dry suit thickness

[diverrick]

Does any one have any real time experience on North coast California diving with drysuits? I am curious as to if a 3 mil neoprene dry suit, with undergarmet would be warm enough, compared to getting the 7 mil and minimal under garments.
I also would like to know if anyone has experience with diving for abs using a dry suit of either kind.

I have been told different things, by different guys, but one guys said I could never dive with any drysuit, for abs. another says he does it all the time. other said I couldn't do it with a shell. I don't know who to believe. At this point the only guy I am listening to is Bob3.
Anyone want to wade in on these questions?

 

[hvulin]

thicknes of your dry suit will not make you warm since the air is inside...
The undergarments WILL keep you warm, and that's all there is to it...

 

[kavka]

I don't know what temp. of the water is. I'm using 4mm compresed neopren dry with almost nothing under to about 18degree C, but when water becomes colder I have Bear CT200 undy.

Zdravo hvulin vidimo se na jos jednom forumu.

 

[Genesis]

Depends on the suit material.

Crushed neoprene has SOME inherent warmth, but not a huge amount.

"Michelin Man" neoprene drysuits have quite a bit of inherent warmth.

Trilam suits have ZERO.

However, it also depends on how deep you're going. Regular neo will crush just like a wetsuit at depth, and its warmth becomes much less as you go deeper, which is exactly the opposite of what you want (since the water is usually colder the deeper you go!)

Crushed neo does this less, but still does it to some extent.

Trilam, of course, doesn't do it at all, but it had nothign to lose to start with.

I prefer fabric (trilam, etc) drysuits, because they have no buoyancy shift with depth, which IMHO makes them much more comfortable to dive and far, far easier to maintain neutral buoyancy with - even more so than a wetsuit once you get "in the groove"with them.

I hate Michelin Man suits with a passion, to the point that even though a 7 mil semi-dry is more than enough around here in the winter (the water never goes below the low 50s) I dive a real drysuit in the winter months.