Tried a new drysuit seal system and got a nasty surprise on a dive near Seattle

I swapped to those quick change silicone neck seals last month before a harbor cleanup job up near Seattle. First dive went fine, second dive I felt water trickling down my back about 15 minutes in. Turns out I didn't seat the seal ring properly and it popped loose at 30 feet. Lesson learned - test those new systems in shallow water first, not on a real job. Anyone else had issues with those quick change seals?

3 comments

3 Comments

laura_schmidt821mo ago

Ugh yeah that exact same thing happened to me. Total fail on those seals.

hollyl251mo ago

Gotta agree, @laura_schmidt82, I was totally in the "nah it's fine" camp until I had a batch of jars that looked perfectly sealed but then started smelling funky a few weeks later. Opened one up and there was this weird white fuzz on the rim - completely ruined a whole batch of strawberry jam I was proud of. Now I check every single seal twice and do the thumb test thing where you press down in the middle. If it pops back up at all, straight to the fridge it goes. Lesson learned the hard way I guess.

jade5171mo ago

Doesn't it feel like life's just full of those sneaky little failures that look totally fine on the outside until you're elbow deep in a mess? @hollyl25 hit it right on the head you really can't trust the surface level.