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Rant: My drysuit zipper blew out 60 feet down off the coast of Galveston
Was doing a hull inspection on a supply vessel last Thursday. Zipper let go right as I was checking a weld seam near the rudder. Had to emergency ascend and call the dive off. Anyone else had a zipper fail that fast with no warning signs?
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oliviahenderson1mo ago
...and honestly, that's the scariest thing when there's zero warning beforehand. For me, after my old zipper failed on a pier repair job down in Corpus, I switched to a zipperless drysuit with a neck-entry system and it's been bulletproof ever since. Your mileage may vary but it saved me a lot of panic on later dives.
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christopher4021mo ago
Oh man, @oliviahenderson, that feeling of a drysuit flooding on you is the worst panic I've ever felt underwater. I had a zipper give out on a cold morning in Puget Sound once and it felt like time just stopped. You're right about the neck-entry system - I went that route too after that day and it's like a total different world of security. It's wild how a piece of hardware failing can turn a routine dive into a real scary situation in seconds. Glad to hear yours is still holding up strong.
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