drysuit in warm(ish) water

[CJM3]

I just bought a Pinnacle Black Ice, and I am down in the FL caves this week. I am wearing a T-shirt as an under garment along with light long John bottoms. If the flow is high going in, I get a little warm, but I have yet to get too warm. My longest dive so far has been 1.5 hours. I haven’t gotten cold either. The water temp is around 72.

My first dive in it was back home in 53 degree water. I wore 2 light Moreno wool shirts and 2 sets of long john bottoms. It was only a 25 minute dive, but my buddy got cold. I was cool but not cold.

Thanks, this is quite helpful. Sounds like I'll be aiming for something similar to the suit you have.

 

[stuartv]

I had a compressed neoprene suit (a Bare XCS2 Tech). I disliked it to the point that I would only wear it if a 7mm just wouldn't be warm enough. It is certainly a very high quality suit. It was just too hot and too heavy. Now I have a Waterproof D9X, breathable trilam. I will not be going back to neoprene. At least, not until I'm rolling in dough and can afford to have one that is just for diving on cold days in really cold water. With the D9X, I will dive it just about any time it's not too warm for a drysuit. The warmest so far is 81F degree water and it was very comfy with just a t-shirt and shorts on underneath.

At my shop (which isn't TOO far from you @CJM3), we have a few different trilam suits that we carry that are, I think around $1000 or less. And a number others that are more, of course. We have dry suits in stock from Bare, Waterproof, DUI, Mobby's, Hollis, and ScubaPro, I think. Plus at least one Fourth Element Argonaut that is only for display, I think.

I don't mean to sound like a commercial. I'm just suggesting that if budget is the only reason you are looking at neoprene, then there might be some options for a trilam that would work for you that you weren't aware of.

For diving in 50F water, I find that some inexpensive fleece from someplace like REI and a trilam suit are a very workable solution that is more comfortable (to me) than an option involving a neoprene suit.