What's the coldest water temp you will wetsuit in??

[WillHartNZ]

I’ll happily dive my wetsuit down to 4 degrees Celsius. It’s a 2 piece 7mm. A lot of the time for me the temperature to get changed on the is more important than the water itself.

Most everyone else I dive with use Drysuits almost all the time but I’m the sort of guy that can wear shorts, tshirt and jandals in the snow so I’m pretty comfortable in the cold.

 

[TMHeimer]

Yeah, same thing up here. The weather. Cold water in May, warm weather (sometimes). Warm water in November, cold weather. In between, all good.

 

[DerekR]

Wetsuit temp starts around 95F, for me. Anything less than that and I'm diving dry.

 

[wKkaY]

20C is the point where I'm neither too cold in a 5mm wetsuit nor too warm in a drysuit.

15C and below definitely drysuit.

 

[JD_McCombs]

I have dove a wetsuit down to 45 F. Now that I have a drysuit I’d say 60 F would be my limit wet.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

I used to routinely dive a wetsuit down to 42F. Not so much anymore. If it's advantageous (e.g., drysuit in the shop or I'm working around jagged stuff and don't want to risk a tear in the drysuit), I'll still go down to 48-49F in a wetsuit.

I think it's age related. I get cold easier now then 30 years ago, and I can afford a drysuit now that I couldn't 30 years ago....

 

[TMHeimer]

I don't think it's age related, but could be wrong. Growing up in NYC (not just as a kid, to age 23) I hated cold water. After a few years of -30 winters in N. Manitoba the reverse. Cold was OK and hated the heat of NY summers. Moving to NS 13 years ago the ocean was absolutely balmy in October for a long swim. Gradually, I began to notice the cold while diving. Now 50F water is kinda cold, whereas 13 years ago when I started diving it was balmy.

 

[markmud]

48 degrees for 53 minutes. We were doing a Tech 40 cert dive. The worst part was coming up and surviving the driving rain and cold wind. I did it wet.
markm

 

[Seaweed Doc]

My worst dive (for cold) was in the winter of about 1992. It was below freezing and snowing on the surface, and the water temperature was low 40's. I had to pilot an open boat back to the dock holding a metal steering wheel. After I got my buddy and boat tender to tie us up, I shut down the engine with my right (throttle) hand, and then used it to pull the fingers of my left hand off the steering wheel. Cold air, wind (from the boat doing 20 knots) and water dripping from my wetsuit on my ungloved hand was NOT fun.

On the warmer side, this was an incredibly short research dive. We got in, did what we had to do, and hopped out. We didn't site-see. Bottom time was probably 30 minutes.

 

[Byrdie]

46-48 degrees -but it's a function of time as well.