Diving in Norcal

[JRCrab]

I just got the bare velocity 7/8 semi dry and I really like it. Hood is amazing, seals around wrist and ankles are great. Fits well. I can do up the zipper just fine. Used a beat up rental Hollis once and thought it was just pretty good but the difference between brand new and beat up rental is huge with wet suits. I Just posted my limited but positive (and wordy) experience in the "newly certified" thread started by someone in the NorCal forum...

 

[JRCrab]

Here is a copy paste of that post:

"I have some experience that might be contentious. I've been certified a year. Done 16 dives [as a certified diver]. 7 in Monterey the rest in the tropics. Of the 7 in Monterey: 2 dives in a dry suit with a 200 undergarment for my PADI dry suit diver specialty cert at 49-55deg and 4 dives in a brand new bare velocity 7mm/8mm "semidry" with attached hood, 1 dive in a beat up rental Hollis semidry. Temp hit 49F on almost all dives. Shore temperature was in the 70s. Dives weren't that long as I am new and diving an 80L tank. Went to as deep as 72ft in the new semi dry and about 45ft in the dry suit. Here is the contentious part: I was just as warm or warmer in my new semi dry than the dry suit. I don't have a ton of experience yet, a 400 undergarment would likely make a big difference and my opinions may change, but right now I'm loving the semi-dry. Out of the water, having a dry suit is definitely better. In the water, I really feel great in the semidry. I'm not doing huge underwater times, I'm not diving more than three dives in a day (not more than two so far), I have no idea how serious I'm going to get about going deep, long, or often in cold waters. For now, the semi dry is working great and at $320 on sale, I feel like it was a GREAT choice compared to $2500 for a dry suit. As an FYI you can rent a dry suit for $95/week from diver Dans in Santa Clara after you take your dry suit cert course. I took my cert course through them as a means to refresh and get cold water dive experience and liked it. I'll definitely dive dry again but for my purposes, owning a semi dry for regular use on random weekends in Monterey and renting a dry suit if I happen to do a trip I think warrants it is the right compromise...Also keep in mind that the semidry will wear out MUCH faster than a dry suit. The rental suit I used once was destroyed and nowhere near as warm as my new one. If I knew I was going to dive cold waters most weekends for the next couple years I would not hesitate to buy dry. I know that I could possibly go 6-8 months without diving once ski season is upon us..."

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I guess a lot of it does depend on dive times, depths, and number of dives per day. I don't buy into the argument that a drysuit is always better in all situations no matter what. That seems to be more of a scubaboard thing than the real world, at least around here. I think that if someone is comfortable diving wet, loves to be wet with salt water and not sweat, and has no desire to do long deep dives, then a wetsuit is great. Wetsuits are economical, very low maintenance, less skipped dives because of issues, and clean up easily, dry quickly (at least the skin-in type) and can be used multiple days without stinky sweat soaked undergarments and the soggy inside of a drysuit.