How thick a wetsuit for the Great Lakes?

[rhwestfall]

In Erie - 74 at the surface, and 38 below the thermocline (which can show up anywhere below 60')...... I dove for years with a 1/4" Farmer John & Shorty Jacket (so double layers on the torso). St. Lawrence is a whole 'nother story as it is significantly warmer (except over off Kingston on the Wolf Islander)....

It can be done.....

 

[Paladin]

Palidan which lake are you diving and which month, end of july first of august has always been best for me in the warmest. bring a warm coat for surface interval as the wind out there will chill you when wet(I would take suit off in between add warm water after donning).

You can dive under mac bridge in a jump suit of 5 mill with no hood or gloves if you are use to that kind of temps, so the hood and gloves will make it doable.

Superior I say drysuit.

I would ask on the GLWC forum and see what they are diving as new divers, and for what charter to to pre book.

I'm thinking the southern shore of Erie, a couple of the shallower wrecks for my first time.

 

[fncrow]

I did Huron in July down to 80ft and we wore full 7mm wetsuits. Was plenty warm once you got moving, everyone else on the boat was in dry suits.

 

[DiverW]

Haha 3mm wetsuit... Frankly if I could buy a second 7mm farmer john and wear it over the first one for diving up in Lake Superior I would do it in a heartbeat. That being said it's some awesome diving here once you get past the temps, those wrecks are easily some of the most beautiful sights I've had the occasion to behold.

Honestly if you are a warm water diver you probably want to go dry because it does get a bit chilly here...

 

[j yaeger]

i'd opt for a 7mm over a 5
close to same price
and ive never been toooo warm!!
..but i have been too cold!
bragging rights aside,you want to be comfortable and enjoy your dives
have fun
yaeg

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I did all of my Helitrox training in Erie and in August of 2007 above the thermocline it was 68-73. Once you hit 30-40 feet it dropped to the mid 50's. By 70 my face was numb and temps were in the 38-40 degree range. Southern shore of Erie has some shallow stuff that can actually be accessed from shore but these are mostly rubble piles. A few boilers still survive but due to the ice during the winter and storms anytime of year the stuff in the shallows get hammered bad. The good wrecks that are still intact are 2-10 miles out and in the 100 ft range and that means 38 -42 degree water year round. I like to use Osprey out of Barcelona New York. We had some divers wet on a few of these trips but they looked thoroughly miserable after the first dive and some only lasted 15 minutes or so total from time off the boat to back on.

I personally would never take a student out on anything below 50 feet unless they were diving dry. Not worth the risk.

I'd recommend Chris Kohl's book "The Great Lakes Diving Guide" before trying to do anything. Another source I have is a shipwreck chart from the Midwest Explorers League out of Chicago. It has over 300 wrecks and it was created in 1998. I know at least a dozen more have been found. It has depths, latitudes and longitudes, as well as short descriptions of the known wrecks it has listed. BTW it is estimated that there could be as many as a thousand wrecks in Erie if you count some of the craft from the 1700's and smaller stuff that just disappeared. It is possible to find virgin stuff in her.

 

[Paladin]

Thanks, Jim. I'll check out that book ASAP.

 

[shoredivr]

St. Lawrence is a whole 'nother story as it is significantly warmer (except over off Kingston on the Wolf Islander)....

Well the nice thing about the St. Lawrence is there is no thermocline, same temp right to the bottom. But if you're diving in May the temp will be in the high 30's, low 40's right to the bottom. By the time August rolls around the river can be in the mid 70's all the way down, at which time I'll do a 3ml. The rest of the year it's a drysuit.

 

[Paladin]

Can you recommend a good dive OP to take first timers for a wreck dive on the St. Lawrence?

 

[rhwestfall]

do a google search on St. Lawrence River Diving - there is a pretty good list of wrecks and dive ops in both the Us and Canada (if I remember correctly) on a page. I'll see if I can find it too....