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Good ideas. Well worth considering.

----------
> Från: Gilldiver@ao*.co*
> Till: ingemar.lundgren@mb*.sw*.se*
> Kopia: techdiver@aquanaut.com
> Ämne: Re: Cold water risk
> Datum:  den 4 september 1998 13:18
> 
> I agree that the best way to avoid this problem is to keep the suit form
being
> holed, how you do this is open to debate. I you overalls at times when
wreck
> diving and can tell that the drag caused by them will make the drag from
> bondage wings and all else look like a joke.
> 
> Now if a suit is flooded, what can be done? This is a pure survival
problem.
> 
> I see this problem as two parts:
> 
> 1) getting to the long deco sites if a flood happened at depth/back of
the
> cave
> 2) Surviving the deco stops with a flooded suit
> 
> For the first you might want to look at the Industrial protection
products
> that are used for worker protection. These are used mostly for workers in
high
> temp environments fire fighters, foundry workers, etc. The most common is
are
> vests with pockets that hold either cooling jell packs or warm vests that
are
> warmed by an 12 volt electric battery for 30-45 minutes then are
unplugged and
> will last for 2-3 hours on land (1/2-1 hr in the water?).  An alternative
is
> to place reusable heat packs, like are used by hunters, in the cooling
vests.
> That way if a flood did happen you could mix the heat packs and get
enough
> heat to get you to the deco stops. A supplier of these vests is BULLARD
GmbH,
> In Germany (0731) 7053-0, in the US (606) 234-6611. Cost is $200-300 US.
> 
> At the deco station - You could take the route of the commercial divers.
> Assuming that you are within 20-50 meters of your surface support (any
longer
> and the hose becomes unmanageable) you could plug in a hot water hose and
fill
> the suit. This could be done by a modification of the p-valve or
inflator. You
> would fully flood the suit and keeping a uniform temp in the suit would
be
> hard, (commercial divers tend to turn the heat on and off as required and
they
> still will tell you that their feet are cold and tops are hot). Getting
out of
> the water would be hard as you would have to drain the suit first. Also,
your
> buoyancy will be changed by the warm water in the suit, how much I don't
know.
> 
> You will also have to use an insulated hose or most of the heat you make
on
> the surface will be lost by the time it gets to the divers. Needles to
say,
> trials in an open water lake are required to perfect any system like
this.
> 
> I hope this helps and sparks some ideas from the board.
> 
> Pete Johnson
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