Still cold with 7mm

[Robbie1057]

Hi, I am new to this and hope that I am in the right area. My husband and I were certified about 18 years ago and loved it, but with having kids, unfortunetly, we stopped diving. I thought it would be fun to start again, so I dragged my kids along with me and we got certified at Monterey, California. We wore a dive skin, 7mm wetsuit, hooded vest, boots, and gloves and still were cold to the point of shivering. My son almost quit because he was so cold. My son is approximatly 80 lbs and my daughter and I are 105 lbs. Is there anything out there that can help us to stay some what warm?
Love to hear any advise.

 

[scubapolly]

Is there anything out there that can help us to stay some what warm?
Love to hear any advise.

A dry suit is the way to go. I dove Monterrey back in May, and was toasty warm in my drysuit and a hood, while all of my dive buddies were in the hot shower immediatly after their dives.

Prices range on Dry suits. DUI's are pretty expensive, but they have a section on their web site for closeouts/ misorders. I have been very impressed with Bare's suits as well.

POlly

 

[ProfessorAronnax]

Personally I hate cold water, but I live in N.E. so, either I go dry or I go to Florida

 

[DS tank wipe]

Id say a drysuit however you have kids so... my suggestion is to use hot water on ur hoods gloves suits etc just to help keep you a bit warmer.Also with your kids still being young and small make sure they have proper suits fit is key!! and suit to large wont help the problem As well as try to start planning warmer dives or shorter dives check with your LDS from warmer locations and interesting areas just keep the kids interested to we need more divers.

Cheers Alex

 

[J75]

One of my buddies wears a diveskin by Tilos, that is only 1mm, but has some kind of reflective shielding that is supposed to provide the warmth of a 3mm, but without the thickness. You might want to wear something like that under a farmer john, so you get as much insulation as possible. I would recommend a dry suit for you, but it's probably not the best choice for your kids, since they're still growing. If you did want to go dry, I'd recommend the Bare Nex-Gen suits for the kids because they're really durable and about the cheapest drysuit you can find (around $600 for the package online).

 

[ProfessorAronnax]

I rarely see kids with wetsuits that properly fit, and when they don't fit they don't work. Also, If your cold in a 7mm I would assume this dive may be to advanced for kids. Give it another shot in the summer, or visit a warmer climate.

 

[The Kraken]

Robbie,
All of the above make good points.
Rapidiver makes a most excellent point. Since an LDS generally can't fit a child with a properly fitting wet suit, they usually use the lame reasoning that "s/he'll grown into it and you'll get your money's worth from it" - this is usually after they've put the poor child in a $300 Henderson that hangs on him like the skin on an elephant's knee!

The best way to get a child to stop diving is to let him get cold.

There is a company, ScubaL.com, that will put your child in a custom fitted wet suit for about $190. Sure s/he's going to grow, but just think of how much you like diving cold.

Going with more and more neoprene to stay warm adds an un-needed safety factor in diving - more neoprene requires more weight to submerge and subsequently loses it's buoyancy upon compression at depth. Excessive amounts of neoprene also adversely affect the diver's flexibility and ability to manuver.

So, in summation, your best solution is: 1 - go the dry suit route for you and your wife with custom fitted suits for the children, or 2 - dive warmer conditions.

Just my 2 psi.

the K

 

[wkyongae@aol.com]

I just bought a 7mm suit from Scubal and can't wait to get into the water with it and for under a $100 bucks a very nice suit. I live in the Puget Sound area. Also, bought a hood for my daughter who is 17 and fits real nice. My size is XXL because suit run a little small I heard. So it fits good. Check out scubal.com for sizes.

 

[ClevelandDiver]

Assuming fitment is part of the problem, you could try buying some smaller sized used wetsuits off Ebay. I have bought several used suits between the $10 - $40 range that were in decent shape. If they don't fit (or when your kids outgrow them) just but them back on Ebay.

 

[String]

Depending on the age of the kids its sometimes hard to buy something expensive like a drysuit as they can grow out of the thing within a matter of months so works out quite expensive. You can ebay then (the suit not the kids) but resale value there tends to be only about 50% of initial cost.