Appropriate Wetsuit for Melbourne Diving

[puget_sound]

I will be visiting Melbourne in May, and I am planning to do some diving there. I will be bringing my dive gear along with me, but my wetsuit may be not be right for the conditions. It is a 7mm. Based on the water temps that I have researched, it looks like a 5mm may be more appropriate. Can anyone tell me what people usually wear when diving around Melbourne? Thank you in advance for the information.

 

[lyricnz]

7mm will be better. In May, water temperatures are something like 16C.
http://www.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au/~awatkins/temps.2009.html

 

[sydney-diver]

I use a 7mm semi-dry year round in Sydney and Melbourne is cooler so I'd defn go the 7mm. Mind you it'll be warmer than Puget Sound I would imagine

 

[puget_sound]

Yes, the waters in Puget Sound range from 8 - 12 degrees C seasonally. I usually dive my dry suit here, but I still have my 7mm from before I got my drysuit. I went a whole year wet because I wanted to see what it was like to dive every month of the year in a wet suit. It's pretty cold in the middle of the winter, especially removing it after a dive when the outside temp is only 3 degrees C. But what is worse is putting it back on again to do a second dive after a surface interval, and it has been sitting in the back of the truck for an hour. Now that's cold.

 

[fredaroony]

I use a 7mm semi-dry year round in Sydney

Wow you must get cold as I just switched to my 5mm from a 3/2 suit. Probably wont use my 7mm for a couple months at least yet.

 

[sydney-diver]

Wow you must get cold as I just switched to my 5mm from a 3/2 suit. Probably wont use my 7mm for a couple months at least yet.

Yeah it's an overkill but I prefer to stay as warm as possible, it's mostly 5mm with 7mm around the core. I've found pretty often I dive with people using 5mm or less and whilst they don't complain about being cold (or even see it as some macho "I wear a thinner suit that you" thing) they go through more air and cut the dive short which is annoying (esp when I've got farily average air consuption myself so there's something wrong if I'm the one exiting with 100bar).

 

[Sas]

I will be visiting Melbourne in May, and I am planning to do some diving there. I will be bringing my dive gear along with me, but my wetsuit may be not be right for the conditions. It is a 7mm. Based on the water temps that I have researched, it looks like a 5mm may be more appropriate. Can anyone tell me what people usually wear when diving around Melbourne? Thank you in advance for the information.

7mm is better, and a drysuit even better. Temperatures over the last two years in May have been 13-15C according to my log book. Personally I swap into my drysuit from my 7mm at the start of May.

As to what people wear, most wetsuits divers seem to use 7mm with a few in 5mm. But many also use drysuits, some all year round (temperatures range from 8-24C seasonally). It depends how good your cold tolerance is really and yea I too hate gearing up for a second or third dive in a wet wetsuit when it's cold outside and the water is cold.

What dives have you got planned? If you need a buddy or anything like that, me and a few friends go out a few times during the week to dive

 

[puget_sound]

Sounds great! I would love to just go out with someone who knows the area and check it out. It looks like my schedule has been postponed as far as Melbourne goes. I think I will be in the area in September or October though and I hope to keep in touch. For now, I landed in Sydney a couple of days ago and I will be either here or in Brisbane until May 22nd. Thanks for the note and I look forward to diving with you sometime.

 

[Sas]

Sounds great! I would love to just go out with someone who knows the area and check it out. It looks like my schedule has been postponed as far as Melbourne goes. I think I will be in the area in September or October though and I hope to keep in touch. For now, I landed in Sydney a couple of days ago and I will be either here or in Brisbane until May 22nd. Thanks for the note and I look forward to diving with you sometime.

I believe temperature will be slightly colder then 12-14C in September. It will start warming up in late October and will hopefully reach 17C by the end of October

Enjoy Sydney and just drop me a line if you want to go for a dive

 

[MartianBeerPig]

You're probably okay with your 7mm. I recently moved to Melbourne from Vancouver and invested in a 7mm. The shore dives around here all look fairly shallow which means you might be in the water for quite a long time.