

Another issue with vintage drysuits was the number of methods used to don them. The Skooba-"totes" had waist entry, with extra material in the shirt and the pants for rolling together to make a seal. Others, like the Bel-Aqua and Healthways Carib had chest entry with a chute of extra material that was tied off to make the suit watertight.

[DaleC]

Most excellent reply! Thanks for the additional sources to look at. In particular I will look up the Heinke suit.

Here as well, the water temps make drysuit diving "iffy". It's easy enough to do 1 dive, even in winter with a thick wetsuit, but for 2 dives you get quite a chill during the SI that one has a hard time recovering from. And, with a thicker wetsuit, other buoyancy issues come into play. So for year round diving, the drysuit is hard to get away from.

[Ron]

One thing that I started doing to mitigate ear squeeze was to wear a fleece hat under my dry suit, like the kind they issue to military personnel. I suppose you could use a red wool one, if you like, but I can never seem to find one that fits me. The air space created by your beanie (or watch cap, depending on where you are from) will keep your head warm, and protect your ears.

[DaleC]

What style of suit do you have Front entry or two piece.
I'm thinking of trying my hand at making one but can't decide on the entry

[Ron]

I've always just used a hydroglove. It's a two piece, which is a good design. Plus, I'm supporting a small business, which for me is cool.

[DaleC]

Thanks