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Comment by virtualwhys | Hacker News Reader

5mm wetsuit (or more likely drysuit given that he's a diver) saved his life far more than anything else. That's some serious insulation, though barely enough over such a long period of time.

The article doesn't go into much detail in terms of the psychological aspects of the ordeal -- your life flashing before your eyes for days, can't imagine.

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I think it is more likely that he was in a wetsuit... Dry suits aren't measured in thickness since the purpose is to just keep the water out, as opposed to providing insulation like a wetsuit. Most divers wear a wetsuit unless they are in particularly cold water.

Why would it be barely enough?

I'm not being snarky, asking because I used to surf and wearing a wetsuit would seriously make me warm, to the point where surfing on 10C would require me to unzip the wetsuit every half an hour to make me comfortable.

After my body warmed up the water inside the suit I didn't feel at all the cold of the water except on my feet/head, like I mentioned, I actually felt overheating after a while.

With that said I never calculated or researched how well do these wetsuits insulate for a prolonged period in water, have any data on that?

It's the duration that gets you. For example, if you go out in a 3/2 (3mm torso, 2mm arms/legs) when the water temps call for a 4/3, sure, you can surf for 45 minutes or so, but after that you'll start getting quite chilly.

This guy spent 75 hours floating in the water, not paddling around expending tons of energy competing with the pack for the next set wave :)

drysuit given that he's a diver

Divers' suits are not dry. There's water between the skin and the suit. Actually that warmed water layer is what isolates the body against the cold outside.

No that's wetsuits. Dry suits don't let water in.

Exactly, wetsuits like, you know, the ones we're talking about:

Prolonged soaking in seawater, along with the friction from his wetsuit and fins, damaged Hewitt’s skin pretty badly.

What? You said:

> Divers' suits are not dry

Wetsuits are wet. Drysuits are dry. Sometimes divers wear wetsuits, and some of the more experienced ones wear drysuits.

It isn't that the more experienced ones wear drysuits, it is that they are diving in colder water, which requires more experience + a dry suit.

It's getting ridiculously difficult to write something in HN without receiving some absurd answers like that.

The comment I responded to said that divers use drysuits so this guy should be wearing one. No matter how you put it, the article says that the guy used a wetsuit.

Please, stop for a moment and let this little fact sink: the guy wore a wetsuit and the article clearly states this much.

Yes, I could have said that NOT ALL Divers' suits are dry. But the fact is that MOST of them aren't and in the single specific case THAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT, the suit wasn't dry.

So why the hell do I need to clarify these obvious things? I have no idea.

Oh, and the fact that people use downvoting to "win" these petty fights.

You were trying to explain the difference between dry and wet suits to people who obviously already knew the difference, because they brought it up themselves. Now you're pointing out that the article specifically mentions wetsuits to people who obviously already knew that and chose to discount it. So yeah, if you make context-oblivious comments, you're going to get downvoted.

> Oh, and the fact that people use downvoting to "win" these petty fights.

I didn't downvote you - and in general I don't downvote.

You stated a factually incorrect statement originally and I corrected you. Maybe you meant to say something else but you actually didn't.

> Yes, I could have said that NOT ALL Divers' suits are dry.

That would have really helped. This is HN, a lot of us are coders, you can expect us to be picky.

Nobody is downvoting to win a petty fight. It just looks like you haven't understood the thread of the conversation and are trying to argue about something when there is no argument.

I wouldn't take it personally.

I dive in a semi-dry-wetsuit. It lets water in but not out. So it starts off cold, but eventually the water warms up with your body

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