Undergarment

[john j]

For our long deep dives, we are using electric heat in addition to our undergarments. Check out . They have submersible heating pads that you can wear inside a wetsuit or drysuit. The system we use is a bit more elaborate than that, but the idea is the same and it is based from patco components. If you can get some active component that is adding heat to your body, it makes a huge difference. Since I've started using heaters, I can't believe I could have ever done these types of dives without it. Now, I'm actually toasty warm on most of these dives, even after 2-3 hours of deco. System is not cheap, but it really works great and for about $1000 you can get a good set-up. This is still way less expensive than the DUI heater system was however. If you were ice diving, you could have a wire leading up to the surface and you wouldn't need the underwater battery pack. That would save you hundreds of dollars becasue the high capactiy battery pack is the most expensive part. You could run it from a car battery since it is all 12 volts. That would be slick and it would keep you warm all day. My battery pack lasts a bit longer than 2.5 hours if used continuously. Patco has lots of different battery sizes too. You should go with the nickel metal hydride batteries if you go this route. They don't show that stuff on their website and you have to ask about it. The lead acid packs they show on the web won't cut it up here in the north land.