JellyKing
Registered
I'll throw my hat in the ring for the heck of it. I haven't dived the Red Sea, but I've been in water from 8°C (Cape Town) to 30°C (Maldives). More useful to this discussion are Mozambique and Sodwana Bay, where the water temperature is around 25°C.
My suit is a 5mm Farmer John (FJ) and 7mm tunic. In Mozambique, the temperature was around 27°C, and I used just the FJ. However, around 22m there was typically a thermocline to 24°C. I wasn't cold, but I would've been if it had been a longer dive. We were diving once a day, though, and it was hellishly hot outside.
As for Sodwana, there the water was slightly cooler, but for the <15m dives, I was still just in the FJ. However, I did my Deep Specialty there, and it started getting into low 20s at depth, so I wound up donning the whole suit. It was a bit excessive, but there wasn't any middle ground. Also, we were diving twice a day, but not for as long as one might in the Red Sea. The trouble with the FJ is that it doesn't cover the arms and shoulders, and depending on how you move, you can let a lot of water in. (For this reason, I don't ever recommend getting a FJ/Tunic combo. The bodysuit+hooded chestpiece is a much better setup.)
In the Red Sea, it sounds to me like one is in for long, repetitive dives for several days. You can probably get away without a hood, but at least have a bodysuit. And as said, rather be too warm than too cold. I'd say 5mm+ bodysuit, IMHO.
On the subject of some of the other setups, I can't believe someone would use a drysuit in 22°C water!? 10°C and under I can believe, even though most of my diving friends will do 8°C in 5+7mm wetsuits. (We shiver for it.) On the other extreme, I've only seen the general diving populous (myself included) going down without a suit in the Maldives, where the water temperature at depth was still in the region of 28°C and occasionally higher. That and an instructor here in Cape Town who dived 17°C in his board shorts and a chafe T-shirt. Dive time was around 25 minutes, but he was barely shivering when he came out.
My suit is a 5mm Farmer John (FJ) and 7mm tunic. In Mozambique, the temperature was around 27°C, and I used just the FJ. However, around 22m there was typically a thermocline to 24°C. I wasn't cold, but I would've been if it had been a longer dive. We were diving once a day, though, and it was hellishly hot outside.
As for Sodwana, there the water was slightly cooler, but for the <15m dives, I was still just in the FJ. However, I did my Deep Specialty there, and it started getting into low 20s at depth, so I wound up donning the whole suit. It was a bit excessive, but there wasn't any middle ground. Also, we were diving twice a day, but not for as long as one might in the Red Sea. The trouble with the FJ is that it doesn't cover the arms and shoulders, and depending on how you move, you can let a lot of water in. (For this reason, I don't ever recommend getting a FJ/Tunic combo. The bodysuit+hooded chestpiece is a much better setup.)
In the Red Sea, it sounds to me like one is in for long, repetitive dives for several days. You can probably get away without a hood, but at least have a bodysuit. And as said, rather be too warm than too cold. I'd say 5mm+ bodysuit, IMHO.
On the subject of some of the other setups, I can't believe someone would use a drysuit in 22°C water!? 10°C and under I can believe, even though most of my diving friends will do 8°C in 5+7mm wetsuits. (We shiver for it.) On the other extreme, I've only seen the general diving populous (myself included) going down without a suit in the Maldives, where the water temperature at depth was still in the region of 28°C and occasionally higher. That and an instructor here in Cape Town who dived 17°C in his board shorts and a chafe T-shirt. Dive time was around 25 minutes, but he was barely shivering when he came out.
