NYC Diving - Semi-Dry or Drysuit?

[abuckfity]

Hey Guys. I've been living in Australia for a year and doing a lot of diving. I'm moving back to NYC soon and want to do some local diving. I'm originally from there, but have never dived there. I'm trying to figure out what type of exposure protection I'll be needing (to better figure out exactly what kind of BC to get). I'd like to dive almost entirely in the summer. It looks to me like in the summer time the temperature of the water around NYC is 65 and up. Seems like I'd be fine with a semi-dry in that case. But, I also know most of the diving in NYC is wreck diving, and I know its possible that at whatever depths those would be, the water would be much colder - so maybe a semi-dry would not be good? So basically what I'm asking is: for doing wreck dives in NYC during the summer, would I be okay in a semi-dry, or do I need to get a drysuit. I know this is kind of a subjective question, I'm just wondering what people who have actually dove in NYC think? Thanks.

 

[Surelyshirly]

The air and the water do not match

in may and June the water temps are still inthe 50's early on still upper 40's....by july the water temps are inthe 60's and warming up in Aug....then the air gets colder but the water temps remain warm....through Sept Oct and Nov...deeper is colder

A semi dry can work but limits you on your dive season

 

[oly5050user]

Can get away with it in a good fitting wetsuit,if you can tolerate cold..But if you look around on the boats most if not all wear a dry suit..surface temps may be ok in a wetsuit,even comfortable,but the temp at depth is usually in the 48 to 52 degree range..in the sound you can use a 5mm suit july-september.its shallower and warmer.

 

[francousteau]

<snip>....by july the water temps are in the 60's and warming up in Aug....

maybe at 60', but in the 100fsw - 140fsw range, i've only been seeing low 50's. i like it at my gas switch at 30fsw when i'm in the high 60's.

i recommend drysuit, if your budget allows.

 

[abuckfity]

thanks for your advice guys. yea the thing is, how i see it, i can get a good semi-dry that fits really well for under 400, whereas dry suit im talking 1200-1400. its really the price that is holding me back. i think I may just go with a semi-dry at first and only use in the warmest months and at shallower depth. one side question (that maybe should be posted elsewhere): I've read that it isn't the safest to go very deep in a wetsuit because it compresses and thus changes your buoyancy dramatically. do people have a sort of actual limit on the depth, because all I've seen is people say not to go very deep. 100 feet? 130 feet? I guess this is just another determining factor in semi-dry vs. dry, b/c if it isn't safe to go down to 100 feet in a semi-dry (although I've gone this deep before in a 3 mil, but that is a bit different because it compresses less) that would sort of prevent me from seeing a lot of the cool wrecks in nyc.

 

[J.A.S.]

Depends on what semi-dry you get. i like my mares semi-dry. .warm cozy for about an hour, but still a wetsuit and aside from getting cold sometimes air traps in the suit if it doesn't fit perfect, which means more weight or the posibility of korking having trapped air.

i'd always account of the fact that i drysuit is better overall. plus it's NYC waters.. you don't want those waters crawling up on you....

take your 4 hundred, stash it away and save some more and get yourself a drysuit!..

compression for a wetsuit means you'll get colder as you go deeper. since the wetsuit will compress 4 ata like air does.. so it depends on your tolerance.

going deeper than 100 feet, specially on air has other issues not suit related which what i'm assuming is what your friends are trying to warn you about.

 

[Oldpirate]

SemiDry = Wet!

Go "dry"!

 

[Web Monkey]

Hey Guys. I've been living in Australia for a year and doing a lot of diving. I'm moving back to NYC soon and want to do some local diving. I'm originally from there, but have never dived there. I'm trying to figure out what type of exposure protection I'll be needing (to better figure out exactly what kind of BC to get). I'd like to dive almost entirely in the summer. It looks to

It's drysuit weather 12 months of the year, except for about a week in August when I put on my wetsuit, go diving and say "What the **** was I thinking?"

Then it's drysuit weather again.

Terry

 

[Jeepman3sk]

Go wet. Almost everyone I know In Boston dives wet unless we go under 100'. Diving semi-dry to high 40s isnt too bad. I did it many times this summer. Actually I have only dived dry 2 times and my third is going to be in in April b/c my instructor wants me to dive dry for my next cert.

 

[divad]

I can sell you a used-4 times-in-fresh-water ML drysuit for $400.00 bought from ScubaToys last year if you're in the area of Manhattan. (you need to try it on)