what wet suit to get?

[DiveJedi]

If you head out to Ocean Quest Water Sports in Burnaby, they have a great rental program on drysuits.....that is how I got started in a relatively cheap way, but still allowed me to dive dry and figure out what my priorities were in a drysuit.
Talk to Greg or Todd, you can even tell them I sent you.

I personally would not advise buying a cheapo drysuit just to have a drysuit.....a good suit should last for many years.

Happy diving,

Tyler

Happy diving

 

[jpcpat]

1. 7mm Bare Arctic
2. Bare 7mm hooded step-in shorty
3. 5mm Bare gauntlet gloves
4. Bare (or other) Neo-socks to wear inside your booties.

Spectrum's right about the best way to go wet. You'll probably be chilly at least. For the first dive I'd suggest staying near your exit point, just in case it really is too much.

 

[CompuDude]

That's some seriously cold water to consider diving wet. You can get away with it in the best, most expensive semi-dry suits but you'll never be truly comfortable, especially on repetitive dives. (as in more than one dive in the space of 6 hours).

I'd start off with a DS course and renting, then look for a used suit in good shape. I spent $400 on my first DS (same or less than you'll spend on a quality semi-dry), which I am still diving, and will probably sell it soon for about the same I paid for it, and upgrade to a better/fancier DS with the money + a bit more.

 

[johnny_bravo]

Lots of people dive "wet" in that water temp range in Easter Canada. I dove in Ontario with the Bare Artic two piece (7 full+7mm hooded vest), 7mm Gold Core Henderson gloves, etc.

You do get a little chilly in the second or third dive of the day but it's doable.

Cheers.

-J.-

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Tell your uncle that you'd rather be a dry, warm diver than a cold miserable one. If he wants to dive wet that's fine but if you shop around you can get a decent dry suit for not much less than a very good wetsuit. I also looked at the lifespan. The number of dives I do would probably get 5 yrs out of a wetsuit that because of my size I would have had to go custom to get a 7 mil that fits right. Cost around 600 bucks. For my drysuit as long as I take care of it, perhaps a seal now and then, I may get 15 yrs plus as long as nothing catastrophic happens. It's a no brainer man. We dove yesterday and even though the water was a balmy 60 degrees the air was around 40. We were diving dry. Some others in our group went wet. We did 2 long (1hr plus) dives and would have done a third if the weather hadn't turned. The others did one 30 minute and one 20 minute and they were done. Colder than 65 degrees it's not smart to dive wet if you can afford dry. IMO