Oral inflating drysuit

[nkw5]

Has anybody out there ever dived in a neoprene drysuit with an oral inflator? I hear my "new" drysuit is about 10-20 years old. It looks great and holds water out great (in a pool test).

I'm wondering:

If I oral inflate a little before the dive, will that be enough to eliminate squeeze and the need to oral inflate underwater which of course sends water in the suit with the air.

Will I overheat while walking to the dive site? I felt really hot just walking to my pool and wasn't cool enough even in the 70 degree water.

How does one vent this kind of suit? Are they safe?

I hear that I can get valves put in for about $200, but I wonder if it's worth the investment.

Can anybody help me?

[SeaRat]

You are going to have to help us out here. Please describe in detail the oral inflation mechanism, and your dry suit. If I remember, there was an orally inflated dry suit by O'Neil, or someone in California, in the 1970s. The inflation mechanism was on the chest. So please describe the inflation mechanism, the location of its attachment on the suit, etc.

Concerning the dry suit, dry suits are most suited for water temperatures below 60 degrees F (15.5 degrees C). Åbove that, you risk overheating. Today (Nemrod, now hear this), I dove a shorty wet suit and hood in water probably around 60 degrees F, and after adjusting to the chill, was comfortable for 40 minutes.

Finally, a neoprene wet suit is less likely to give you suit squeeze, simply because it is softer. But if your skin gets caught up in a wrinkle, that's a different story. Also, a hood squeeze is a concern. Either dive a wet hood, or figure out how to ensure that a pocket doesn't form around your ears. If that pocket forms, it is possible to have an ear drum rupture to the outside (from too high a pressure on the inside when you equilize your ears).

John

[duckbill]

I squeeze all the water out of my mouth, put the inflator to my lips, push the inflator button until I feel bubbles coming out on my lips, then seal my lips to it and blow. Sounds complicated, but with a little practice you shouldn't get much water in your suit. Of course, the inflator should be at a fairly high point so that the air inside will tend to want to escape. That is the trick to keeping the water out as much as possible. This is pretty routine for me with my oral-inflate horsecollar.
I'm sure there are other tried and proven techniques, and I'd be interested to hear about them. Good question.

[antique diver]

In the 70's I had an Imperial dry suit and a White Stag dry suit with the one inch diameter oral inflator hose mounted on the chest. They worked pretty well, but I always used the "power inflators" from BC's instead of orally inflating.

There are oral inflators with water vent holes designed to let you blow almost all of the water out before depressing the inflate button. I probably still have several of these taken off of Seaquest BC's or possibly other brands. Let me know if you need one, but yours could possibly have this unless it is the older O'Neill with the small diameter inflator hose - about 1/2".

You will probably get a little water in when you deflate anyway. I recall calling them "damp suits" .

[YankDownUnder]

Oral Inflators...The suit is safe so long as you do not try to use it for bouyancy. Some early divers filled them underwater by holding their breath and filling the suit through the inflator. If you do this and invert, you could find yourself rising too rapidly to the top, with no way to control it.

Try it out in shallow water first. Fill it only enough to trim yourself and use the least amount of air possible by having the least amount of lead possible. If the suit floods with too much lead you will sink too fast. Dumping your lead will cause the dangerous ascent possility as mentioned. If you loose ascent control, spread eagle to slow yourself, then just grap the collar and let the air out at the neck.

Dive safely.

[crimediver]

I used to have a miltary drysuit that had an oral inflator built in it on the arm above the wrist. It was the same type inflator found on the mae west lifejackets or snorkling vests. The drysuit was also equiped with a standard inflator valve with LP air and a purge. I often dove it using just the oral inflator when diving a double hose reg. It worked out fine. I sometimes noticed a little water getting in, but not much.

[pearldiver]

I dove with an ONeal for about 12 yrs and brand new they cost $250.00 each and were initially designed for surf boarders in CA, not scuba divers. Actually, I had two of them and it was before the power inflator was invented. We just blew air in the suit to stop the suit squeeze, and on acending, we raised our arm and the extra air came out of the wrist seal even though we had the edge rolled under. The ONeal had smoothskin arms from about the elbow down and a nice neoprene smooth skin neck seal we tucked under. The air still came out of the wrist seal anyway. But we never used the oral inflation tube to let air out because water always got in, and it was usually ice cold. !! Once the power inflators were developed, we attached one of those on the suit inflation and still dove the same way, i.e. inflate to avoid suit squeeze, and on acending, let the air out of the wrist seal. When the Poseidon Unisuits came out, we all got one of those, but still let the air out of our wrist seal instead of the exhaust valve. It is just easier than manuvering your body and contorting each way to dump air. You can move your arm alot easier above you and control your bouyancy very nicely. I can anyway, probably from doing it that way for years I guess. I still dump air from my dry suit that way now.