Between my wife,son and myself we have three different brands of suits and they all work well mainly because they fit well! I have a couple O'Neil 7mm front zip with hood attached and love them because they fit me well. My wife uses a Aqualung 8/7mm front zip with hood attached and my son uses a Pinnacle front zip hood attached. My wife gets cold easy so from time to time she wil slip a 3mm vest over her suit for a little extra warmth. Every brand is cut a little different so if you can try as many as you can before you buy and find the one that fits you best.
Wetsuit Suggestions for California
- Thread starter BrendanTheGreat408
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A drysuit only becomes more expensive when you add the cost of an ill advised wetsuit to the total. Bite the bullet. It's just too damn cold in California to dive wet.
I fought buying a drysuit for years. After shivering in wetsuits for over 800 dives I finally cracked open my wallet and bought a used drysuit on Ebay for $300. I haven't dived in a wetsuit since. The water around Palos Verdes is similar to Santa Barbara. We get up to the low 60s at depth once every other year or so but it is usually 48° to 55°.
fnfalman
Contributor
Unless you're very tolerant of cold temperature, a 7mm wetsuit would be really tough for NoCal diving.
However, since that you're young (probably) and have better blood flow and in better health than us old fogeys, I'm sure that a 7mm will do just fine for both SoCal and NoCal.
My suggestion is to get a custom wetsuit. It's not any more expensive than an off-the-shelf suit. JMJ in Torrance, California is well known. I have a 7mm suit from them and I love it.
OP
Great information guys thank you!
jjjjeremy
Contributor
Aqualung SolaFX is my favorite nylon-lined one piece suit, XCEL Tri-polar and quad polar are close seconds. However, I strongly recommend looking for an unlined (internally) two-piece. The inside neoprene is bare (called "open cell"), and you slip into them with a lot of lubricant made of diluted hair conditioner. Easier to put on than a pair of jeans, and much warmer. Mine keeps me warm for three hours or more in 45 degree water in Mendocino winters. It's like your whole body is a dry suit seal.
They're used universally in the freedive community, and haven't caught on for SCUBA. Well, they were popular up until nylon lined interiors were invented to counteract the difficulty of donning an unlined suit without lubricant.
Just make sure you find one that has neoprene designed for SCUBA. Softer neoprene used for freedive suits may not withstand the continued compression scuba suits are exposed to.
They're used universally in the freedive community, and haven't caught on for SCUBA. Well, they were popular up until nylon lined interiors were invented to counteract the difficulty of donning an unlined suit without lubricant.
Just make sure you find one that has neoprene designed for SCUBA. Softer neoprene used for freedive suits may not withstand the continued compression scuba suits are exposed to.
Peter_C
Contributor
My wetsuit made it 20 freezing cold dives. Then I bought a NOS DUI EOD drysuit which is effectively a CF200, and dove it for 300 dives. It even came with 400gram undies. If you can find the right deal, a drysuit used does not have to be expensive.
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