Diving here in Tasmania, an island state off the bottom of Australia, can be pretty stunning, but it's certainly not tropical and in winter it gets fairly cool. Water temperatures are 8C-12C (46F-54F) and air temperatures about the same. Of course this is when the water clarity is best. Shivering through a 30 minute dive in a 7mm wetsuit and then taking hours to warm up again is the norm.

So, after 30 odd years of winter purgatory, diving wet, I finally bit the bullet this year and got a drysuit. Not many divers here dive dry so practical advice was pretty difficult to come by. After much internet research I settled on a DUI TLS350.

What a difference being warm makes! It's amazing how much more you see when most of your concentration is NOT on keeping the regulator in you mouth between chattering teeth.

I'm very happy with my DUI purchase. It only took a couple of dives to adapt to the drysuit and I was surprised and impressed by my increased flexibility, both in and out of the water. The suit is easy to clean and pack, comfortable and quite easy to get in and out of. I keep warm in my DiveWear between dives and finish the day happy, not hypothermic.

Yesterday I did a 55 minute dive followed by a 30 minute dive an hour later. I have NEVER done that before in winter, and rarely in summer! I don't dread getting into the water any more.

I had planned to keep using the wetsuit in summer but my DUI drysuit is so comfortable to be in and dive in that I think I'll dive dry all year from now on.

Why didn't I buy one years ago?

Janine McKinnon
Hobart, Tasmania.