Will I need more Wetsuit next time?

[King_of_All_Tyrants]

Hi all-

I did an hour long dive today in a 3mm full wetsuit and got cold in 79 degree Fahrenheit water. Of course the thing you think is "you need a thicker wetsuit" or at the very least you should wear a hood!

However, I want to take full consideration of the conditions. Based on what I write below, do you think a thicker wetsuit is necessary for dives at this temperature or that other considerations need to be taken into account? This is an important question for me because I intend to take this wetsuit on my tropical dives.

- surface temperature was 70

- dive time was 1 hour 17 minutes; we only did one dive.

- maximum depth was 10 feet; frequently we were even shallower because this was a beach dive

- vis was 8 ft at best

- the water becomes considerably colder as you go further out; in fact I'd say the water was warmer at the surface than at depth but I was at depth the entire time and the computer said 79 the entire length of the dive

- wetsuit was an Akona full 3mm.

Thanks for your suggestions!

KoAT

 

[spectrum]

And that was a single dive...

When you mention tropical dives I assume you mean a dive intensive vacation where you make 2 or more dives per day for a week. The cumulative heat loss of repetitive dives is not to be taken lightly. Many divers find themselves energy sapped late in the vacation week even if they have not been feeling chilled.

There are tropical times and places where the temperature will be 79F. While it may be somewhat warmer you will also be diving deeper and that means your suit will lose some insulation capability.

Question 1 is how well does the suit fit. When you peeled it off you should have seen the imprint of the stitching at least on your arms and legs. If not it may be more of a water bag than a wetsuit.

Question 2 is what else did you wear?
A beanie could help quite a bit.
A hooded vest will help a lot.
Were you wearing booties and open heeled fins or were you barefoot in full foot fins?

Whenever you are diving you are in a state of thermal energy drain and you need to be protected. Everyone is unique but you have described a personal data point and you need to understand why you were cold and go from there. There are divers for whom 3mm is not enough under any circumstance.

Pete

 

[King_of_All_Tyrants]

Good points spectrum. And your points in the second and last paragraphs of your post are exactly the problems I'm pondering.

The suit fit very well. It was hard to get off, and there was a fair amount of stiching imprint (in fact maybe it was too tight in some areas).

I did not wear a hood/beanie, nor a hooded vest or any kind of skin. I was wearing, I believe, 6mm booties with open heeled fins (I'll NEVER go back to full foot fins).

KoAT
[who doesn't want to drag his drysuit to Bonaire]

 

[spectrum]

Cover your head with something as a minimum then.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Anything under 80 degrees or so for multiple dives over multiple days I take my 5 mil. Down to about 70. Any lower it's dry suit. But in Bonaire the avg temps are 85 or so I just saw on divi flamingo's web site. That's water and air depending on when you go. Me I'd be fine with my polar tech. Equal to 3 mil but no inherent buoyancy.

 

[rfins]

Anything under 80 degrees or so for multiple dives over multiple days I take my 5 mil. Down to about 70. Any lower it's dry suit. But in Bonaire the avg temps are 85 or so I just saw on divi flamingo's web site. That's water and air depending on when you go. Me I'd be fine with my polar tech. Equal to 3 mil but no inherent buoyancy.

Pretty much the same here.............
Above 86 - swim suit
86-80 - 3 mil shorty, with a neoprene beanie
80-70 - full wet suit 5-7 mil
70 below - dry suit

I would rather be warm than cold.....

 

[Doc Intrepid]

I did an hour long dive today in a 3mm full wetsuit and got cold in 79 degree Fahrenheit water. Of course the thing you think is "you need a thicker wetsuit" or at the very least you should wear a hood!

However, I want to take full consideration of the conditions. Based on what I write below, do you think a thicker wetsuit is necessary for dives at this temperature or that other considerations need to be taken into account? This is an important question for me because I intend to take this wetsuit on my tropical dives.

There is one other consideration you may want to take into account.

(All the normal caveats apply; talking about warmth and comfort is such a subjective area that one divers experience may be meaningless to another, but.....)

On most tropical dive trips you may find yourself doing 3 or 4 dives in any given 24 hour period (including night dives). In my experience, I've found myself feeling 'colder' on the third and forth dive. It was the same ocean and the same wetsuit, so I'm assuming that the key variable was me - and you might find this to be the case as well.

With what you've described in your post (tight 3mm), while the water may be warmer where you are going, you'll likely be doing more than one dive per day.

You have lots of options, from adding a beanie or hood to throwing a 3mm vest on top of your wetsuit (which puts 6mm over your trunk). If it were me, however, I agree with rfins. I'd rather be warm than cold. For me at least the cumulative effect of many dives has left me chilled towards the end, and I'd prefer a thicker wetsuit - say a 5mm farmer john which gives me a few more options.

JMHO. YMMV.