Dry suit for mild temps?

[divezonescuba]

I had a leg surgery and had to dive dry for four years year around. This included Devils Throat in Cozumel. I wore a trilaminate with only Lycra pants and Lycra long sleeve top during the summer. This was to prevent pressure welts from the folds in the material at depth.

Nowadays, I use a waterproof ex2. This is sort of breathable on the surface, has field replaceable wrist and neck seals. There is also a pee zip for use on the surface. You can actually stay in it all day if necessary.

 

[Johanan]

Dry suit all the way. My warmest dive has been at 29*C/84*F. A Fusion with MK0 base layer under it was even cooler than a wetsuit would have been. For me the main advantage of a dry suit is a better control over buoyancy and trim. You must finetune the kit really hard to obtain the perfect balance in a wetsuit. Not so with a dry suit. Just use heavier fins and put some more air in the feet if needed. Also the redundant buoyancy is a boon.

 

[Littlerayray]

I started wet love the freedom of a wetsuit
Hated freezing in a wetsuit and I'm a polar bear
Never had to pull a war hammer Cameron
I'd have to make sure nobody is downstream
Drysuit are a pita to don and doff and are very expensive and require tons of maintenance but the advantage of the drysuit is it extends my dive season up here in Canada by roughly 4 to 6 extra months where I dive there aren't any thermoclines so whatever the temp is that's what is is throughout but our dives are over an hr long because they take so long
If you hate the lack of mobility in a 5mm wetsuit I would suggest not even thinking of a drysuit

 

[taimen]

Nowadays, I use a waterproof ex2. This is sort of breathable on the surface, has field replaceable wrist and neck seals. There is also a pee zip for use on the surface. You can actually stay in it all day if necessary.

Interesting! I was just planning to suggest a breathable drysuit in this thread.

How do you like your EX2? Do you already have some experience regarding durability?

 

[Marie13]

Get a nice stretchy wetsuit and a 5mm is no problem. Love Bare.

 

[macado]

My 2 cents for all the people claiming drysuits are harder to put on. I personally believe that it's mostly a fallacy spread by people who rarely use drysuits or have one that is ill-fitted for their body type or cut poorly.

I'm not going to definitively state that it's always the case but it's my personal experience based on working on charter boats and teaching classes. Granted this does become harder if you're wearing heavy 450gram undergarments or have shoulder issues. The people I often see struggle have suits that might not be cut properly for thick undergarments. Drysuits obviously *do* have that problem when people put on some weight. Wetsuits can be a little more forgiving in that regard..

I can step into any proper fitting drysuit, don the suit and zip it up myself (frontzip) or have someone zip the backzip while I watch other people go through all sorts of maniacal contortions and body manipulations to put on a thick 7mm wetsuit on. I've seen it all..Plastic bags on the feet so the suit slides on, lathering themselves up with soap or KY jelly so the suit slides on, struggling to pull the legs or arms up on the suit, etc.

I own a couple 7mm farmer johns. I feel like the Michelin man when I wear them so I prefer a drysuit or a single layer of 7mm.

 

[northernone]

My 2 cents for all the people claiming drysuits are harder to put on. I personally believe that it's mostly a fallacy spread by people who rarely use drysuits or have one that is ill-fitted for their body type or cut poorly.

I'm not going to definitively state that it's always the case but it's my personal experience based on working on charter boats and teaching classes. Granted this does become harder if you're wearing heavy 450gram undergarments or have shoulder issues. The people I often see struggle have suits that might not be cut properly for thick undergarments. Drysuits obviously *do* have that problem when people put on some weight. Wetsuits can be a little more forgiving in that regard..

I can step into any proper fitting drysuit, don the suit and zip it up myself (frontzip) or have someone zip the backzip while I watch other people go through all sorts of maniacal contortions and body manipulations to put on a thick 7mm wetsuit on. I've seen it all..Plastic bags on the feet so the suit slides on, lathering themselves up with soap or KY jelly so the suit slides on, struggling to pull the legs or arms up on the suit, etc.

I own a couple 7mm farmer johns. I feel like the Michelin man when I wear them so I prefer a drysuit or a single layer of 7mm.

I'll agree on they can be an even worse struggle when they don't fit right or have "shrunk".

My issue is wrist seals/dry gloves and fighting with the neck seal (hate the constriction). The body bag portion is as easy as any jump suit/skidoo suit. Way easier than wetsuit legs for sure!

I was curious what 450g undergarments looked like (I'm not sure what various thicknesses of mine are.) Can't say google was helpful... But neither did it disappoint... Results below:

 

[macado]

I was curious what 450g undergarments looked like (I'm not sure what various thicknesses of mine are.) Can't say google was helpful... But neither did it disappoint... Results below:

View attachment 458541

Haha. My examples of thick / heavy undergarments would DUI Xm450 Undergarments or even the Santi BZ400X They are both very warm. Combine them with an additional heated vest layer, or fleece plus appropriate base layers and that's a lot of Polartec / Thinsulate! I've even known people to wear more layers. That would be my specific example of what I see people wear in New England / Great Lakes when the water temperatures are 36f-39f (2.5c-4c).

 

[Magnus Lundstedt]

For me it is dry when my 3/2 mm wet is not eunough.

But that said, at home it is always cold (6-8*C) when you get down, and my wetsuit is used in tropical 25-30*C waters.

When the lake at my parents home is warm, it can go up to 30*C at surface, but at 10 meters it is still less than 10*C

 

[npole]

Drysuits are the easiest thing to put on.. they are like normal clothes (I use trilaminate) ... I'm not sure where it comes the story that they are harder to get on? Maybe for very skinny people, they are comfortable to slip into that sticky neoprene... but i'm always pissed of when I have to wear even a 5mm.