Psdiver™ Monthly Issue 65

PSDiver™ Monthly Issue 65 ISSUE 65 PSDiver Monthly Volume Number 5 Issue Number 65 August 2009 Greetings, quite right. I fired up my laptop and reread my outline and This time of year seems to always be one of the busiest for presentation notes. It was not horrible but it was close. It me. I usually have classes to teach, last minute trips to was obvious I had gotten tunnel vision and somewhere plan, new projects beginning or even hurricanes and their gotten lost in the project. I hate admitting it but I had aftermath to deal with. So far this year the only thing become one of those experts who know everything and missing is the hurricanes. I can honestly say I am not failed to acknowledge otherwise. I should have asked for missing them. help ... but did not think I needed it. Big mistake … In reality the project was doomed from the beginning and the Recently I was tasked with the responsibility of developing a presentation could have / should have been made in 30 classroom Law Enforcement First Responder for Water minutes – if I had stayed true to my audience. Incidents program. When I accepted the task, I had no reservations that I could produce such a program. The time Tunnel vision set in without me realizing it. How often do we it took and the stress I found myself under was surprising to get tunnel vision on a call? Do we allow ourselves to get so me. Even though I found myself in unfamiliar territory I wrapped up in what we are doing we lose sight of the goal? thought I was doing OK and did not reach out for help. In Do we get so focused that we can not see other ways to do the end I produced a 4 hour program that covered most things that might be better or safer? Keep this in mind the everything I thought was needed. next time you go out – even it if is just for training. Expand your minds – be more objective and be willing to go down We did a beta presentation to a group of volunteers from a alternate paths if they lead to the same goal. It is a simple police academy. When it was over I was pretty pleased with thing to say but extraordinarily difficult to do. how it had turned out. I spent the next day doing absolutely nothing PSD related and purposefully avoided my computer Never think you know everything. I got overconfident and and the Internet. Having stressed over the program for so screwed up a classroom presentation. In the field, we may long I needed time away from it. With the program learn from our mistakes but we have to survive them first. essentially finished and tested, I was able to let it go for the Stay Safe, first time in over a month. The following day I awoke with a Mark Phillips bad feeling. I was bothered by something I could not quite Editor / Publisher voice. I knew that something about the program was not 2 PSDiver™ Monthly Issue 65 Materials Special to PSDiver Monthly There are a variety of different types of drysuits Drysuit Maintenance on the market today. They Chris Gabel all have their assets and liabilities. There is no such In the Beginning thing as the perfect When we address the history of the drysuit, we have to drysuit. Everything has a start with the development of the diving helmet. The first trade off. of these was the “smoke helmet” which was invented by Charles and John Dean in England in or around 1824. Of the several different Two challenges that the brothers faced was that when the drysuits on the market diver leaned forward, the “smoke helmet” would flood. today, some of the most The other was to allow air to exhaust out of the helmet. popular are the tri- laminate (Figure 1), butyl A short jacket was attached to the helmet and air was rubber, crushed neoprene, allowed to exhaust from the bottom of the garment. This and the vulcanized rubber also helped resolve the flooding problem as well and the drysuits (Figure 2). For Figure 1 first divers dress was born. The helmet was modified the purposes of this around 1834 by Augustus Seibe in an effort to turn it in to discussion, we'll only be referencing these types of suits. an underwater diving helmet. The tri-laminate is a sort of re-invention of the original It was George Edwards, however, that really invented the divers’ dress of sorts. It uses modern synthetic materials first full divers dress, about 1838. It's Edwards that we to create a thin waterproof barrier. They are highly should credit or blame for the invention of the first flexible but provide very little thermal protection. They drysuit. Since then we've been inundated with many are also not as chemically resistant as other drysuits. In different designs both in pattern and material. There are contrast, the butyl rubber drysuit is highly chemically some differing versions of the story. For more resistant very resilient suit. Like the tri-laminate suit the information, visit or contacting the Historical Diving butyl rubber drysuit provides little in the way of thermal Society at www.hds.org. protection. It's also the least flexible of the suits we're discussing here. Next on the list is the crushed neoprene drysuit. This is a very popular suit that gives a diver 3 PSDiver™ Monthly Issue 65 superior thermal sealed system which changes some of the rules. In that protection and is very case, you're also diving dry gloves that, by definition, malleable. The separate the wrist seals from the surrounding water. A downside is that, like neoprene seal usually lasts longer and is not as prone to the tri-laminate, it's not accidental damage as latex is. However, latex is easier to very chemically replace is characteristically more flexible. The choice resistant and is not comes down to preference and mission. usually field serviceable. Finally, on Basic Drysuit our list, we have the Maintenance vulcanized rubber suit. READ the manufacturers This is a tough suit that handbook that came with has become very your suit. It will contain popular in the information for proper commercial, military, cleaning, handling and and public safety storage. communities. Although it provides little All drysuits needs to be maintained and checked thermal protection it Figure 2 ranks just below butyl thoroughly before and rubber for its chemical resistant protection properties. after every dive. Basic The vulcanized rubber drysuits are also more flexible than maintenance requires the butyl rubber suits and are field serviceable. rinsing the suit in fresh water and allowing it to Seal Preference dry fully before stowage. Two of the most common are latex and crushed Keep all of the suits, no matter which material and design neoprene. I know, I know, you also have vulcanized you chose, out of direct sunlight whenever possible. Even rubber for the neck dams that can be installed to mate though every manufacturers handbook states that you with dive helmets. In that case, you don't have a choice need to make that a priority, we all know that's not and a latex neck seal is commonly used underneath the always possible in the short term. But knowing that direct neck dam. You're also talking about an environmentally sunlight will break down the materials and lessen their operational lifespan, drysuits should be stored for long 4 PSDiver™ Monthly Issue 65 term out if direct sunlight. Visibly suit. Fill a spray bottle or bucket with checking for rips and tears in the soapy water. materials is also essential. Not thoroughly checking for cracks, Coat the suit with the soapy water punctures and material gaps can be solution and again look for bubbles to range from being uncomfortable in identify the source of the leak. cold water to being deadly if diving Depending on the kind of suit you're with hazardous materials. using will depend on the resolution of Figure 3 the leak. Dry Rot One thing to pay particular attention to is dry rot. This is Field Replaceable Seals very common in older latex neck and wrist seals. You can These are available from several of the drysuit see an example of this issue in figure 3. manufacturers. For instance, DUI offers their version of these in a product called ZipSeals. The work a lot like a Micro cracking will be the first sign or dry rot and can freezer bag you get at a grocery store. Another version is eventually later lead to breaches in the material. Direct a ring seal system offered by Trelleborg Viking, Inc. sunlight and chemical exposure will weaken the material These ring seals consist of three parts. You have a and can have a direct effect on the length of time to rubber outer ring, a plastic inner ring, and the wrist seal failure. itself. One convenience is that they don't use any proprietary part for the For other suit breaches that seem to wrist seal. It simply sandwiches the defy explanation, there are a couple of wrist seal in between the inner and outer field methods to find the leak. This is rings. You should be able to change a not a comprehensive list by any means complete set in less than 5 minutes. but a quick and dirty way of finding out They also make a similar setup for the why you're getting wet.

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