Not exactly rainwear, but close: an immersion suit I dug up at Expectations during a frenzied shopping spree in London which left my credit card a sorry piece of molten plastic...

This is used as an escape suit for crew on submarines. The whole story can be found here. This particular garment apparently exceeded its design lifetime, hence turned up in a rubberwear shop. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to try it in a pool or something, but on land the suit creates intense sensations.

The suit is a pretty complex affair, called S.E.I.S. Mk. 8 Mod. 1 (for what it's worth). It is made of heavy gauge nylon fabric in two layers. After donning the suit it must be inflated with a CO₂ cartridge which is emptied into the suit after pulling a cord. The suit thus creates an insulating barrier against the cold seawater. It incorporates a double hood. The inner hood is close-fitting latex, and in my case needed fixing. Right now (early 2000) the suit is on loan, and the current owner will try to fix it. The outer hood is part of the inflatable suit, and has a flap with a PVC window to protect the wearer's face against waves. Over this a second flap can be pulled to give further protection. This second flap again has a window and also a waterproof zipper.

We're not done yet! It is possible to purge the suit from excess water through rubber flap type valves on both wrists. It looks like this goes sort of automatic. There is also a hose with a valve connected to the left arm. This hose goes to the back of the suit and is connected in the neck area. Blowing into it inflates flotation chambers on the wearer's chest. On the right arm a valve is present through which the suit can be kept inflated. Lacking the cartridge, I inflate the suit fully through this valve which takes some time... On the right hip a spool of cord is fixed which can be used to attach the suit to someone else, to a D ring on the left hip. As signalling device a whistle is present, also a lamp which comes on when immersed in salt water. It is powered by a galvanic cell located just below the right arm. The seawater functions as electrolyte. So much for the tech talk!

Now for some personal experiences. When donning the suit, I usually wear a light PVC coated nylon rainsuit on my bare skin. When the inflation starts, pressure slowly starts to build up all over my body. This creates an incredibly snug sensation. As the pressure increases, the suit becomes more rigid. Movement becomes very clumsy, but not impossible. Sitting in a chair however is really difficult, as is demonstrated in the pic. Too bad that in "intended" use there is no bondage element. So far I haven't tried out anything, but only restraining the wrists seems sufficient to become totally immobile. With my arms restrained it's impossible to stand up, only some wriggling across the floor would be possible.

Being unable to bend, the suit invites to lie down. This has to be done carefully, sometimes a joint seems to pop loose with a loud bang. Somehow the hood enables me to breathe normally, even though it seems very closed. It does fog, however. The pressure inside works like a mattress, and my body floats on a cushion of air. The only feeling is softness which totally envelops me, hugging me tightly. One time lying in it I sort of drifted, floated away in my orange world. I did not fall asleep or something. I got into a kind of trance which lasted some two hours of blissfull nothingness... Weird... Maybe I did get some oxygen shortage eventually. I guess I would just love to try it out in the water with somebody else also in the same suit, attached to each other with the safety cords, bobbing around helplessly...

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