Scuba Diving Equipment
A diving suit is a garment or device designed to protect a diver from the underwater environment. Modern diving suits can be divided into two kinds:
* "soft" or ambient pressure diving suits - examples are wetsuits, dry suits, semi-dry suits and dive skins
* "hard" or atmospheric pressure diving suits - an armored suit that permits a diver to remain at atmospheric pressure whilst operating at depth where the water pressure is high. Main article: atmospheric diving suits.
Ambient pressure suits
There are five main types of ambient pressure diving suits:
* wetsuits
* drysuits
* semi-dry suits
* dive skins
* hot water 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.
Ambient pressure suits are a form of exposure protection protecting the wearer from the cold. They also provide some defence from abrasive and sharp objects as well as potentially harmful underwater life. They do not protect divers from the pressure of the surrounding water or resulting barotrauma and decompression sickness.
The suits are often made from Neoprene, heavy-duty fabric coated with rubber, or PVC.
Added buoyancy, created by the volume of the suit, is a side effect of diving suits. Sometimes a weightbelt must be worn to counteract this buoyancy. Some drysuits have controls allowing the suit to be inflated to reduce "squeeze" caused by increasing pressure; they also have vents allowing the excess air to be removed from the suit on ascent.
Standard diving dress, a sixth type of ambient pressure diving suit, is now obsolete but is historically interesting.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Diving suit
