Suitable wetsuit

[Luka]

Hey there,

I'm looking for a 5mm wetsuit suitable for 25 degrees celsius warm water. After searching a while I found that the best option would be the Scubapro Everflex. But as this wetsuit is fairly expensive and I'm only a beginner, I've also come across the Cressi Castoro 5, wich has also very good test results but costs less than half of the Everflex. My question is, would you recommend going for the more expensive one or will the Castoro do the job just as well as the Everflex?

Thanks very much for your answers,
Luka

 

[Diver0001]

Luka,

What are you planning on doing? Unless you're making infrequent shallow dives then a 5mm suit in 25C water isn't going to keep you warm enough.

For example, on a week long vacation where you're making, say, 15 dives (or more) in a week you'll feel fine with the 5mm suit on the first day and you'll be regretting it by the third day in 25C water.

I know everyone's body is different but when you're diving intensively, like on vacation, your body simply doesn't keep up with keeping you warm from one day to the next. ON your first dive you might feel fine but at dive 10 or 15 you'll be freezing your butt off with a 5mm suit in 25C water. Trust me on this.

I dive once a year in Egypt. When we go in the off season the water is 23-25C. We usually make maybe 22 or 23 dives in a week (total of about 27-30 hours in the water) and I literally take my drysuit with me for that. I did ok with a 7/5 wetsuit for an intensive week when the water was 25C and I might try it with a 7mm wetsuit if it fit very well (and was new) but I'd never do a multi day multi dive vacation in 25C water in a 5mm suit. I'd end up sitting out dives because of the cold toward the end of the week.

R..

 

[Luka]

Luka,

What are you planning on doing? Unless you're making infrequent shallow dives then a 5mm suit in 25C water isn't going to keep you warm enough.

For example, on a week long vacation where you're making, say, 15 dives (or more) in a week you'll feel fine with the 5mm suit on the first day and you'll be regretting it by the third day in 25C water.

I know everyone's body is different but when you're diving intensively, like on vacation, your body simply doesn't keep up with keeping you warm from one day to the next. ON your first dive you might feel fine but at dive 10 or 15 you'll be freezing your butt off with a 5mm suit in 25C water. Trust me on this.

I dive once a year in Egypt. When we go in the off season the water is 23-25C. We usually make maybe 22 or 23 dives in a week (total of about 27-30 hours in the water) and I literally take my drysuit with me for that. I did ok with a 7/5 wetsuit for an intensive week when the water was 25C and I might try it with a 7mm wetsuit if it fit very well (and was new) but I'd never do a multi day multi dive vacation in 25C water in a 5mm suit. I'd end up sitting out dives because of the cold toward the end of the week.

R..

Thank you very much for your answer! I might have pointed out the lower end of the scale; I'll be in the Seychelles and the coldest the water can get is 25 degrees, but should usually be around 28 degrees. I'll be making around two dives per day. Would you still recommend going for a 7mm? And for the actual wetsuit; would you go for the more expensive Everflex, wich has Heliocase inserts to keep you warmer, or is the Cressi Castoro 5 enough (if you can judge that).

Kind regards
Luka

 

[Diver0001]

Thank you very much for your answer! I might have pointed out the lower end of the scale; I'll be in the Seychelles and the coldest the water can get is 25 degrees, but should usually be around 28 degrees. I'll be making around two dives per day. Would you still recommend going for a 7mm? And for the actual wetsuit; would you go for the more expensive Everflex, wich has Heliocase inserts to keep you warmer, or is the Cressi Castoro 5 enough (if you can judge that).

Kind regards
Luka

Well... there's a big difference between 25C and 28C to how it feels to your body. There's also a big difference between 2 dives a day and 4 dives a day, like we make. Dive times make a difference too.

I train in a 28C swimming pool once a week for an hour and use a 3mm wetsuit for that. I've never felt cold. So I think for 2 dives of about an hour that a 5mm suit in 25C+ water should be ok. Check carefully what the expected water temperatures will be. 25 or 28 doesn't seem like a big difference but it is.

I'm not really a good person to ask about the wetsuits. I make few dives in a wetsuit outside of the swimming pool. What I do know about all the marketing blah blah is that it's just that.... blah blah blah.... Makes no difference. Manufacturers try to distinguish themselves from their competitors with this kind of thing but it's all smoke and mirrors. For example years ago we had "titanium" suits with some kind of titanium glitter thrown into the neoprene mix. They were supposed to be 20% warmer or whatever but the actual fact of the matter was that they were 20% more expensive and that was the only difference. IIRC it was also Scubapro that thought up the "titanium plush" marketing lie so to my mind pretty much anything Scubapro says at this point comes across to me as a marketing lie.

What DOES make a HUGE difference is how well the suit fits. The Scubapro suit claims to be much more flexible than the typical suit, which is realistically possible, and could make it more form fitting. The better a suit fits the better it insulates.... and THAT is what you need know. Don't bother listening to the blah blah. If you've made a short list then go try both of the suits on at the shop and buy the one that fits better. Seriously, because the better fitting suit will make you more comfortable and it is the one that will very likely keep you warmer.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

BTW, the scubapro suit comes in a 5mm and a 5/4 variation.. This is a realistic selling point to me because if you buy the 5/4 model then you can use the 5mm layer for as long as it's comfortable and then switch to the 5/4 combination if you start getting cold, which makes this suit suitable for a much wider temperature range than the Cressi suit, which doesn't have this option.

R..

 

[Bent Benny]

You might also want to take the depth of your dives into consideration. I know my very thick wetsuit keeps me plenty warm at 20ft, but then at 65ft I'm freezing with water temps that have a mere 1 degree Fahrenheit difference.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

To add to Diver0001's and Bent Benny's posts from the perspective of a "wetsuit guy" ...

I wear a 3mm surfing wetsuit (actually a 3/2mm) for water temperatures down to 20 C. I love the O'Neill Reactor. I've used the Reactor I for years. Now, I wear the Reactor II. I use it in my home waters of the St. Lawrence River for the summer and fall months where the peak temperature might reach 23.3 C. I wear it down to 75 meters for trimix dives with 90 minute run times. I also wear it for cave diving in Florida between 20 - 22 C. I normally make two or three 60 - 90 minute dives per day.

We've got strong current in the river and high flow in several of my favorite caves. That means I do a fair bit of swimming. I like the decreased drag of the 3/2 mm wetsuit. Just like running on cooler days, a thinner wetsuit is good when a diver is working or swimming. I get too warm in drysuits (even with just the wicking layer) and 5mm wetsuits.

Once temperatures drop to 18.3 C, I prefer my 5mm ScubaPro wetsuit. Finally, below 12.7 C, I want my drysuit.

Underwater exposure protection is a balance of the water temperature, your normal comfort level in a wetsuit or drysuit, what activity you will be doing, whether or not you will be swimming, hovering, scootering, and also what kind of safety reserve you may want if left adrift at sea. Cold is definitely our primary concern, but heat emergencies also happen in higher air temperatures or hard swimming in warm water.

Dressing for diving isn't too far removed from how we dress for land activities. We anticipate weather and our personal comfort level and dress accordingly. Sometimes, even more important than in-water thermal protection is how warm we will stay between dives. A dry bag with layers of clothes for hot, cold, and wet conditions will make diving more enjoyable between first and repetitive dives.

 

[Diver0001]

I'll agree with Trace on one point, which is that at 12C there are few wetsuits that are good enough.

I did some OW training a couple of years ago in a (luck of the draw) well fitting 7mm suit at 10C. It was 2 short dives (I was in the water for about 90 min) and I was thoroughly surprised how well the suit worked. I didn't do this from choice. I rented a suit from a nearby dive shop because I ripped a seal on my drysuit and REALLY wanted to achieve the goal I had set for the day. It was total luck that this suit fit well.....

In the only wetsuit I've ever personally owned (a crappy generic thing) I would die in an hour at water temps of 12C. This is not normally a survivable temperature in a wetsuit as far as I'm concerned.

As for the other things Trace said.... well.... no.... He's trying to sound a little more hairy chested than I really think he is, which is about par for the course. I don't personally believe it. I couldn't personally tolerate those temperatures in the suits he listed for any length of time. That said, the way I dive is very efficient so I don't move around much. The joke among my (former) students was that they never saw me move at all but everywhere they went... there I was.

That's a thing here. In the book it says that moving around a lot makes no difference but moving around a lot DOES make a difference, particularly in a drysuit. The only two explanations I can think of for what Trace is saying is that (a) he has a sickness of the metabolism or (b) he has the buoyancy control to match the story.

If it's neither of those then he's just chest thumping this.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

BTW, I've seen video of Trace diving and I know for a fact that (b) is not one of the answers. Therefore I think his thyroid must be about the size of a coconut.

R..

 

[Trace Malinowski]

As for the other things Trace said.... well.... no.... He's trying to sound a little more hairy chested than I really think he is, which is about par for the course. I don't personally believe it. I couldn't personally tolerate those temperatures in the suits he listed for any length of time. That said, the way I dive is very efficient so I don't move around much. The joke among my (former) students was that they never saw me move at all but everywhere they went... there I was.

@njdiverjoe and @Beau640

Joe & Beau, what exposure protection was I wearing during cave class? (68° F - 72° F)

@AbnSwmr

What exposure protection am I currently wearing during trimix class? (65°F)

@DanaHunt

Dana, what exposure protection did I wear on the Vickery & into the 16°C thermocline where the Maggie L was sitting? (61°F)

@Compressor

What exposure protection did I wear during our coaching sessions the other day? What was the temp.? 70°F?

@Danseur

When freediving even early or late in the season, what wetsuit thickness do I wear?

Answer: O'Neill Reactor II 3/2. No hood. No gloves. Just boots and pocket shorts.

When I shoot skill videos, I often wear a drysuit to prove buoyancy control in what is perceived as a more difficult system managing the drysuit bubble. I sometimes wear a hood for the way a hood looks in video. If I'm not wearing dry gloves the water isn't "cold."

You know, man, it's funny that you make things personal. But, if you think I'm mouthy, bragging, whatever, I'll back it up. There are a lot of divers that like thinner wetsuits.