Does anyone make a 4/3 wetsuit?
- Thread starter bradlw
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pnwkiwi
Registered
I’m a new scuba diver and my experience is from surfing and free diving so take this for what it is worth … these folks make excellent but reasonably priced suits: 4mm3. My 3/2 is warmer than my Patagonia 4/3 with thermal lining. A chest zip is always warmer than a back zip due to less flushing and less water sitting around the kidneys. I just purchased a custom suit for my wife from 7til8 (see: Mens Dive) - she loves it and the folks there are also to be commended. Cheers.
@bradlw you are getting a lot recommendations for specific suits, which is ok, but maybe consider that in general there are factors aside from the thickness of the wetsuit that will affect your warmth.
1. The quality of the material at the wrist, ankle, and neck greatly effect how much water flows through the suit. You can have a 7mm wetsuit but if the seals don't make good contact with the skin water will flow freely through them flushing out the wetsuit with cold water more frequently and not allowing the wetsuit to work as designed.
2. The lining of the wetsuit. There are a range of wetsuits that have internal liners that are warmer than just just neoprene. There are also neutrally buoyant rash guards (lavacore, sharkskin, ultraskin) that can be worn alone or under a wetsuit that can add a lot of warmth.
3. Use of Hood and Gloves or integrated hood/vest combos, especially when properly tucked into your wetsuit can have an effect like point #1, reducing the flow of water to your core.
There are lots of manufacturers that make wetsuits with these additional features; and they are at least as important as the thickness of the wetsuit if keeping your warm.
1. The quality of the material at the wrist, ankle, and neck greatly effect how much water flows through the suit. You can have a 7mm wetsuit but if the seals don't make good contact with the skin water will flow freely through them flushing out the wetsuit with cold water more frequently and not allowing the wetsuit to work as designed.
2. The lining of the wetsuit. There are a range of wetsuits that have internal liners that are warmer than just just neoprene. There are also neutrally buoyant rash guards (lavacore, sharkskin, ultraskin) that can be worn alone or under a wetsuit that can add a lot of warmth.
3. Use of Hood and Gloves or integrated hood/vest combos, especially when properly tucked into your wetsuit can have an effect like point #1, reducing the flow of water to your core.
There are lots of manufacturers that make wetsuits with these additional features; and they are at least as important as the thickness of the wetsuit if keeping your warm.
Thanks...I don't have 1st hand experience with them but I understand that surfing suits are sometimes made out of different material than diving suits, designed to be in the air and low pressures vs diving where the pressure will compress. Still, I'll check it out, thx.
and I find it interesting what you say about back vs front zip. A lot of resources say just the opposite. Front zips leak when you bend at the waist, so they say. I used to dive front zip suits and I never had a problem getting a cold front. I always thought surfers used back zip since they lay on their bellies, while divers use front zip since they have the tank pressing into their backs.
Ans another advantage of front zip in my opinion...if you get a little warm during the dive, easy enough to unzip a little
All great points...and I've been out of the game so long that I have no idea which brands or models have these better materials or linings, or which ones are just marketing hype BS
covediver
Contributor
EVO makes a 5/3 suit. I think it is sold by divers direct in Florida. I have an old 5/4/3 suit that worked well. If you want to try surf and other wetsuits, check out watersports outlet. they are a brit company that ships out of a warehouse in California. I tried them, suit was good but didn;t fit right. Refunds were not a problem
pnwkiwi
Registered
@bradlw, surfers originally used dive suits with front zips but quickly realized that the back zip design was better suited to surfing for the reason you correctly identify At a very early age I remember my Dad in the early 70’s wearing a Gull beaver tail jacket / Farmer John combination in the UK (and then sitting in a hot tub after a session to thaw out - which I am sure contributed to the suit’s early demise). More recently chest zips (shorter horizontal or slant zips) that sit at the sternum have become very popular. These guard against the flushing and cold water around the kidneys you can get with back zips but are comfortable to paddle in (assuming you arch your back correctly) because they eliminate a relative inflexible zip between the shoulder blades. You climb in through the shoulder cavity and the neck seal pulls down over your head. These can be so effective that very little water enters the suit. I was free diving here in NZ at Goat Island a few weeks ago and did not really have any water in my suit until I deliberately flooded it to cool down
Good quality rubber is important (and in this regard Yamamoto is generally regarded the best). @loosenit2 is spot on - fit is everything. With a good fit, sealing at the neck, wrists and ankles and and quality rubber there should be no need for fancy thermal linings (these can get vey heavy when wet). Bear in mind that a new suit should feel very snug as it will loosen up in the water after a couple of outings. With a chest zip you may even require assistance from a mate or loved one to get out of it the first few times Again, I am a new scuba diver but also an older guy who has been through a suit or two over the past years. Good luck!Results45
Registered
I've been looking into non-neoprene alternatives like Yulex (a kind of latex tailored for watersports) so it's only Henderson Greenprene and Scubapro Everflex Yulex at this point and both only offer 3/2mm, 5/4mm, or 7/5mm.
There are lots of 4/5 Yulex suits from Patagonia, Billabong, Needessentials, Nymph, and Finisterre but I've heard the bouancy, compression, and durability is different than diving-oriented suits though if you're not going very deep that might not be too much of an issue.
There are lots of 4/5 Yulex suits from Patagonia, Billabong, Needessentials, Nymph, and Finisterre but I've heard the bouancy, compression, and durability is different than diving-oriented suits though if you're not going very deep that might not be too much of an issue.
Cheizz
Contributor
Greeneprene (Yamamoto alternative neoprene) is said to be 23% more buoyant at the surface compared to traditional petroleum-based neoprene. And because it has more bubbles in it, I imagine it compresses more as well, once at depth.
As for Yulex - I asked the Scubapro rep last week about this stuff. She said Yulex is slightly more buoyant than petroleum-based neoprene but doesn't compress much because it's rubber with fewer or nu bubbles in it. Not sure if it's all true, but that's what they told me.
As for Yulex - I asked the Scubapro rep last week about this stuff. She said Yulex is slightly more buoyant than petroleum-based neoprene but doesn't compress much because it's rubber with fewer or nu bubbles in it. Not sure if it's all true, but that's what they told me.
Results45
Registered
Well Henderson claims it's "100% neoprene free" so it very well could be an in-house natural Yulex derivative or at least a hybrid blend with a significantly low percentage of petroleum thus potentially justifiable as "not neoprene", right?
Cuz as far as I know any majority-petroleum based rubber like Yamamoto, competing alternatives like Sheico, and your standard mass-market wetsuit blend constitutes as "neoprene".
I guess no one has done a deep dive on the physical, mechanical, and performance qualities of Greenprene versus Yulex and various neoprene derivatives yet.
EDIT: here's more to the story on how Greenprene came to be but not much more on what makes up the material or how it compares to yulex besides that it's hypoallergenic.
016 Scuba Diver Magazine and Henderson's New Greenprene Wetsuits - ScubaGuru
In this episode we hear about the new Scuba Diver Destinations Magazine as well as a revolutionary neoprene free wetsuit by Henderson called Greenprene.
scubaguru.com
The only way to find out is to dive the suit and keep logs on dive depth, duration, and change in buoyancy and thermal characteristics over time. Hopefully you’ll already know the characteristics of another reference suit so that you have a baseline to compare it to.
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