Beginner with some (lots) of questions about equipment

[Bubbledude]

Just to add my experience on the wetsuit question. I'm diving in Spain at the moment (Valencia area) and the water temperature at the moment is approx. 20 deg.C (surface) but a lot colder under the thermocline at 10-12 mtr. : approx. 15 deg.C ! My 5mm long is keeping me nice and warm though. I have a 3mm long (only for watertemps 25+deg.C), 5mm long for 15 - 25 deg.C and 5mm long + 7mm hooded shorty for 5 - 15 deg.C . Although the bottom range of the latter is already a test of willpower and a dry-suit is starting to look awfully comfortable ! So if you are going to be diving in a lot of different temps, do invest first in 1 or 2 good, comfortable sets of wetsuits. Nothing spoils a dive quicker than starting to shiver from cold 10 min. down.

Needless to say a cold water reg is the only way to go in your situation.

Happy diving !

 

[divingmoose]

""I'm surprised by the seemingly high number of Canadians who use wetsuits for temperatures that are comparably as low as over here.(especially applies to lake divers).

In Norway, we have som freaks diving in 7mm wetsuits, but my impression is that these are people who don't spend a lot of time under water. Everyone who dives frequently that I know dives with a dry suit and almost all of those eventually end up buying a trilaminate suit.""

:mooner:As a Canadian that dives from may 10 to November 10 in our lakes average down time 45-60 min. 45-70 ft I consider my 7 mm wet suit enough to keep me comfortable. as I said we all dive different . As for weights with wet suits my wife dives wet 14 mm in lakes
her weight is 28lb in salt 30lb mexico 3mm wet suit 12lb so no Sherman tank here either.

 

[Doc Harry]

Of course you can ...In my case, I require (when diving single AL 80 cft) 30 lbs to dive a 7 + 7 shorty, 20 lbs to dive a 7mm + chicken vest, 16.5 lbs to dive one layer of 7mm. You can substract about 5 lbs when I borrow my GF 100 CFT steel.

On another note, amazingly enough, most folks around here end up not saving much weight while diving dry due to the amount of underwear required to dive in cold water.

I'll agree that you require a lot of weight diving dry or wet.... But I'm significantly warmer and more comfortable in a dry suit than a wet suit, and I'm many times more likely to do longer dives and repetitive dives in a dry suit than a wet suit.

 

[Ac_ita]

Many thanks everyone for the suggestions, as for now ill just sit on it i guess.... rent, try stuff out and look for used.