Navigation
Drysuit Seals
After the zip, the seals are the next important part of a drysuit. They create a seal between your neck, wrists (and possibly your ankles) and the suit, preventing water getting inside. Why not order a set of spare drysuit seals that can be fitted yourself, or make up a dry suit repair kit for those longer dive trips.
For the neck and wrist seals there are three options, either Silicone, Latex or Neoprene. Seals are best considered as consumables and are likley to require replacing during the life of the dry suit.
Latex Drysuit Seals
Latex Seals offer the most waterproof seal when compared to neoprene, especially for the neck. Latex seals are cheap and simple. If you know your size it's pretty easy to swap them over yourself. Latex seals are soft and give a reliable seal, they come in a few thicknesses, the thicker they are the tougher they are but thinner ones give a softer seal so you don't loose circulation.
Latex stretches over time so your neck and cuffs feel really tight when you first fit them, to the point of cutting off circulation, so you have to stretch them over a cylinder for a few hours so they're more comfortable. You can cut them down to make the seal larger but if you do it too early and they continue to stretch you'll end up with a loose seal that leaks.
Silicone Drysuit Seals
Silicone seals have all of the best features of latex with very few of the drawbacks. Silicone is thin and flexible so you can don and doff your suit more comfortably. It's hypoallergenic so people who suffer from latex allergies are fine to use silicone seals. Silicone is more flexible and stretchy than latex, but some find them to be more fragile than similar latex seals.
Because very little sticks to silicone once it's set you need to use a ring system around your wrists and neck. While they first looked uncomfortable, the rings are now comfortable and practical thanks to newer more flexible and ergonomic designs.
Silicone seals are sandwiched between a hard internal ring and a softer external ring glued to your drysuit so you can change broken seals in minutes not days. Carrying spare seals in your bag is easy and can save a dive even when you're off shore on a boat as you only need a simple tool to swap seals over.
More and more divers are using dryglove systems that fit almost any drysuit, which is an added benefit of rings. The design of some neck seals adds a bellow so you can move your head around without breaking the seal. Silicone can also come in a range of shapes and colours instead of standard black. Bright colours are a great way to personalise your suit and stand out of the crowd.
Neoprene Drysuit Seals
Neoprene seals are warmer to wear compared to latex seals and are sometimes considered more comfortable. They also have a tendancy to last longer. Neoprene is good at spreading the pressure over a wide area so you don't end up with Latex love bites, but getting the right size can be tricky.
Neoprene does stretch, but nowhere near as much as Latex or Silicone so they can be harder to put on and the glideskin sticks to your skin so you need to lubricate to get them on. The glideskin is great at sealing against your skin but is quite fragile so you have to be careful pulling it on or it can tear. Ripped neoprene cuffs can be easily fixed if the rip isn't too catastrophic.
Sunderland Bay
Shore Dive | 
Shore access
Sunderland Bay | © Unknown
Depth: 1 m (3.28 ft) to 5 m (16 ft)
Sunderland Bay is a 200 metre wide gap in the basalt bluffs of southern Phillip Island, into which waves from Bass Strait break over extensive reefs and rocks and around a sea stack. This has produced a 300 metre long, south facing beach composed of sand and basalt cobbles.
Waves are lowered to about 0.5 metres by the time they hit the beach, which is steep and narrow, with no bar, but interesting reefs to dive to and explore off the beach. The Sunderland Bay Estate borders the eastern side, with parking available on the eastern bluffs and at the back of the beach, via a gravel road. The western side of the bay is bordered by the 40 metre high Sunderland Bluffs.
Just to the east of Sunderland Bay is Surfies Point where more interesting reef shore dives can be made.
Location: Sunderland Bay, Phillip Island, Victoria 3922
MELWAY Ref: Page 732 C7
Emergency Beach Location: A6a
See WillyWeather (Sunderland Bay) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.
See also, Sunderland Bay and Surfie's Point in "Shore Dives of Victoria" by Ian Lewis, 3rd edition page 144.
Sunderland Bay is named after James Sunderland, who lived nearby, and became a Shire Councillor (Phillip Island Historical Society).
Bass Strait Warning: Always keep an eye on sea conditions throughout any shore or boat dive in Bass Strait on Victoria's coastline. Please read the warnings on the web page diving-in-bass-strait before diving or snorkelling this site.
Boon Wurrung / Bunurong country
Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Boon Wurrung / Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. This truly ancient Country includes parts of Port Phillip, from the Werribee River in the north-west, down to Wilson's Promontory in the south-east, including the Mornington Peninsula, French Island and Phillip Island, plus Western Port. We wish to acknowledge the Boon Wurrung as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Bunjil the Creator Spirit of this beautiful land, who travels as an eagle, and Waarn, who protects the waterways and travels as a crow, and thank them for continuing to watch over this Country today and beyond.
Sunderland Bay Location Map
Latitude: 38° 30.365′ S (38.506081° S / 38° 30′ 21.89″ S)
Longitude: 145° 16.293′ E (145.271548° E / 145° 16′ 17.57″ E)
Datum: WGS84 |
Google Map
| Get directions
Added: 2019-06-07 04:30:56 GMT, Last updated: 2022-03-14 15:56:11 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Surfies Point, 957 m, bearing 111°, ESE
Phillip Island.
Depth: 1 to 5 m.
[ Top ]
DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.
The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.
![Halcyon Infinity 30lb System [SS Small Backplate]](/diveshop/images/halcyon/Halcyon-Evolve-Wing.jpg "Halcyon Infinity 30lb System [SS Small Backplate]")
