Wetsuit thickness guide

[bnc1978]

hi,

does anyone know of a guider to wetsuit thickness compared to water temp?

would love to know as i am starting out and would like to know which suit to purchase first!!

 

[meesier42]

no, its too subjective to be useful, for example in 80F water I normally were a 3mm shortie, my friend wears a 5mm Jacket (long sleeve, short legs) and others wear a 3mm full and even some that wear 5mm full. It all about what makes you comfortable and how cold tolerant you are.

Given that you are in Australia, I am guessing that a 3mm full will be enough, for that I recommend Pinnacle Seal or their Merino lined Elastiprene, I have been diving the Seal for about 4 years now and love it. I have worn it comfortably in water anywhere from 82F down to 67F. Which is about as flexible as you can get out of a suit.

 

[DiveMaven]

Not only that, but it also depends on how much repetitive diving you're doing. For instance, you might be fine in a 3mm full in 75 degree water for 2 dives one or two days, but if you're doing 2-3 dives per day for 6 days, you'll likely be cold about day 3 or 4.

For example, we did a liveaboard in Belize a few years ago doing 4-5 dives per day. The water was 80 degrees and I had my 5mm full suit with me (along with 2 other people). The first day people expressed surprise that we'd have such thick suits, but by day 3 there were folks borrowing thicker suits from the liveaboard, and to a fault everyone admitted that the 5mm full was the right choice.

Not only that, but I plan to wear a 7mm full this year when we dive Maui. The water will be 74-76 degrees and we'll be diving 2-3 tanks per day for 10 days straight. My husband will be wearing his 5mm Merino lined suit, which is nearly as warm as a 7mm. Neither of us will be cold, but we'll see folks with 3mm shorties on the same boat....and they'll look at us like we're nuts as we pull our thick suits on.

Remember, you can always cool off by letting water in your suit, but you can't get warmer once chilled.

 

[Noboundaries]

Water Temp General Thickness Guidelines
75-85F 1/16" (1.6mm) neoprene, lycra, polartec
70-85F 1/8" (3mm) neoprene
65-75F 3/16" (5mm) neoprene
50-75F 1/4" (6.5mm) neoprene
35-50F 3/8" (9.5mm) neoprene, drysuit

I found the guidelines above someplace when I was shopping for my first wetsuit. If you notice, the temperatures overlap. Whoever put this together knew that exposure protection is different from person to person. Plus there was no mention of layering. My wife and I layer our available exposure protection with skins, shorties, vests, etc to expand the range of the main wetsuit.

Only experience will tell you what you need, but if you need a starting point, this might help.

 

[*Ag*]

If you are living and diving i Melb I would recommend a two piece 7mm suit... or a good quality semi dry one piece.

After doing a few years of winter diving in Melb in a wetsuit I took the plunge and got a dry suit... in summer a thick wetsuit is fine... but in winter it's nice to be warm, esp if you are doing more then one dive a day.

 

[Wetwear]

This is a temperature guide for Wetwear wetsuits, made with the nitrogen celled neoprene. I hope this is helpfull.

WETSUIT TEMPERATURE GUIDE​

WATER TEMPERATURE

SUIT THICKNESS AND STYLE​

40 to 60

7mm Shorty over 7mm Jump​

45 to 70

7mm Shorty over 5mm Jump​

50 to 60

7mm Jump​

50 to 70

5mm Shorty over 5mm Jump​

50 to 80

5mm Shorty over 3mm Jump​

7mm Shorty over 3mm Jump​

60 to 70[RIGHT5mm Jump][/RIGHT]
55 to 80

3mm Shorty over 3mm Jump​

65 to 85

3mm Shorty over 2mm jump​

70 to 80

3mm Jump​

75 to 85

2mm Jump​

 

[Damselfish]

There's too many factors for a chart to be accurate, it would have to be like 6 dimensional. About all you can do is read a bunch of posts on what people use and their situation, to get an idea what might work for you. It isn't just water temp. It's your body composition, how many dives you're doing per day, the type of suit (type of neoprene, features), maybe surface weather. And even where you're from - folks that live in warm places you'll on average see wearing much thicker suits than someone coming from a colder place, because they're acclimated.

FWIW (not much) I wear a 1mm down to 80, down to 75 or at night I'll add a 3mm vest. There are people that will dive happily in tshirts at those temps, actually I have done that too.