what is your favorite cold water wetsuit

[bgi]

I've never tried a semi-dry in REALLY cold water, how do they hold up? I used to use an O'Neil SuperSuit in CA. But that was an attempt to make a dry suit that wound up being semi<G>.

Hopefully someone with more experience will pipe in. I've had mine deep in a quarry below the 3rd or 4th thermocline several times where the water is around 55 degrees. I could feel the chill creeping in a bit through the suit. It felt good after being hot on the surface, but keep in mind this was 120 feet deep so the neoprene was essentially compressed to nothing. The longest I stayed deep was 10 minutes or so. I didn't get very chilled. Not much to base a decision on here - sorry. Do a search. I believe you'll find people vouch for them in water down to 50 or so unless you dive deep.

I spoke to a cave diver gentleman in Boston a couple months ago. He told me that the isotherm is very popular with cavers because they keep you warm, mostly dry, and greatly reduce drag over dry suits.

 

[Knight]

Work in the commercial field so this will be different, but we use Pro HD 1500 suits, these suits are so freaking awesome I can't tell you how good they are till you been in one you won't know.

Always descending,
c.h.

 

[CaseyS]

Akona 6.5 Farmer Jon. Down to 42 degrees no problem. Hood, gloves and boots are also necessary

I dive this suit as well. I love my Akona, it's a perfect fit, and it keeps me incredibly warm. Half of the time, I come out of the water, and realize my torso never even got wet.

 

[chipwd]

We dove 7MM farmer johns (Bare I think) in 46 degree water and stayed warm for two dives. I use a 7mm Poseiden one piece now in 50 -60 degree water and stay warm.

 

[cfdfirediver]

I`m in upstate NY and my personal suit is a Xcel 7mil full suit. And for the dive team it`s an Akona 7mil full suit. Both are great. The Xcel is more expensive but worth it.

 

[Delhi Diver]

I've been down to about 55 F in my Mares Isotherm semi-dry and was fine. I am susceptible to cold and suspect I wouldn't do too well below 50 F, but that's a pretty decent performance for a wetsuit I think.