Who Needs a wetsuit for tropical water diving anyway?

[Centrals]

Anyone has dived Manta Point or Crystal Bay in Bail in Sept/Oct?

 

[Scared Silly]

Anyone has dived Manta Point or Crystal Bay in Bail in Sept/Oct?

Not Manta Point, but Manta Alley south of Komodo in June, wore a full 4mm with a 3mm over that. And requested double hot chocolates topside when I came out.

 

[Manatee Diver]

There are many tropical places where gloves are forbidden. Best policy in warm water is to learn good buoyancy skills and not touch anything.

There are a lot of places, including our own Marine Protected Area which ban the use of gloves when diving on the reef. The argument being that people are less inclined to touch things on the reef if they've got bare hands.... and thus you protect the reefs a little more. In warm water, I never wear gloves unless I'm doing something like cleaning the coral nursery (lots of hydriods and stingy things), but on the reef..... no

The only time I've been hit with fire coral was off a mooring ball. Thus I consider gloves required equipment for diving salt water.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Here the joke is, that what ever exposure suite choice you make, it's only good for 1/3 of the dive anyway

In the Summer, the air temp on the boat might be 50C/120F The top layer down to say 20m 30C/86F and then you drop below the thermocline to 23C/73F

For most of the year I personally choose a 3mm with 1/1.5mm hooded vest, where I can pull the hood up when it gets chilly. You learn to gear up quickly here. Tropical with less than 30C air temps.. positively chilly

As for protection, rock scrapes are common here with the currents. and in the spring and autumn Jelly fish congregate in patches on a few 1000 or so , cunningly positioning themselves above 10m. You can be as aware as you like, but you'll not avoid them at the SS

 

[D_Fresh]

If you can dodge a jellyfish, you can dodge a ball.

So far, this is my favorite reply.... Nice!

But, on topic, because of my previous industry, I don't have any issue with the common Red Jellyfish... sure, they're annoying, but I don't find them very painful and it goes away pretty quickly (for me). Of course, the white jellyfish (moon Jelly), don't sting, so no problem there... But what gets me are the small ones... the hydroids (as they're known out here, not sure if that's the correct name)... the little ones that you really cannot see until they're right up in your face... Those are irritating to me, but not painful enough to complain about... Nonetheless, here in the Philippines, I still wear a 3mm full. Mostly because I do enough dives down to ~30m, and on repetitive dives, it can get kinda chilly.... plus, I don't have to add and remove weight if I wear the 3mm Full or not... That's my 2 bar on the topic....

 

[The Chairman]

Of course, the white jellyfish (moon Jelly), don't sting,

Location, location, location...

I was towing a tired diver back to the boat at the Christ of the Abyss in Key Largo and a moon jelly swam up my swim suit into the nether regions. My french was a bit fluent.

 

[formernuke]

Location, location, location...

I was towing a tired diver back to the boat at the Christ of the Abyss in Key Largo and a moon jelly swam up my swim suit into the nether regions. My french was a bit fluent.

Ouch

 

[seeker242]

I'm not fat, so full 3mm minimum all the time, no matter what.

 

[formernuke]

@The Chairman is convincing me if I ever dive florida to bring my drysuit so I don't get jellyfish in the sensitive areas.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I always wear a wetsuit of some sort. I'm never in water warm enough for me to not get chilled after a 60 min dive. I'm a small guy and I get cold easily. If the water is 82 F or so and higher than I'll wear a 3mm full suit. Anything colder and I'm in a 5mm fullsuit at minimum. Below 76 F and I'm in a 5mm with a hooded vest.

I far prefer being warm and comfortable throughout the dive.