Question on Drysuits for fishing/paddling vs freediving/snorkeling

Yep, there are a million and one threads discussing drysuits.  What I haven't seen, though, is anything that says if you would or could use the same drysuit for paddling vs snorkeling.  Since there are at least a few folks who do both, I figured I would get your thoughts on the matter.  Considerations would obviously include flexibility and ability to stretch, water seals at depth vs splashing at the surface, the amount of air trapped in the suit. 

I'm, uh, "asking for a friend" who kinda got a spousal OK to buy something for an upcoming holiday <grin>. 

"The friend" already has a neoprene drysuit for the scuba, but it would definitely not be suitable for paddling.  Way too constricted, and the back zipper sucks when you are solo.  Would love to have something that could be used for both fishing and some snorkeling up here in the Sound.  Thoughts and discussion invited!

Jim

Yes, you can use any drysuit with latex neck and wrist gaskets to snorkel, and can expect it to keep you completely dry.  A semi-dry suit with neoprene gaskets won't work because the neck and wrist gaskets aren't reliably waterproof.  The disadvantage of using a kayaking or kayak fishing dry suit for free diving is that they don't have exhaust valves like the dry suits intended for scuba diving, but that isn't a problem if you will just be snorkeling, not free diving.

I snorkel and speargun for pike in Montana, often in pretty cold water.  For several years I used my Kokatat Meridian Goretex drysuit, which I also use for whitewater kayaking and kayak fishing.  Because I was concerned that the Mango colored drysuit would spook the pike, I wore a 3D camo suit over Meridian dry suit. The dry suit worked fine and kept me completely dry.

Then I bought an OS Systems stream count drysuit constructed of a black breathable fabric.  This drysuit is designed for use by fisheries biologists when working in shallow streams.  It has also worked very well, and I haven't been wearing any 3D camo over it.

Because I am usually wearing a lot of layers of clothing under my drysuit in order to keep warm, the first thing I do when I get in the water is hang vertical in the water and burp as much air out of the dry suit as I can by sticking my finger inside my neck gasket. Because I'm snorkeling, not free diving, I don't need to wear enough weight to dive underwater.  But I do want to keep my swim fins under water so they don't splash on the surface and scare off fish.  On the other hand, I don't want my feet to sink, because I don't want to have to work to keep my body relatively horizontal in the water.  So I fine tune the weights I wear so I can sneak around on the surface with my fins underwater.  Depending on how much clothing I am wearing underneath my drysuit, I wear about 16 pounds on my body in a free diving weight backpack, and about 3 pounds on each ankle.  I spearfish from a 13' Ocean Kayak Trident sit-on-top kayak, and don't have any problem getting back on the kayak many times a day when spearfishing.

I have added a pee valve system to my OS Systems drysuit, which means I don't need to make periodic trips back to my kayak to take a leak.  I can just let fly whenever I feel the need, which is really nice.  I but I'm an old fart, and need to urinate more frequently than I did in my younger days.

Thanks, Pete. What would you consider the difference between snorkeling and free diving?  Depth?

Thanks, Pete. What would you consider the difference between snorkeling and free diving?  Depth?

I hope some serious free divers will provide an authoritative answer to this question.  I'm just an amateur.  When I'm snorkeling and speargunning, I'm just putting around on the surface while breathing through a snorkel.  That works fine for spearfishing for northern pike in water from 4'-12' deep, which requires a lot of stealth. Some people dive down some distance while snorkeling. I think of breath hold free diving as going to significant depths, like 30 or 40 feet, without scuba gear.