On Friday, June 20, 2003 7:59 PM, Christian Gerzner wrote:

> Strike wrote:
> (snips)

> > I'm quite taken with the 5mm one piece suit that I had made

> Is this a semi dry? I have the "tailor made" 5mm Sonar one which is
> very efficient but pretty difficult to don and doff. Essentially you
> need help with it. As anything else it has its pros and cons.

It's totally wet with the zip up the front.  (I despise the
zip-across-the-shoulder semi-dry' because of their difficulty in getting out
of unaided and because of the extra drag that the zip style imposes)  It's
also a Neptune.  (Having said that, I still regard one of the early Sonar
suits as one of the best that I ever owned.  Mainly because of the neoprene
that they were then using and it's 3-way stretch.

> > it's time to get out the woolly beannie to keep the head warm
> > during the dive. (Last year, I found it as warm - and far more
> > comfortable - as a neoprene hood!)  :-)

> I'll second that. Quite a few years ago now, at the time in fact that
> Alcyone was in Sydney harbour and we visited her, members of TUG were
> wearing red beanies (a la Calypso)

It's become commonplace to think of Jacques-the-Tank as being the originator
of the red beanie but, in fact, it's use dates back to 'hard-hat' days when
the divers - wearing full dress - were obliged to sit around on the deck
with all of the gear in place apart from the helmet.  Because of the
difficulty of removing themselves from harms way should a crane driver
decide to dump a load of cargo onto the deck- and, perhaps, their heads -
divers took to wearing red beanies as a 'warning flag'. :-)

The main thing to bear in mind, however, is that the beannie does need to be
made of pure wool.  (It's the only fibre that holds in the warmth - that I
know of - when wet.  Indeed! I can still recall diving in wooly jumpers -
before managing to lay my hands on a pattern for wet suits.  And before
discovering the joy of almost-dry-suit diving!)   :-))))

Strike