Yet another Wetsuit Thickness question

[hqduong]

I am sorry to everyone as I know this topic has came up a million times. I was certified in Maui and done over 30 dives in Maui within the last 6 months. I can't find a good reason to substantiate the cost to buy a Dry suit considering I'll probably only do 30 dives a year in California, and I can't afford to keep going to Maui.

I know it probably depends on how many dives I do a day. I been cold in a 3mm in 80 degree weather by my 4th dive while feeling perfectly fine on the first dive at 130 feet. I get cold relatively easy. But I am wondering if the Hooded Semi-Dry 8/7 mm from Bare will be enough to last in Monterrey year round doing 4 dives a day. If not, should I add a 3mm vest, would that be enough then?

Or should I just suck it up and buy a dry suit?

 

[g1138]

I dive in a custom altered/fitted 7mm Farmer John with 5/3mm hood. The only time I ever get cold is this time to year when the upwelling occurs and the waters drop to 50F or lower. But even then I only feel it in my feet and my chest. It's that cold pulling feel on my chest but not an actual chill in itself.

I too get cold in 80F waters in the pool when it's evening. I spend about 3 hours in the pool with the basic class in 4/3mm full suit and 3mm gloves. Still get chilly, but it's probably because I'm not wearing a hood.

I think the semi dry will work for you. Get a 5mm hood and 5 or 6mm booties to start. I would recommend 3mm gloves that have a single loop velcro wrap. No plastic ring-back wrap velcros, I feel those don't keep your glove wrist seal flush enough to restrict water free flow (and you can over tighten them I feel). If you have a good snug glove that prevents water flow then you're hands will never get cold. I personally use Aqualung Aleutian Kevlar gloves in 3mm. Love them to death, very durable and easy to get used to to regain your dexterity with gloved hands.

If you still get cold in your core (not extremeties) then I would upgrade to a 5mm hooded vest, and wear that under your suit. If your feet or hands get cold then I would upgrade to 10mm boots or 5mm gloves respectively.


As a comparison I have friends (college students on a budget) diving in two piece farmer johns, single suits 7/5 & 8/6, and the occasional custom 10 or 12mm suit.
Excluding the latter the farmer john guys do fine, the single suits do fine for the most part. Those who don't do fine, go with a hooded vest and then do great. Of a few who use semi dries their only complaint is their wrist and leg zippers come undone a lot which makes them cold. If you can over come this obstacle you're golden (ie. get a suit w/o wrist & leg zippers)

Concerning Dry Suits:
IMO if you plan on doing more than 2 dives per dive trip in Monterey, you should get a dry suit. If you limit yourself to 2 dives per trip, then a wetsuit will suffice unless:
you are planning on diving deep (past 60ft) or for extended periods of time (longer than 50mins). If that's the case then you should invest in a dry suit (and a p-valve).

 

[Kilili]

Who knows? It's a personal thing. Vest helps a lot. Drysuit better.

 

[dougchartier]

It's a very personal thing, but I'd say if you plan on doing 30 dives/year locally with multiple dives per day for the next several years, at least buy a used but not abused drysuit.

I tend to get cold, and I dove around here for about a year in a 7mm full body wetsuit with a 7mm hooded vest. I was generally okay for the first dive, but the surface interval was invariably painful, particularly during the winter. Suffice it to say, the second dive was considerably less comfortable than the first...

Diving wet definitely made my limits more apparent. One thing I noticed was that as my dive times got progressively longer and as I became more comfortable in my trim and buoyancy (i.e., less unnecessary movement underwater), the cold got to me much more. I also noticed that my SAC went up appreciably on the second dive and in the latter part of a long dive.

I recently bought a used crushed neoprene drysuit with undergarment for $300 and can't go back to diving wet around here. The dives (particularly the second) are far more comfortable, and the surface intervals are incomparably more enjoyable. Moreover, a drysuit opens up the possibility of longer and deeper dives, as well going technical further on down the line.

Bottom line, if you're serious about diving in the Bay Area regularly, go for a drysuit now if you can afford it -- it's inevitable that you'll eventually get one.

Best of luck!

 

[cmburch]

Fit is everything in a wetsuit. The temps can get down to 44F at depth. I use a 9/7/6mm Xcel Polar SCS one piece integreted hood for SCUBA and a 7mm Farmer John Freedive wetsuit. Go to several shops and try on wetsuits to determine which fits the best. Ask when there will be a sale. Many shops will drop the price by $100 to get a sale today. I have seen SoCal divers with thinner wetsuits using a shortie when diving NorCal.

I use 5mm gloves and I get cold after a couple of hours. I spend a long time in the water freediving. 48F temps and cold fingertips suck. Everyone is different. All gloves are different. I would use 5-7mm gloves for NorCal and 3-5mm for SoCal. Leaky seams are only good for warmer temps in SoCal.

I use 7mm booties for SCUBA and 4mm socks for freediving. 5mm should be fine for our area.

 

[adelman]

Or should I just suck it up and buy a dry suit?

Shoot, my wife and I took out drysuits to Hawaii last time I dove there, and we weren't
the only ones on the dive boat diving dry. Water temp 73-75F.

Monterey's water temps are in the 46-55F range, but a good part is the year it is 46F. You'll find yourself *wishing* for the colder water, as it is usually accompanied by better visibility.

Diving wet in Monterey? You will be cold. If not in the water, on the boat ride on the way back. Whether you can do it is largely a question of how tolerant you are to cold, but most people who do it for any length of time, or who try to do more than two dives a day, end up with a drysuit.

Ken

 

[g1138]

Monterey's water temps are in the 46-55F range, but a good part is the year it is 46F. You'll find yourself *wishing* for the colder water, as it is usually accompanied by better visibility.

At what depth though. Most of my dives have been above 60ft and I've logged 52F for nearly all of them.

 

[adelman]

At what depth though. Most of my dives have been above 60ft and I've logged 52F for nearly all of them.

I don't have good statistics as a function of depth, but was just looking over my dive computer downloads. Few of my dives are above 60ft.

 

[Peter_C]

I can not imagine diving anywhere around CenCal or NorCal in a wetsuit. Drysuit is the only way for me to get in the water. We dive from depths of 25-100ft and that is the nice thing about a drysuit is it is depth compensating for whatever depth we are at.

Since I was lacking dive equipment the other day, I brought my kayak and wore my Pinnacle Polar semi dry wetsuit for exposure protection. I threw a mask, snorkel, and fins into the mix. Since Gerstle Cove was dead flat I decided to snorkel around on the surface for an hour. I froze my butt off and never even descended below the surface.

The best way to save money on a wetsuit is to buy a drysuit. My first DUI CF200 that I paid $400 for with 400g undies lasted for over 200 dives. My Fusion was over $1000 used, but near new and is still working for me today. We grabbed a Bare ATR, including Bare 200g undies, off ebay for my gal to dive with, and it was $128 shipped with new seals and a mounted set of SI Tech dry glove rings. After 6 glue patches she has been dry, other than a glove leak last time out. No one says you have to spend thousands on a drysuit.

 

[dannobee]

I know people who dive dry in Hawaii.

I'm with Ken on this one. If you're diving wet off of a dive boat that goes to Carmel, you WILL be cold on the way back in.

And the temps have been 45-50 degrees for months now. (Boat diving)

Shore diving temps seem to be a bit warmer though, but still what I'd consider "warm" by any stretch of the imagination.