Semi-dry diving suit Cressi Ice Lady

Care and Maintenance - Suits The following care and maintenance information is provided for products that do not have a specific owner's manual and is intended as a general guide for basic care and maintenance of your dive equipment. 1. Remove salt immediately after use: Immediately after finishing the dive you should either put your suit in fresh water or make sure you rinse it properly with a hose. If you don't do this, the water will evaporate and the remaining salt will damage the suit causing more water to enter on the next dive. 2. Dry it inside out: When it comes to leaving it to dry after rinsing, it is advisable to do it from the inside. This way if you need it again in a short period of time, the inside will be dry. It is also better that this is the part that receives the light, otherwise it would take away the flexibility of the outside. 3. Never expose it directly to the sun: The ultraviolet rays will damage the fibers of your suit taking away its elasticity and causing cracks in the material making them bigger and bigger and consequently much more water leaks in each dive. 4. Store it on a standard hanger: If you are going to spend some time without using it, it is best to hang it on a multi-purpose hanger so that the suit's shoulder pads are not damaged and it will last longer. You can also store it folded in a box or closet but make sure it is properly folded and there are no elements that exert pressure on it. 5. Do not put it in the washing machine or use detergents: Hot water, spinning and detergent are the worst enemies of wetsuits. On the contrary, if you prefer, you can wash it in the washing machine as long as it is alone, without soaps or detergents and with a program without spin. 6. Take care of zippers: Use special waxes for their care and maintenance as they can eventually break or rot making the suit completely useless. 7. Avoid high temperatures: Excessive heat damages fabrics causing them to lose elasticity and can even cause breakage.

This will be the first of the doubts that we will find, and it is certainly one of the most important choices to be made. As you may have seen, there are different thicknesses, materials, shapes... which one is best for us? which one is best for us?
The first thing we must be clear is the utility of the suit. As you well know, its main function is none other than to maintain the diver's body temperature, limiting to the maximum the heat loss that occurs when we enter a much colder environment, such as seawater.
In addition and as a second level function, the isothermal suit can save us from possible scratches, bumps or bites from various animals.
In the market there are three main types of suits

• Dry: used in very low temperatures. It prevents water from entering the suit through a valve that injects air into the space between the diver and the suit itself, in addition to having watertight adjustments at the ankles, wrists and neck to prevent air from escaping and water from entering
• Wet suit: this is the most commonly used. In it penetrates a certain amount of water (scarce) but does not allow the constant renewal of the same, so the body easily reaches its temperature without significant thermal deterioration.
  These suits are made of neoprene, with different thicknesses(the thicker, the more it will protect from the cold), the most common thickness being between 5 and 7 mm. This material makes the suit somewhat buoyant, which should be taken into account when monitoring the ballast used if we change suits.
  There are also thinner suits (1 to 3 mm) for warmer waters, as well as vests that can be worn under the suit for colder waters
• Semi-dry: equipped with a watertight zipper. They are more protective than wet suits, without reaching the extreme of dry suits

As you know, wetsuits are generally made of neoprene, a material that can be found in different finishes

• SMOOTH: neoprene treated so that the layer that will be in contact with the skin is smooth and remains fairly adherent to the body, facilitating its placement. They are the most fragile to breakage. This type of finish is very often found on wrist and ankle cuffs, in order to minimize the flow of water
• LINED: the neoprene has a lining that favors its placement. This lining provides a high resistance to tearing. The lining can be made of nylon or towel, the latter being especially comfortable to put on because it has a mini terry that slides very easily over the skin
• TITANIUM: used in sheets, which are placed between the neoprene and the lining (outer or inner) in order to minimize air cooling of the neoprene microbubbles. In this way, the internal heat is maintained for a longer period of time

In addition to all this, it is convenient to know the different types of suits that we will find in the market; although you can see some others, the most common are the following

• SHORT: this is a suit that only protects the torso and crotch, leaving the arms and legs exposed. Therefore it is not advisable in places where we can have rubbing with rocks, coral or stinging elements. In addition, its thickness, between 1 and 5 mm, means that its use is practically limited to tropical waters
• MONOPiece: it is a suit built in one piece, so that it is very easy to put on and take off. It can incorporate or not the hood, and its thickness varies between 1 and 8 mm. It usually has a second piece on the market to complement it in winter
• CONCEPT (overall + shorts): this is the combination of the two previous elements. They are very practical suits because they allow the separate use of each of the elements. We can use only the overall in the summer season, and wear the shorty over it when the water is colder. Try to make sure that the zippers do not coincide, that is to say, that the one on the overall is at the back and the one on the shorty at the front. As a disadvantage it should be mentioned that given the large amount of neoprene worn on top, our ballast must also be increased. We may also experience some stiffness in our movements
• TWO-PIECE (bib + jacket): the most traditional. It consists of pants that are lengthened by a sleeveless bib overalls that covers the chest to a greater or lesser extent (depending on the model), and a jacket that fits through the crotch by means of a neoprene strap. The jacket can be found with or without zipper, a detail that affects both the comfort of placement and its thermicity

Something to keep in mind, especially when changing suits, is that the suit modifies the buoyancy of the diver, which must be taken into account when choosing the weight to wear. Sometimes this point is forgotten when changing suits, which provides more than one scare, since the change in buoyancy is not taken into account.
Taking into account the above mentioned about each type of suit, the final choice will depend on purely personal criteria (color, shape ...). But there is one thing that we must take into account: the suit should fit our body as much as possible, avoiding air pockets that would eventually become water.