Successful wetsuit diving...

[OneBrightGator]

I'm looking for some feedback from "cold" water divers who dive wet... successfully. Right now I dive with a well used Pinnacle Polar (hooded semi-dry) and in it's younger days it worked pretty well, but still had a time limit and as age is catching up to it the cold is catching me quicker. I'm reluctant to go dry, I just don't like it. I've been considering either a thicker hooded semi-dry. I've also heard offhand stories about people having good luck with thick (6ish mm) farmer/jacket combos, maybe a thick hooded vest too (18ish mm on the chest :11: ). Maybe I should just go with the standard fullsuit and hooded vest on top of that.

Anyway... what works for you?

 

[Noboundaries]

Okay, I see you're in St Augustine, Florida. What are you calling "cold?"

Here's what I posted on another thread:

Neither my wife nor I have the desire (today) to dive dry. I remember flying Navy jets in a dry suit in the extreme north Pacific and distinctly recall the claustrophobia inducing, overheating "suit up" gymnastics. I start hyperventilating just watching people put on and take off their dry suits. The people I know who dive dry love it, but I won't be one of them. Purely a personal preference.

I've gone diving in 51*F waters with my supplemented 7mm wetsuit and was easily fine for three dives. During my certification dives I was wearing a titanium lined 7mm Farmer John rental and was sweating in 51*F water! I had to take my gloves off to cool off.

My wife supplements with a 6mm hooded vest at 50-60*F. I figure adding my 3mm shortie over would drop me down to about 45*F, which appears to be about as cold as you'll find in mid-winter recreational Bay Area diving. Realistically though, below 50*F my wife would point the dive truck to the 5 to 10 degree warmer SoCal waters and a Catalina boat (Sand Dollar btw. Great boat).


What I'm calling "supplemented" is a 1mm equivalent polypro dive skin, 5mm titanium hood, gloves, and booties.

 

[Noboundaries]

Oh, another thought.

When we were diving in 57 degree water last month around Catalina, two of the divers on the boat were wearing both a 3mm wetsuit and a 7mm wetsuit, including two hoods. Not for me, but that might be an option for you. Just add a 3 or 5 mm over. Restricting? Yes, but obviously some do it.

 

[Saltwater Junky]

I've had my 7mm jumpsuit, 7mm hood, 5mm boots (w/2mm socks), and 7mm gloves in 47f water for 48 mins and was just fine. It all depends on your cold tolerance.

 

[fisheater]

These discussions are so much fun and, alas, no useless.

You're "cold" water could easily be my bathwater. Or visa-versa.

I just returned from a dive trip to Catalina. When filling out the waiver for the dive boat, I had to chuckle when they asked for the number of cold water dives I'd done. To me, they don't have cold water at Catalina.

My 7 mm FJ semi-dry was overkill. My skinny teenagers did just fine with single layer 7 mm, no gloves on their Discovery Scuba Dives. They then went snorkeling off the boat in just their swimsuits, much to the amazement of the rest of the divers and crew.

To us northern Californians, southern California has warm water.

But then again, when I was in Hawaii, where I was oversuited in a 5 mm (no hood or gloves), one of the DMs was wearing TWO wetsuits to stay warm and my dive buddy (who only dives on vacations to really warm water) was shivering after a dive with two layers of neoprene. Heck, I even did one dive with no wetsuit at all and was comfortable.

So. Who's right? Was the water warm or not? How much neoprene did I, the DM or my dive buddy need?

When it comes to exposure protection, your mileage WILL MOST CERTAINLY vary.

 

[spectrum]

I'm looking for some feedback from "cold" water divers who dive wet... successfully.

Maybe I should just go with the standard fullsuit and hooded vest on top of that.

Anyway... what works for you?

You can find my brain dump on the topic here.


Pete

 

[emac]

You can find my brain dump on the topic here.


Pete

Many thanks for your dump sir. The simple procedure outlined in how to don a wetsuit by itself made the read worthwhile.

Eric

 

[OneBrightGator]

Well, basically what I'm looking for is people who have had success with wetsuits in water that your "typical" diver would be diving dry, i.e. California, the N.E., etc. The diving I do is not "cold water", but like I said, I still get cold. My dives are anywhere from 70-100 min. in the springs, so it's not so much the actual temperature but the length of exposure. When I bought my Pinnacle I considered it to be the best solution out there, so now that's it's time for a new suit I'm searching again.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

In my opinon, semi-dry is nto the way to go unless the fit is perfect. Semi dry suits solved a problem for the retailer in that you coudlk get ok performance with a slightly bad fit, but a less than perferct fititng semi dry is no warmer than a good fitting wet suit and a bad fitting semi dry is just plain cold as large voids around the joints will still pump water past even the best seals.

Personally, I have been known to wear a 3 mm one piece in 55-60 degree water and stay there for an hour and be quite happy, but then I grew up adapted to cold. Last weekend I wore a 3mm with a hood and was almost uncomfortably warm in 78 degree water and my pinnacle diving buddy was on the verge of being cold. Go figure. I think he needs to eat more and add some poorly diffused adipose tissue for better insulation.

My advice is to get a good fitting 7mm one piece wetsuit and layer it with a vest with an attached hood. A semi dry is even better, but only if the fit is equal to the wet suit competition. Fit is everything, so don't be tempted to look at a size chart and buy on line. The other wet suit option is a Farmer John. It adds more insulation over the core, but you end up with more water flow in the neck and shoulders and if you try the vest hood thing, it gets too bulky and restrictive.

I found a neoprene dry suit to be a good compromise if you never dive water warmer than 65 degrees. You can put it on over a diveskin or lightweight poly undergarments (think the two piece underwear they sell to hunters in walmart). It goes on fast and donning is not much more complicated than getting into a pinnacle. It does really feel like a dry suit and swims much like a wet suit.

 

[ucfdiver]

I know several people with the Pinnacle Polar 7mm semidry suits that seem to stay warm for a dive or two. The problem comes when we're in the spring water for around 2+ hours total today, even those semi dry suits weren't doing the trick. How many dives per day are you doing?

I must admit, seeing those santi drysuits in Rich's shop every time are making me jealous......but then again so does watching people swim a streamlined neoprene wetsuit vs a shell drysuit with drag. Wish there was a one size fits all solution. I get cold VERY easy, so a drysuit was basically my only option.

Ginnie has some off brand semidry suits that aren't very expensive at all as well.