Truk, what to wear?

[Fletch_boy]

I'm off to Truk in April, staying a week at the Blue Lagoon Resort.
What do divers generally wear for the diving there? 5mm, 3mm, skin suit, budgie smugglers?
I won't be diving below 40m and I'll be diving twice a day.

 

[Scared Silly]

We have always worn a full length fleece suit. Basically a 2mm neoprene equivalent. Full length is nice just incase you brush up against the ship going through an entry. Also full length because we were usually doing 4-5 dives a day.

As you are staying at the Blue Lagoon Resort do a dive at the shark cleaning station one day. You can circumnavigate the whole island in a dive but I just enjoy sitting my butt in the sand and watching the show.

Also there is not a lot to do in Truk especially so consider additional dives. Though it is certainly worth doing a day tour of the WWII installations with a guide. BLR was a sea plane base and why it is nice and flat.

 

[Fletch_boy]

Thanks for the advice

 

[GreyhoundsAreFast]

Wetsuits are optional in Chuuk. The water temp is 85F. Although you probably mentioned budgie smugglers in jest, they’re not advisable more for cultural reasons than diving.

 

[kablooey]

I've been twice on the Odyssey. The last time I wore board shorts with a 2mm neoprene vest, but I also packed a full 3mm wetsuit for wrecks where I planned to penetrate.
The full suit is better protection against cuts and scrapes.

Penetrating the wrecks is optional. Most of my dives I stayed outside and it was great.

It's all wrecks all the time at Truk. If you like wreck diving, you're going to love Truk. Have a great trip.

 

[Fletch_boy]

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking about shorts and a long sleeve rashie and maybe taking a pair of full length skins for my legs if planning on penetration.
I guess I was most concerned about stingers and potentially getting cold.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Full 0.5mm skinsuit and speedo jammers underneath, with an optional 2mm hooded vest.

Definitely full coverage skinsuit, regular neoprene booties, with a separate lightweight hood for head coverage and optional cheap gardener's gloves to guard against scrapes & cuts in the wrecks -but also some protection if you accidentally blunder into a layer of aviation gasoline (will cause a caustic chemical 2nd degree skin burn!) in the cargo holds, and the nuisance stings of numerous moon jellyfish which may be prevalent outside the wrecks at that time of the season.

Board shorts, rash guard and/or a lava-lava on surface intervals. . .

 

[Russjstewart]

3mm sleeveless hooded vest, wetsuit boots and overalls, looks daggy, but it works for me.

The overalls provide protection from rusty metal. I am used to a colder climate though

 

[Topper133]

I used 2.5mm Waterproof full length, perfectly fine, no hood no gloves down to 65m 2+ hrs runtimes, the shallower plane dives was board shorts only, happily for an hour (you'll get bored before cold).

For @Scared Silly I was at BLR in November and they've stopped doing the Shark Cleaning station dive! :-(