My dive partner in Seattle told me to always pack an extra O-ring in my drysuit pocket, and last month it saved a job.

3 comments

3 Comments

So what exactly went wrong with the original O-ring? Was it a neck seal or a wrist seal that blew? That's a serious failure to have on a job.

leog682mo ago

Hold on @abbyl49, are we sure the O-ring itself really failed? I see this different from most people. A lot of times it's not the rubber, it's the damn groove it sits in getting a tiny nick or a piece of junk stuck in there from the previous dive. I've had a seal pop on me at 60 feet because a single grain of sand got wedged under it, not because the O-ring was bad. The ring was fine, the seating surface was what screwed me. That guy's spare ring saved him, but he probably could have just cleaned the groove and reused the old one if his hands weren't already frozen.

victor_carr543mo ago

Wrist seal on his left side just gave out at 80 feet. Cold water hit him like a truck and the suit started to flood fast. He said getting that spare ring on with numb fingers was the hardest thing he's ever done. That little piece of rubber is the only reason he made it back to the boat instead of calling for a rescue. It turned a total suit failure into just a really bad, cold dive. His story made me buy a spare for every seal I have.