Wetsuit Thickness questions

[Ultimate Shield]

Hello again,
So as stated in the thread I posted asking about regs, I'm starting to pick up my gear for this dive season. I placed an order at a LDS yesterday for a 7mm Henderson Aqua Lock with a 7/5mm Henderson Aqua lock hooded vest. I'm planning to do almost all my diving for now up here in New England (mostly around MA) from season start to close but I'm concerned that this setup might get too warm at certain parts of the summer. I want to predominately split my diving between the usual Lobster and Scallop dives which are usually relativity shallow , but I also really want to get into Wreck diving. From what I understand, the wrecks around here are usually in 75-120ft of water and I imagine it gets quite cold at those depths, but then again I really don't want to be letting water into my suit at shallow depths if I'm getting too warm as that kind of defeats the whole point of the "Aqua Lock" part of the suit. Weight required to get down is also another concern with neoprene layers that thick. I normally really don't mind the cold, but I'm unsure of what temperatures to expect at those deeper wreck dives. Do you guys think I stick with the 7/5mm hooded vest, or would I be better off to switch my order over the 5/3mm hooded vest?
Thanks again for any input!

 

[RJP]

Do you guys think I stick with the 7/5mm hooded vest, or would I be better off to switch my order over the 5/3mm hooded vest?

There's no way for anyone to know or be able to provide you any useful information about what you may or may not need on any particular dive.

That said, you're learning early that it's going to be hard to acquire a "one dive fits all" exposure protection solution. It's almost silly to expect that you can come up with one configuration that will work for any dive ranging from 30-125ft that are taking place from roughly Easter to Thanksgiving in New England.

Beyond that, nearly every day/dive can be different. Go out on a cloudy day vs a sunny day and the same dive will be very different. Some days there might be a thermocline and 70ft, others it's at 50ft... somedays there might be none. I often have different tollerances to cold from one day/dive to another. Somedays 50F feels fine, other days 70F feels cold.

All that said... I've never ended a dive saying "Would have been better if I were cold..."

You can always let a bit of water in or pull your hood back to cool yourself. There's no option to let heat in if you're cold.

 

[rhwestfall]

There's no option to let heat in if you're cold.

amen!

 

[RJP]

amen!

Theoretically I guess you could ask your buddy to pee in YOUR wetsuit... though I can't imagine what the hand-signal for that would be.

 

[tbone1004]

frankly you'd be better off cancelling both of them and just getting a drysuit. You can get a neoprene drysuit for quite cheap and you'll be much happier in the long run...
$520 for the hydrolock wetsuit
$215 for the hooded vest
so call it $750 for easy math. You're talking about deep dives, not necessarily short ones either. The temperature isn't going to be significantly colder as an absolute temperature, but below 60ft your suits are compressing drastically
Warmdry Drysuit - Dive Right in Scuba
$1k gets you a drysuit that can be adapted to the different temperatures and will allow you to stay warmer at the deeper depths and especially on repetitive dives. To each his own, but I would not recommend a wetsuit for your applications if you can spend not much more and be in drysuit...

 

[Damselfish]

I'm fairly cold tolerant and never found being too warm in the water with a couple layers of neoprene a problem around here, even in the summer. So I wouldn't sweat that aspect too much. (Too warm before you get in the water is another matter.)

 

[Ultimate Shield]

Lol, excellent point about the inability to add heat. Didn't think about it that way.

I'm actually on a limited budget as I'm a college student, but a LDS (same one I got my cert through) gave me a very nice deal on the Henderson aqualock suit and hooded vest for $690 after tax, which is right about at the limit I had for a suit as the rest of my tax return is going to regs. A Drysuit is on the list of future upgrades though, just not atm due to limited funds.
Thanks for the input all!

 

[RJP]

I'm fairly cold tolerant and never found being too warm in the water with a couple layers of neoprene a problem around here, even in the summer. So I wouldn't sweat that aspect too much.

 

[ams511]

Lol, excellent point about the inability to add heat. Didn't think about it that way.

I'm actually on a limited budget as I'm a college student, but a LDS (same one I got my cert through) gave me a very nice deal on the Henderson aqualock suit and hooded vest for $690 after tax, which is right about at the limit I had for a suit as the rest of my tax return is going to regs. A Drysuit is on the list of future upgrades though, just not atm due to limited funds.
Thanks for the input all!

If you can stretch your budget another $10. You could have this.

 

[Omisson]

I don't know any serious Northeast Wreck divers who don't have a drysuit- most of our wrecks are at temps in the 40s and 50s from October to May and any dive longer than 30 mins or deco dive begs for diving dry...