SeaHorse81
Contributor
Based on my own experience, my answer to the OP would be to invest in a simple computer for now and then just dive for awhile, renting whatever you need. Once you have more hours under your belt, you'll have a better sense of what you need, and a better sense--based on what you've rented and what you've observed via other divers--of what fits best with your intentions.
I never rented exposure protection, but now I wish I had. Because then I wouldn't have bought the 3 mil wetsuit which wasn't enough, and then the 7 mil custom wetsuit, which still wasn't enough, adding ever-heavier hoods, which STILL wasn't enough, until I finally realized, a couple hundred too-cold dives later, that I really needed to invest in a drysuit or quit diving.
Because I was buying my own exposure protection, I felt obligated to find a way to make it work and I kept diving uncomfortably for far too long. If I'd been renting the same suits and noticing how cold I was still getting, I'd have just rented something heavier next time and not looked back. Instead, I tried to convince myself that I was okay when I really wasn't, because of the money I'd spent. But that's just me. I'm stubborn.
I never rented exposure protection, but now I wish I had. Because then I wouldn't have bought the 3 mil wetsuit which wasn't enough, and then the 7 mil custom wetsuit, which still wasn't enough, adding ever-heavier hoods, which STILL wasn't enough, until I finally realized, a couple hundred too-cold dives later, that I really needed to invest in a drysuit or quit diving.
Because I was buying my own exposure protection, I felt obligated to find a way to make it work and I kept diving uncomfortably for far too long. If I'd been renting the same suits and noticing how cold I was still getting, I'd have just rented something heavier next time and not looked back. Instead, I tried to convince myself that I was okay when I really wasn't, because of the money I'd spent. But that's just me. I'm stubborn.