Best wetsuit for Uk diving??

[tbone1004]

if you're diving twinsets *any steel tanks larger than 10l* with the thickness of wetsuits required for UK diving, you're borderline suicidal. It's not safe, no matter what other people are doing. Dive dry, it's safer for a plethora of reasons, but especially if you're looking at twinsets and diving below 20m.

 

[Rhone Man]

Not to sound like dogpiling, but the other thing I would add: I am not really sure how *safe* wetsuit diving is in the UK. If the dive goes to plan, you are fine. Cold - but fine. If it all goes wrong - if for any reason you are stuck in the water after the dive for a protracted period of time - you may find yourself in serious trouble fairly rapidly.

Shore diving might be OK, but anywhere where you could get separated and surface away from the boat, or get caught in a tidal movement, think about those risks quite carefully.

 

[Storker]

Not to sound like dogpiling, but the other thing I would add: I am not really sure how *safe* wetsuit diving is in the UK. If the dive goes to plan, you are fine. Cold - but fine. If it all goes wrong - if for any reason you are stuck in the water after the dive for a protracted period of time - you may find yourself in serious trouble fairly rapidly.

Shore diving might be OK, but anywhere where you could get separated and surface away from the boat, or get caught in a tidal movement, think about those risks quite carefully.

Case in point: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-and-incidents/515519-diver-missing-south-norway.html

The man went missing Monday evening. Wore a DS. Tuesday morning, the rescue personnel were fairly optimistic that if he were found during the day, he'd still be OK.

 

[David Wilson]

There are some outdoor swimmers in the UK who pride themselves on swimming in lakes, rivers and the sea wearing nothing but a swimsuit, although they have to practise inuring themselves against the cold. Scotsman Dr Geoffrey Fraser Dutton, whose 1972 book "Swimming Free" first popularised the idea of combining hiking with "adventure swimming", wore a wetsuit with his mask, snorkel and fins when he traversed the UK's waterways:

as his book's front cover shows. As for me, I snorkel with an old-school drysuit when I swim off the North East of England coast. You pays your money and you makes your choice...

 

[Hickdive]

There was a saying in my old club; buy a wetsuit and in six months you will do one of two things; either buy a drysuit or give up diving.

You can be sufficiently warm for one dive in Scottish waters for a dive but the real problem is the surface interval. You can either remove the wetsuit and re-warm between dives but then be faced with the cold, clammy horror of putting the suit back on. Or you can stay in the suit and, unless you can find warmth and shelter, gradually get colder until it would be unsafe to go in for a second dive.

 

[buddhasummer]

Just the thought of 5 degrees in a wetsuit makes my willy shrivel in fear.

 

[Neilwood]

There was a saying in my old club; buy a wetsuit and in six months you will do one of two things; either buy a drysuit or give up diving.

You can be sufficiently warm for one dive in Scottish waters for a dive but the real problem is the surface interval. You can either remove the wetsuit and re-warm between dives but then be faced with the cold, clammy horror of putting the suit back on. Or you can stay in the suit and, unless you can find warmth and shelter, gradually get colder until it would be unsafe to go in for a second dive.

Did three dives in one day just down the water from you in Bute and never found any issue with an SI of about 1-1 1/2 hr each time. That was with air temps of about 10 deg and never felt cold at all. I realise if the air temp was lower or winds were kicking up it might have been a different story.

I have to add that I really can't see me doing a lot of diving over the winter period - surface conditions alone would put me off.

I think part of my reluctance towards drysuits comes from the divers I have been with so far. Most of them are confirmed wetsuit divers and being PADI DM & instructors (from the shop I did my OW course with), would push the course @£2-300 (over doing a quick mentoring session) which on top of the additional cost of a suit adds up to an additional cost of £500. I don't have a circle of diving friends yet who can assist me with it.

Tbone - I am not intending diving twinset for a considerable period (if ever) as I need to get a lot more diving under my belt before I even want to think about the additional considerations of doubles.

I know dry is theoretically the best way but the initial cost (when added to the rest of the gear I want - comp/BP&W/fins/DSMB/knife/gloves/lights etc) makes it a pretty expensive route to go at the moment.

---------- Post added October 6th, 2015 at 05:02 PM ----------

Just the thought of 5 degrees in a wetsuit makes my willy shrivel in fear.

You forget that, as Scots, we were brought up swimming in the sea and when I was growing up that meant swimming trunks which generally, way before lycra made its appearance, would expand hugely on the addition of water. We got used to the feeling of that appendage disappearing as soon as we hit the water.

Something like this @38mins - [video=youtube_share;VHsiEId7voo]http://youtu.be/VHsiEId7voo?t=37m48s[/video]

 

[tbone1004]

Don't let them charge you 300gbp for a suit course, that's f*cking ridiculous. Buy a suit, find someone else to mentor you or learn yourself if you can get access to a pool or lake. It's not rocket science.

The suits themselves aren't actually that much more money than a good wetsuit in the thickness you need for those temperatures. Look into the compounding effects of hypothermia, and the compression factors of wetsuits and depth as far as buoyancy and thermal stress is concerned. I'm from New England, I grew up swimming in similar temperature water in a bathing suit, but it's a completely different animal than scuba diving. Do what you want, but don't be penny wise and pound foolish.

 

[Storker]

You forget that, as Scots, we were brought up swimming in the sea and when I was growing up that meant swimming trunks which generally, way before lycra made its appearance, would expand hugely on the addition of water. We got used to the feeling of that appendage disappearing as soon as we hit the water.

I don't believe it's much colder on your side of the North Sea than it s on this side, so it's anecdote time: Last spring, I was on a shore dive where there also was a few students. One of them was in a loan suit. Trilam with inadequate undergarments. He was a sorry mess when he surfaced, not unlike my niece after a one-hour dive up North from here, in a wetsuit. With the motor control he had, he was darned lucky he didn't have any kind of emergency, because he was neither in physical nor mental shape to react adequately if SHTF.

Don't underestimate the effect of moderate hypothermia if you need your mind and your body to function optimally.

 

[OrangeHead]

Just because it's possible, doesn't mean it's a good idea.

I would not consider diving in a wetsuit in the UK. Give me a leaky drysuit - with fourth element Arctics or similar decent undergarments - any day.

A reputable PADI outfit will put you in a drysuit before you go diving outdoors. Often they will arrange your OW dives in such a way that you can get the drysuit "specialty" for a relatively small fee if you want it (ie for renting drysuits elsewhere).

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