Buy a Drysuit or Log more dives?

[aaronjweese]

Go with the drysuit, used ones in decent to good condition can be had for a very reasonable price. I purchased a Dive Rite 905 for a few hundred bucks last September, dove it all winter and replaced the zipper last month. I have a suit that will last me for years and I'm out well under 1000 bucks. You will find that you will dive alot more dry vs. wet, and I'm not too far from you and dive alot of the same waters(NC, VA Beach, Rawlings, Millbrook, cave country) and can say that a drysuit is a godsend!

 

[AbyssalPlains]

I hear you. I'm all too familiar with those two voices myself. I'm investing a lot of time and resources in technical diving equipment and training right now, money that I could have spent on trips. By the same token, one of my most memorable dive trips that will stay with me forever was in British Columbia, possible only because I put down a couple of grand for a drysuit. In that regard, you are spot on in your observation that a drysuit enables you to dive new places.

In my book, both voices are there for a reason. Don't try to block out one or the other. You sound like you have that same urge to continue to progress in your diving that I have. Listen to it. Save the money and go diving in North Caroline (another trip that will stay with me forever, btw!), and then, next year, buy the drysuit and don't go on a trip. The year after, take your drysuit on a trip to a place only a drysuit can take you.

OR, buy the drysuit now and do it the other way round.

Enjoy. There is a time for everything.

 

[JaneMitchell]

I come all the way from Melbourne in Australia ... I shivered my way through my first winter diving season and the second year I bit the bullet and invested in a dry suit. I have to admit I've never looked back since. Some divers may call me soft but I've ended up diving in my dry suit 9 months of the year. Yes the initial outlay is pretty pricey but I reckon that I've probably dived more often just as a result from being so much more comfortable in the water.

 

[jar546]

Drysuit = Extended dive season, more locations = more dives.

Buying a drysuit will allow you to dive more. There will be plenty of places within driving distance of where you live to dive year round once you have a drysuit.

 

[porgyhunter]

I found myself hesitant to commit to an ''early morning'' lobster dive in may. The cold in the air, but mor importantly the water shock was too terrifing to think of snuggled in bed. Once dressed in my Dry half way with a nice winter coat, I was ''all about'' the DIVE.

 

[Garrobo]

Skip the drysuit. Too costly to purchase and maintain. Without the drysuit you will be forced to travel to places where the water is warm, the weather is more enjoyable and there are lots of babes diving in shorties and running around in bikinis.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Thanks so much everyone! I will be getting a Drysuit hopefully next weekend

Thanks everyone for your input and help.

 

[Kingpatzer]

If you get a dry suit, there is no season, the pool is always open.

 

[Scuba Ken]

there have to be tons of places close to DC that are diveable with a dry suit nearly every day of the week

 

[scubajim 1]

Wait!!!
Listen to the voice that says, "give the dry suit money to scubajim 1 and let him deciode how to spend it".