Appropriate Exposure Protection

[PeterB]

I'd like to buy some exposure protection, but I'm pondering what would be most flexible/sensible. I learnt in Sydney with water temps of around 18C in a 5mm wettie. I plan most of my diving to be in relatively warm waters (Red Sea, Caribbean, Malta and maybe some Australasia) but it could be year round. I'd also like to be able to do some diving in around Long Island in the US and maybe around the UK (summer only for both), although I'm not a big fan of colder water and haven't yet dived a drysuit, so I'm not sure about that yet.

Most my diving would be recreational, but I could see doing some modest tech dives for some wrecks which would increase time in water and decrease the water temp.

My goal is to get the minimum number of pieces that would provide the maximum flexibility given that I don't plan to do much if any diving on days where I wouldn't be happy sitting outside all day in a t-shirt or very light jacket. I also travel frequently between the US and the UK so I'd like a fairly flexible set of dive kit which wouldn't weight too much so I could take it between the countries so if I felt like a weekend in th Caribbean or the Red Sea I'd be all set.

I'm also open to renting for DS's unless that is a really bad idea.

I have a sense of how cold you can go with a 5mm or 7/5 semi dry or drysuit. I don't have a sense of how WARM you can go with these without getting into trouble.

I guess I'm just looking for any advice or experiences from anyone who has found (say) a rashie, a 5mm wettie and a drysuit works for everything they need, or that they found a rashie for tropical, a 7/5 semi dry for anything under 25C and renting a drysuit on the few occasional they went below 15C was fine. Just any thoughts/opinions/starting points would be much appreciated!

 

[Fathomer]

I'm no expert, but from cruising around this forum recently I have concluded that the Whites Fusion drysuit might be the answer you seek. Fdog (an SB member) says he is using his in tropical waters so by simply varying your undergarments you will be able to use one suit in multiple environments. Makes sense to me.

 

[tstormdiver]

I would also suggest to you a dryssuit. By going wet with the types of temperature changes you'll face, you'll need wet suits from 3- 7mm thick & everything in between. For the types of diving you want to do & the temperature differences I would suggest a shell or membrane type, because you can vary the types of undergarments worn underneath. As for the brand,.... well, that's personal preference. I have had a White's Catalyst & currently have a DUI TLS 350. I dive my dry suit year round (in a very temperate climate) & can readily change my undergarments to match conditions. In the Summer, the shallows in the quarries are 85+ degrees F (29.4 degrees C) & in the deeps at the same time of year it is 42 degrees F (5.6 degrees C) year around. I can vary the thicknesses of my undergarments to match the dive I'm doing. In the really warm waters I may only wear spandex underwear & T-shirt just to keep the dry suit form pinching me. In the deeper waters or in the winter time I wear a full 650gm jumpsuit to stay warm. I have a couple of other undergarments in between for when the water temps fall between these 2 extremes. Also the shell or membrane suits are generally lighter than wet suits &/or neoprene drysuits, making them better suited for travel. The only downsides to that would be if the seals tore while you were away & the suits can be a pain at times to get into & out of.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

I'm metrically-challenged and have no idea of what water temps you're talking about, but your profile has you located in New York City.

I'm assuming that no matter where you dive on vacation, if you live in New York all your practice dives, training dives, (you ARE going to practice and take a course or two from time to time, right? ) wreck dives (there are cool wrecks off New York), and monthly therapeutic "I-must-get-wet" dives are going to be local.

Which means you want a drysuit.

Like tstormdiver, I would recommend looking at a DUI TSL 350 trilam suit which, as has already been noted, gives you tremendous flexibility in how cold or warm you can dive it by varying the thickness and # of layers of undergarments you wear beneath it. There are many other manufacturers who also make quality drysuits - but the DUI suit will provide you with a standard against which you can evaluate all the others.

Best,

Doc

 

[TSandM]

I think, if you are going to do ANY diving that would require a dry suit (and certainly any tech diving, unless done in the tropics, would quality) you need to own a dry suit and dive it fairly regularly. Buoyancy control in a dry suit is much more of a challenge, and suits are quite different in the way they behave, where they have their dump valves located, and how much they tend to trap air. Although a good dry suit diver can dive any suit, I would be willing to say that someone who rarely dives a dry suit, and then, not the same dry suit, is going to have trouble getting good at managing one.

I dive my local water dry, and I dive wet in the tropics. I've been managing with a 3 mil wetsuit and a dry suit, but recently bought a 5 mil wetsuit and discovered I was more comfortable, even in the high 70's/low 80's temperature range.

I'll put in another vote for the Fusion. It's so light and so packable, if you were going to dive at home in New York and also in the UK, you'd almost certainly find it the easiest dry suit to take with you.

 

[meesier42]

ok guys, did you look at the OP profile, he has basically just completed OW and your recommending a DS for the tech dives that he MIGHT do in 3-5 years?? Or something is wrong as he says he is through Rescue, but has less than 24 dives. Last I checked that isn't even possible as there are about 20 dives just in the training for OW/AOW/Rescue

Back to reality for a second, my recommendations for suits
>25C (80F), shortie or nothing (t-shirt/rash gaurd)
18-25 C (65-80F) I'll wear a 3mm full suit, plus or minus 2 or 7mm gloves and 7mm hooded vest
12-18 C (55-65) switch to a 7mm Farmer John with or w/o Hood, although I have been down to 3C (37F) with this kit
<12C Drysuit, I am new to the drysuit stuff and I plan to start using it in place of the 7mm FarmerJohn and swaping to a lighter undergarment. so my kit will basically be a 3mm full for warm water and the DS for everything else.

I have been diving for 10years now and I have just started getting into the Drysuit stuff, not saying that you should wait that long, but there is no reason to drop $1500+ on a drysuit yet. Stick with the cheaper and lighter wetsuits until you find the need to have a DS and use the money on more education and air fills.

 

[robint]

No reason to get a drysuit quite yet.

The 5mm would be a good basic wetsuit. Depending on the time of year and location, that suit will be fine for Caribbean. If you get hot in it just flush it by pulling the neck open (I have a friend who wears a 7mm suit no matter what water temp and she does this). If water is 80degrees you can just do your diving in shorts and t-shirt.

For cold water diving, you might want to start with a wetsuit - 7mm 2 piece are the norm and rental might be good at first. You can always get a drysuit later - in fact in many cold water places they rent those too.

 

[TSandM]

If you aren't sure whether you're going to continue diving or not, I agree that the investment in a dry suit might be excessive. (Although, for me, if I hadn't bought a dry suit straight out of OW, I would not have dived!) But if you're planning the kind of itinerary the OP lists, with diving in New York and the UK, owning a dry suit is almost certainly going to make his diving more comfortable. And the skills needed to dive a dry suit are learnable by inexperienced divers. I know, because I certified in one!

 

[SteveAD]

Drysuits are NOT advanced equipment that a person needs to work their way up to. They are expensive and probably should not be purchased lightly, but once you have a drysuit it is the most versatile suit there is.

I own a dive shop and therefore cna easily justify any new piece of gear I want. The only suits I currently dive are a 3mm for pool sessions and tropical vacations, and a DUI CLX450. With light undergarments the CLX overlaps into the cooler temps I'd be willing to dive in the 3mm and last night I did a 56 minute dive in 39 degree water and didn't even think about the cold.

Many divers in colder areas start off in a 7mm and the majority who continue diving ultimately end up going dry. TSandM mentioned if she hadn't started dry she would likely have dropped out of diving. I figure that skipping the wetsuit and going straight to dry is a good way of saving 3 to 4 hundred on a drysuit.

 

[PeterB]

Great feedback everyone - many thanks.

To clarify a couple of details: I *have* done rescue and finished the course with exactly 20 dives (4 OW, 5 AOW, 6 boat dives and 5 rescue). I'm only in Sydney for another couple of weeks, have been lucky enough to come across a pretty good dive team and wanted to make sure that wherever I ended up diving, at least I'd have a sense of how to help out if something went down. Doing a search and recovery course this weekend, but no question with 22 dives logged, I'm still a complete n00b.

I've not yet dived a drysuit. I've been finding a 5mm wettie (sometimes with a vest + hood if longer or deeper) is just about right for me for water temperatures 18-24 deg C. I'm serious enough about diving that I am OK investing in a drysuit. My main concern would be ease of diving. I love being able to do things like orient head down, breath out to look under a boulder and then breath in to rise. I'm guessing trying the same in a drysuit might be a little more interesting . . .

I'm not at all convinced I'll dive much in colder waters (haven't tried it yet). I'm planning to do dry, deep and wreck in the channel later this year. I figure if I can dive 40M wrecks in the English channel I'll be a better diver for it - even if I decide never to dive the UK again!

I travel a lot, so it isn't a big deal for me to do most of my courses and dives in the Red Sea, Med and Carribbean, so it is entirely possible I might never dive waters below 18C.

The plan was to start with a wetsuit, but the reason for the drysuit question is to figure out what kind of wetsuit to get. If I'm seriously considering a drysuit, I probably don't need a 7/5 semi-dry. A 3mm or (more likely) 5mm will be fine as when it gets too cold for that I'll either just stay on land or pick up a nice drysuit!

Weight/size is a huge issue for me with traveling. That might suggest diving dry. I'd feel a little silly (for beter or worse) being the only guy in Egypt or even Malta in a drysuit, so that'd make me consider wet. I like the ease of diving wet, but I like the flexibility of diving dry.

'll try some dives in the UK to see how I feel about colder water before I decide whether ato actually purchase a drysuit or not. The question would then be as follows:

Assuming I'll do really warm waters in a rashie and shorts, would I be able to get away with a 7/5 semi wet as my only wetsuit or would there be water temps that would really require a 3mm or 5mm? If a 7/5 semi dry could go everywhere a 5mm does, that'd give me more options if I never decided to go dry. On the other hand, if a 5mm would be more comfortable in warmer waters and/or if it's pack noticably smaller/lighter (when compared to size/weight of all other dive gear - especially weight), I'd rather go for that and just have to either keep out of the water at higher temps or buy a dysuit earlier.

So, firstly does anyone thing just a rashie and a 5mm would be a problem in covering temperatures from (say) 18C to tropical (i.e. do I REALLY need a 3mm). And then, what do people think about having just a 7/5 semi-dry and a rashie - would there be too many dives that would be too cold in the rashie and too hot in the 7/5?