Skins, Wetsuit or nothing?

[razor]

A question from a newbie!

I just got certified last April and I did not use a wetsuit or a skin and I felt fine but everybody else on all 5 days of diving were wearing wetsuits. I was to ashamed to ask but if you dont get cold is there a valid reason to wear a wetsuit or skin. I am leaving for Cozumel in 5 days for 4 more days of diving.

Thanks in advance for you advice!

 

[kkrepps]

Sure, two easy ones:

1) Stings, scrapes...Lots of things that you can accidently come into very gentle contact with can cause a really major reaction. For instance there's a fair amount of fire coral around Coz. Its not called fire coral because of its color So...just how perfect are your boyancy skills in serious current?

2) You are probably using more calories than you think staying warm. A wet suit even in warm water may drop your air consumption and increase your bottom time.

Kent

 

[scuberd]

Hypothermia, even in warm water, is a risk. Any time you are in water less than your body temp you are loosing heat, and enough heat loss (like a week long trip) can create problems.

 

[razor]

Can you elaborate on what kind of problems. The stings and coral are something that I did not take into account and we did not do any drift dives so I am not sure how my bouyancy control would be on a drift dive. I do remember that I was extremley hungry after diving and my air consumption was horrible. From what you guys said just more bottom time alone warrants a wetsuit. The guys at the dive shop where I got certified told me about a suit thats between a skin and wetsuit. It was around 1 mill and was made out of titanuim and he said had very good thermal qualities.

Ideas?

 

[Walter]

"Any time you are in water less than your body temp you are loosing heat"

We need to loose heat to avoid becoming overheated. Heat exhaustion and heat stroke are just as dangerous as hypothermia. While we will become overheated in 80° F air and chilled in 80° F water, it simply isn't true that we need body temperature water to avoid hypothermia. Water temps in the upper 80's require extreme exposure to cause problems. I have actually exited the water (Gulf of Mexico in the summer) because I was getting overheated with no exposure suit.

Everyone has different tolerences, but I'm generally comfortable in just a swim suit (I don't even own a sissy suit) down to about 80° F, from about 80° F to about 75° F, I usually wear a jacket, adding the farmer john down to about 70° F and a hood once the water drops into the 60's, below 50° I need gloves and a dry suit is nice.

 

[Diver Lori]

If you don't get cold easily Razor the 1mill suit should be fine for you. Henderson has mircroprene which looks easy to don as well.

Here's a good example of WHY to wear some total body protection....at the least a body skin.

I was diving two weeks ago in Cayman Brac. EVERYBODY on the boat I was on.....EVERYBODY, even the snorklers, who were NOT wearing some protection all got nailed by "something" and had itchy welts the size of a quarter all over the more sensitive parts of their bodies. Men were hit on their stomach, armpits and chests and um....under their trunks....and the women were hit on their chests, abdomens and upper thighs at the suit line.

Those of us on the boat wearing protection went unscathed. My buddy commented to me out of earshot of those suffering.....that "he had no sympathy for their complaints since they refused to take preventitive measures".

Vinegar, hydrocortisone and Benedryl was the order for the week for these poor souls.

Go buy a skin.