3mm or 5mm for Tropical Diving
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Hi all,
I use a Pinnacle Elastipene 3mm with Merino Wool Liner. So, far I have placed 20 dives with it and have been very comfortable here in Cebu, Philippines. But, like the poster, since buying the suit. I have lost around 28 lbs. And I am starting to think of getting another suit. I love my suit. But, no one locally sells them. So, I am also trying to decide on what to get. I am not sure if a 3mm or a W1 5 mm.Plus, I am still losing weight. So, I am stuck in between on buying another suit. But, I do look funny getting out of the water and I am starting to get alot of wrinkles in the suit.
Kurt in Cebu
I use a Pinnacle Elastipene 3mm with Merino Wool Liner. So, far I have placed 20 dives with it and have been very comfortable here in Cebu, Philippines. But, like the poster, since buying the suit. I have lost around 28 lbs. And I am starting to think of getting another suit. I love my suit. But, no one locally sells them. So, I am also trying to decide on what to get. I am not sure if a 3mm or a W1 5 mm.Plus, I am still losing weight. So, I am stuck in between on buying another suit. But, I do look funny getting out of the water and I am starting to get alot of wrinkles in the suit.
Kurt in Cebu
BobbyT22
Contributor
I agree. I bought a custom 5mm from Wetwear and love it for anything above 70 degrees. If I throw on a 3mm hooded vest, I'm good into the mid-60's. Lots of posts for wetwear on the board if you are interested.
Believe it or not, Hawaiian water is not warm. Especially for someone who's 6'2" and 169lbs and doing 5-6 dives a day.
I dive dry in Hawaii, Caymans, Bonaire, Curacao, Truk Lagoon, Red Sea, Galapagos, and anyplace else where the water is colder than a heated pool.
:shocked2:
The water doesn't need to be "cold" to be "dry."
R
redacted
Guest
My wife tends to take her 5mm on all trips to the Caribbean. It is rarely too hot but it does often require that she use more lead than she would have needed in more appropriate thermal protection. At 76 degrees, 5mm is appropriate for most divers although, another option might be a 3mm full suit with hooded vest in 3 or 5mm. In 81 degrees, 5mm is almost surely more neoprene than you need and a 3mm should do fine.
You really need to look at the full range of conditions you plan to dive and it may take a neoprene wardrobe to cover that range efficiently. My primary wetsuit is a 5mm which I use mostly in 70 +/- degree water. When it drops down into the low 60s I add a hooded vest. Lower still and I add warm water down the back and chemical heater. Get into the 50s and I limit the number of dives, bottom times and depths (and think about how nice a drysuit would be. But when the temps get into the 80s, I prefer as little neoprene as possible rapidly going from a 3mm shortie to a .5mm full suit of just a t-shirt. Even my wife enjoys the freedom of no neoprene when temp climb into the 84 + range.
While I do not own a 3mm full suit, I think that would be the best start point for you and then add the Hooded vest when you get well into the high 70s. You can get a lot of mileage out of layering around the body core rather than buying complete full suits in an array of thicknesses if you can avoid it.
You really need to look at the full range of conditions you plan to dive and it may take a neoprene wardrobe to cover that range efficiently. My primary wetsuit is a 5mm which I use mostly in 70 +/- degree water. When it drops down into the low 60s I add a hooded vest. Lower still and I add warm water down the back and chemical heater. Get into the 50s and I limit the number of dives, bottom times and depths (and think about how nice a drysuit would be. But when the temps get into the 80s, I prefer as little neoprene as possible rapidly going from a 3mm shortie to a .5mm full suit of just a t-shirt. Even my wife enjoys the freedom of no neoprene when temp climb into the 84 + range.
While I do not own a 3mm full suit, I think that would be the best start point for you and then add the Hooded vest when you get well into the high 70s. You can get a lot of mileage out of layering around the body core rather than buying complete full suits in an array of thicknesses if you can avoid it.
I went diving in Japan, 85f degrees, water temp was even to 90f/30m. I wore 3 mm full wetsuit and a 2mm hooded vest. I was perfectly comfortable. I was also told (by Gecko Divers/Thailand) that this would have been the right combination for Southern Thailand. If I had of got a little warm, I simply would have pulled back the hood.
There are obviously different combinations that can give you these desired results. But 5mm overall might have been a bit warm. Also, sometimes "tropical" can be misleading (as the HA drysuit diver illustrates - though you can wear nothing under the drysuit - Why wear it at all?) In the Red Sea as you go deeper and the currents bring in colder deep water, a 5mm with a hood is what I wore. Many places there will not rent a hood - only sell you one, so bring your own - just in case.
P.S. Japan-Tsunami -just to remind you to keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers. We have a (we call her "little") girl here at our local Oregon State University who waited for a number of days to find out if her family was alive. She stayed at our house as my wife Debbie nurtured her through her finales by baking cookies with her - my blessing was eating those cookies and just keeping her close. Midori passed her first set of finals and then finally received the wonderful news that all were safe. Her dentist father had 10 minutes to escape his office, which was destroyed by the tsunami, and her mother and grandmother escaped their home that was damaged. They are all living with her older brother, in his student apartment, close to the university where he is in his last year of dental school. This was a good ending, but many don't have such blessings.
I have sent some of you a picture of me and Mizuki, a PADI Instructor at Tatsukushi, Japan, whom I was diving with this last summer She just wrote me that 2 ships (I think small, but large fishing vessels) were lost in her harbor, but their dive boat survived.
There are obviously different combinations that can give you these desired results. But 5mm overall might have been a bit warm. Also, sometimes "tropical" can be misleading (as the HA drysuit diver illustrates - though you can wear nothing under the drysuit - Why wear it at all?) In the Red Sea as you go deeper and the currents bring in colder deep water, a 5mm with a hood is what I wore. Many places there will not rent a hood - only sell you one, so bring your own - just in case.
P.S. Japan-Tsunami -just to remind you to keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers. We have a (we call her "little") girl here at our local Oregon State University who waited for a number of days to find out if her family was alive. She stayed at our house as my wife Debbie nurtured her through her finales by baking cookies with her - my blessing was eating those cookies and just keeping her close. Midori passed her first set of finals and then finally received the wonderful news that all were safe. Her dentist father had 10 minutes to escape his office, which was destroyed by the tsunami, and her mother and grandmother escaped their home that was damaged. They are all living with her older brother, in his student apartment, close to the university where he is in his last year of dental school. This was a good ending, but many don't have such blessings.
I have sent some of you a picture of me and Mizuki, a PADI Instructor at Tatsukushi, Japan, whom I was diving with this last summer She just wrote me that 2 ships (I think small, but large fishing vessels) were lost in her harbor, but their dive boat survived.
28C+ A skin
28C Multiple dives multiple days - 3mm
25-27C - 3mm + Hooded Vest
21-24C - 5mm semi dry + hood
20C and less - dry suit, but also have a new 6.5mm semi dry which is super warm and yet to test its lower limits.
Re: tsumani - still more than 13,000 lost souls unaccounted for, a difficult time for the whole country with all the additional issues resulting form this disaster.
28C Multiple dives multiple days - 3mm
25-27C - 3mm + Hooded Vest
21-24C - 5mm semi dry + hood
20C and less - dry suit, but also have a new 6.5mm semi dry which is super warm and yet to test its lower limits.
Re: tsumani - still more than 13,000 lost souls unaccounted for, a difficult time for the whole country with all the additional issues resulting form this disaster.
R
redacted
Guest
So others don't have to also resort to the calculator; 28C=82F, 25C=77F, and 20C=68F.
We may not be metric yet, but we are inching towards it.
We may not be metric yet, but we are inching towards it.
I have the same colder water "tolerance" (or lack thereof) as you, so I assume we'd choose similar exposure gear.
Anything up to 80, I'm in a 5mm. You can always flush it if you're warm, but you can't add to it if you're chilled, and half way through a dive.
Most of my suits are Henderson Hyperflex or H2, which tend to be just a tad cooler (since they're ultra-stretch), but better fit my non-off-the-rack shape (wide shoulders - 44", small waist - 34", height 5'9"). I'm about to try Excel, which seems to have an off-the-rack size that would perfectly fit me, and is still stretchy. I had my first Henderson (a Gold Core) custom fit, and the price was almost unpalatable.
Many of the vendors are out with in-between sizes such as mine, however, even then you have to check their sizing charts, since there's a wide variance from one vendor to the other.
Bottom line, in the water temp-window that you seem to dive, and with your temp sensitivity, I'd go 5mm.
Anything up to 80, I'm in a 5mm. You can always flush it if you're warm, but you can't add to it if you're chilled, and half way through a dive.
Most of my suits are Henderson Hyperflex or H2, which tend to be just a tad cooler (since they're ultra-stretch), but better fit my non-off-the-rack shape (wide shoulders - 44", small waist - 34", height 5'9"). I'm about to try Excel, which seems to have an off-the-rack size that would perfectly fit me, and is still stretchy. I had my first Henderson (a Gold Core) custom fit, and the price was almost unpalatable.
Many of the vendors are out with in-between sizes such as mine, however, even then you have to check their sizing charts, since there's a wide variance from one vendor to the other.
Bottom line, in the water temp-window that you seem to dive, and with your temp sensitivity, I'd go 5mm.
As a dive guide,I've worn a Scubapro 0.5 Profile for ten years but the right shoulder is down to "see thru" ,now I'm now looking for a full 1mm Scubapro. Heck,I just use a wet suit to protect from jellies,sandflies,and hide all my "Nam" scars.
"living life without a hard bottom"
KT
"living life without a hard bottom"
KT
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