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If you are cold tolerant than a wetsuit is fine, based on your hesitation to dive during the winter indicates that you may not be cold tolerant. In that case, you will need a drysuit. It is different, with different issues, but unless you are cold tolerant, it is a necessity to continue diving comfortably. I dive wet year round and have no plans for a drysuit. However, I am very cold tolerant and have past injuries that make a drysuit very uncomfortable to don and doff. Diving needs to be comfortable, or you just won't go, and that ain't good!
Greatly appreciate the advice! Your experience definitely shows how much it varies from person to person.
We did our certification dives in 59-61 F water in 7mm wetsuits (with hoods and gloves). After our second dive of the day, I was feeling the cold, but OK, but my wife was starting to get chills. I think the water around here dips down to as low as 55-ish at the coldest (surface), so based on your advice, I think dry it is!
We did our OW with PADI, but leaning towards NAUI for drysuit. (Our LDS works with those two agencies.) Maybe in the spring time...
We did our certification dives in 59-61 F water in 7mm wetsuits (with hoods and gloves). After our second dive of the day, I was feeling the cold, but OK, but my wife was starting to get chills. I think the water around here dips down to as low as 55-ish at the coldest (surface), so based on your advice, I think dry it is!
We did our OW with PADI, but leaning towards NAUI for drysuit. (Our LDS works with those two agencies.) Maybe in the spring time...
The instructor is much more important than the agency. You will find this consistent advice on SB. Most certification cards are just souvenirs, the only ones you ever need is OW or AOW, and NITROX. All others are irrelevant as no one is going to ask to see them.
Edit: This is for recreational diving, certifications for technical diving are different and I have no experience in this area.
Edit: This is for recreational diving, certifications for technical diving are different and I have no experience in this area.
Completely agree with that sentiment! All the instructors our LDS referred us to were with both PADI and NAUI (and probably a few others), so it's mostly a choice between cost (PADI always seems to be significantly more), reading material, and agency-specific requirements.
I've read in a couple places that PADI teaches drysuit-only buoyancy, while the other agencies do not, and most folks seem to disagree with this stance. Not sure how critical this is in our choice between the two.
Also agree about the (lack of) necessity of collecting certifications, but a drysuit cert apparently has some use. (Not that it's necessarily on my bucket list, but "Silfra" gets mentioned a lot in that context?) Also figure it can count towards the AOW specialties at some point, although as I'm rec-focused, we may just putter around forever with OW, I suppose. Lots to see at the OW limit still.
Also, I guess in theory you can learn drysuit without a class, but my wife and I are unlikely to do that. And then might as well pick up the cert at that point? The training materials cost doesn't seem to be the big factor here, at least for NAUI, more the instructor time and rentals.
Definitely will prioritize picking up nitrox eventually, since that's just a quick class, but we're pretty good about sucking down all our air quickly right now
, so extending our NDL times isn't that appealing yet. (I made it about 30 minutes on an HP100 for our second dive of the last day, although we were also pretty cold.)
Anyway, I know nothing practical about any of this stuff, so open to opinions from the more experienced!
I've read in a couple places that PADI teaches drysuit-only buoyancy, while the other agencies do not, and most folks seem to disagree with this stance. Not sure how critical this is in our choice between the two.
Also agree about the (lack of) necessity of collecting certifications, but a drysuit cert apparently has some use. (Not that it's necessarily on my bucket list, but "Silfra" gets mentioned a lot in that context?) Also figure it can count towards the AOW specialties at some point, although as I'm rec-focused, we may just putter around forever with OW, I suppose. Lots to see at the OW limit still.
Also, I guess in theory you can learn drysuit without a class, but my wife and I are unlikely to do that. And then might as well pick up the cert at that point? The training materials cost doesn't seem to be the big factor here, at least for NAUI, more the instructor time and rentals.
Definitely will prioritize picking up nitrox eventually, since that's just a quick class, but we're pretty good about sucking down all our air quickly right now
, so extending our NDL times isn't that appealing yet. (I made it about 30 minutes on an HP100 for our second dive of the last day, although we were also pretty cold.)Anyway, I know nothing practical about any of this stuff, so open to opinions from the more experienced!
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