Boot Thickness

[tombiowami]

I need to get a new pair of booties and wondering if there are any drawbacks to getting thick 7mm or so? Do they restrict finning or anything? Seems that the thicker the better for feet keeping warm and such. Thanks

Tommy

 

[scubabunny]

As far as I know, the thickness doesn't affect how well you fin, but if you had thinner booties before, you might have problems fitting them in your fin. Try them on with your fins before you take them in the water, and make sure they are comfortable. One good test...if you can wiggle your toes (with the fins on) without feeling any pressure or discomfort, you are probably ok.

If they are thicker than your old booties, they will add bouyancy to your feet. Be prepared for that. If you find your feet flowing up, you may want to get ankle weights, or more negative fins.

 

[SubMariner]

Is how much exposure protection do you need? Are you going to be using the booties in cold waters like the Great Lakes, quarries, etc? Then 1/4" or about 5mm should be ok.

To be honest, I switched to diving dry several years ago & now the only wet suit booties I have go with my 1/8" tropical suit.

~SubMariner~

 

[simonk999]

I dive with 7mm boots in warm and cold because I was originally outfitted for cold water, hence the thickness, but they don't feel too warm in the tropics either, so if you need a thick pair, go for it, they'll do double duty.

 

[Liquid]

Just wanted to make you pay attention to the bouyancy thing again.

My legs are relatively thin, and whenever I get new booties (I use 5mm) my legs float up and I have to adjust my weights. As I alwais forget to do it before the first dive, what I do is pull down the belt to the middle of my ass, so I want be completly upside down, and go out with quite a back-ache, becouse my feet floated up while my body wanted to go down...

so just get the ankle weights for the FIRST dive