New divers looking for new wetsuits

[turnburglar]

Hey Guys and Gals,

I will need help from both the genders on this one.

Dive profile: Looking to do a few dives in socal along with my local lake in the winter time (lake pleasant, AZ). The lake gets down too 55*, and expecting the waters in socal to be 60-65*. Max depth wouldn't be very deep, probably 60-80 FSW, as me and my wife are both new divers. Bottom time wouldn't be very long on a single AL80.

wetsuit history: I did my first 15 dives in socal during december-march and remember with my rented 7mm still being cold. I am a thinner guy, that would rather be a little warm than cold. I ended up wearing my 2mm shorty underneath the 7mm to get acceptable warmth.


This has lead me to consider the semi dry suits, like the Hollis Neotek or the aqualung solaFX. What does the board think??? Keeping in mind I have to buy 2 suits, price can be issue (please don't suggest dry). Also if the ladies can chime in as to what/who makes a wetsuit great for the female figure that would be great too.

 

[tbone1004]

for those temps and those depths, I would recommend going straight to a drysuit since you can layer properly. Dive Right in Scuba has some great suits for quite inexpensive, and Deep6 will be releasing one here shortly that will be quite affordable. Laminate suits will travel better than most of the semi-dry's and will be significantly warmer at depth due to the lack of wetsuit compression. My argument on exposure protection is that once you need more than a 5mm and a hooded vest, it is time to go straight to a drysuit.

 

[runsongas]

drysuit would be better long term option, but you can probably get away with a good fitting 8 or 7mm wetsuit for the dives you described. not sure there is a huge difference between a well fitting regular wetsuit and a semidry though other than price.

i know of 3 divers in my dive club with the solafx and they all seem to like it for monterey diving. it is kinda pricey though. cheapest i have seen it is 300 dollars which is in spitting distance of what i paid for a used fusion tech. the 8mm xcel is another suit that a few guys from the dive club use and seem to like.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba.]

We do have an excellent set of choices in both wet and dry suits. Perhaps more importantly, we have people on hand who can listen to your needs and give you good personal advice. Diving is a great activity, but you will not be happy in it if you are cold.

I do have some friends who use a 7mm semi-dry while diving in the San Diego area, and they are reasonably happy with it. I would probably be OK with that, too, but I would not want to take one to the 55 degree lake bottom. I was a very happy camper when I finally switched to dry suits for cooler water.