Tech dives in wetsuits in warm water?

[sunny_diver]

I see many videos of divers doing tech dives wearing drysuits in tropical waters. When the water is 30.5 C (87 F), I don't want to be in a drysuit at all. A 3 mm shorty or less sounds good to me.

How common are 50 m (165 ft) tech dives in wetsuits?

 

[sea_ledford]

Most of my deep stuff is done wet, but full 3mm and hooded vest. You just have to be aware of, and address, the complications of loss of suit buoyancy with depth, and staying as close as possible to a balanced system.

If OC, that probably means not diving steel tanks, and as much as I hate it, a dual bladder wing. We will not even run a QD hose for the extra inflator, it'll be oral inflate only.

The most experienced guy on the team dives dry all the time (thin base layer only) and insists he is cooler in the shallows and warmer at depth than diving wet. He's probably right, but I only have a 3mm neo drysuit. If I had trilam, I'd at least try it out.

 

[LFMarm]

For me it depends on temperature at your max depth and how you are managing buoyancy in case of wing failure. I have done deep dives wet wet suit and not so deep dives dry with the same surface temperature depending on haloclines and buoyancy redundancy.

 

[Tassi Devil Diver]

Been diving in the tropics using a 3mm suit, vest and hood to 100m, water temperature at the surface typically 28-30C dropping to 24C, which is a bit chilly but manageable for the 10-15 min bottom time. A 5mm wetsuit would be more appropriate for these dives.
If I lived in the tropics and was doing these dives regularly, I would use a drysuit primarily because you don't get much life out of a wetsuit doing these dives regularly, as they are compressed so often the neoprene becomes crushed. My dive instructor in Bali gets around a year out of 5mm Fourth Element Proteus.

 

[Mobulai]

Well.. how long of a dive is probably the main question
*My personal* comfort threshold for a 2/3mm wetsuit at surface water temp of 22-25 deg(C) is around 90mins (doesn’t matter if it was to 50m or 20m max depth, avg also doesn’t matter), my absolute tolerance is at ~115mins (shame — almost 2 hrs); after that I would say is very risky (for me) and needs a drysuit (if it’s more than 100mins plan I assume drysuit)

I dislike anything thicker than a 3mm, but again personal taste

You’ll have to test that for yourself— do a fun rec dive; grab your doubles/SM on some 32-40 nitrox, stay within the long NDL range (12-20m) and see how long it’s fun for you to be down in the water; this should give you *Your* baseline

No one else can answer that for you tbh

 

[Pearlman]

If OC, that probably means not diving steel tanks, and as much as I hate it, a dual bladder wing. We will not even run a QD hose for the extra inflator, it'll be oral inflate only.

Curious - Why not use a QD hose with the dual bladder wing in this case?

 

[waves_221]

All of our tropical tech dives in that range and deeper are done with 3mm and 5mm wetsuits. Temperature is rarely colder than 78 but usually 80+ degrees.

 

[broncobowsher]

Truk and Bikini. I do a 3mm full suit. Mostly for abrasion protection. Call it pretty typical.
A 50# lift SMB for redundant buoyancy. There is a floor, not a bottomless pit.
I will call that typical of mild tech warm water diving.

 

[OTF]

Some people like drysuits in the tropics for the additional buoyancy control - less swing than a compressible wetsuit, and the ability to shift air around.

 

[Tim Clark Diving]

In Guam, I typically use a Sharkskin top with a very compressed 3mm vest/hood and am good for 3 hours. Beyond that, I start to notice a chill but find that if I eat a couple bananas and drink a squeezy juice I'm good for 5 hours. Goo also works well and probably has a lot more calories than a banana, but you definitely need something to wash it down with. It really depends on your own comfort level, but for longer dives think about adding some calories to your thermal protection plan. As always, try it out shallow first and see what works for you.