New diver from London
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Thanks, I was planning a trip to Mike's dive store. I live close to the shop and I definitely don't want to buy any gear without trying.
A 7mm suit is not very useful. Too thick and buoyant for blue water holidays, to cold and still buoyant for most of the time in the UK.
Join a club. People there will probably let you borrow kit to try out. The club will have training kit too which ought to enable a few UK dive to see how cold a wetsuit can be
Where are you in London? My club is based is Bermondsey, there are several other large ones which meet and use pools in central London.
Joining a dive club is definitely a good idea! I work around London Bridge but live in West London.
Welcome.
Well, I am neither from GB nor that experienced but I can tell you this (for what it's worth):
- If you want to dive in local (cold) GB waters, listen to the advise of your fellow divers from GB. What I read from them above on the thermal protection, joining a club, regulators,... makes a lot of sense from little that I know. (I presume there are real clubs - the non-shop affiliated kind with no sales pressure...).
- Definitely only consider cold water regulators and my guess would be that in GB the likelyhood for a shop to just when you need service right now to not have the necessary parts for your regulators at hand is the slimmest with Apeks. Widely used in cold water - preferably also by tek divers, proven robustness and reliability matters much more than bells and whistles.
- I dove the Red Sea only in summer (last year). Did every dive on two adjacent 1 week liveaboard trips in a 3mm shorty (OK, I have some natural insulation, but many wore 3mm full suits or just a sharkskin). Two guys had 5mm suits and were miserable at that time. Not in the water so much but they felt toasty, but in the dinghy they were just miserably hot.. . At the time you go, things may differ, but, before you carry your own 7mm suit there try to find out the water and air temps for the time you are going to be there and decide then. Dress to warm up between dives too. Other than that for diving in GB a drysuit seems to make sense... that said it just cost's a lot, probably requires a class.... and I just bought a (hopefully) warm semi dry suit to get by, but only because of the "necessary funds" for a drysuit, not necessarily because I would not want one.
- BCD or BP&Wing? For what it's worth: When I thought I figured it all out I went and bought "a very nice BCD" - sort of a "tek dive looking BCD" (bladder in back only, can even take on doubles with an adapter). Half a year of a few dives is all it took for me to sort of regret I did not buy a BP&W. My BCD is just fine really, but by then I figured out how much more versatile a BP&W is, how much smaller it can pack and got interested in diving that could use all of that...and my BCD got punctured too which, although it is repaired probably dropped it's resale value (low anyway) quite a bit. Buying a BP&W when I started out in any of the shops that I knew off at the time was also next to impossible (Now I know the right shops of course). I tried (not really knowing what I was doing) and they talked me out of it (and as it turns out did not really carry them). That much more reason to consider joining a club - if you can - especially if they have various gear that you could try.... but also to really get you started to use and set up a BP&W in a good way...
Well, I am neither from GB nor that experienced but I can tell you this (for what it's worth):
- If you want to dive in local (cold) GB waters, listen to the advise of your fellow divers from GB. What I read from them above on the thermal protection, joining a club, regulators,... makes a lot of sense from little that I know. (I presume there are real clubs - the non-shop affiliated kind with no sales pressure...).
- Definitely only consider cold water regulators and my guess would be that in GB the likelyhood for a shop to just when you need service right now to not have the necessary parts for your regulators at hand is the slimmest with Apeks. Widely used in cold water - preferably also by tek divers, proven robustness and reliability matters much more than bells and whistles.
- I dove the Red Sea only in summer (last year). Did every dive on two adjacent 1 week liveaboard trips in a 3mm shorty (OK, I have some natural insulation, but many wore 3mm full suits or just a sharkskin). Two guys had 5mm suits and were miserable at that time. Not in the water so much but they felt toasty, but in the dinghy they were just miserably hot.. . At the time you go, things may differ, but, before you carry your own 7mm suit there try to find out the water and air temps for the time you are going to be there and decide then. Dress to warm up between dives too. Other than that for diving in GB a drysuit seems to make sense... that said it just cost's a lot, probably requires a class.... and I just bought a (hopefully) warm semi dry suit to get by, but only because of the "necessary funds" for a drysuit, not necessarily because I would not want one.
- BCD or BP&Wing? For what it's worth: When I thought I figured it all out I went and bought "a very nice BCD" - sort of a "tek dive looking BCD" (bladder in back only, can even take on doubles with an adapter). Half a year of a few dives is all it took for me to sort of regret I did not buy a BP&W. My BCD is just fine really, but by then I figured out how much more versatile a BP&W is, how much smaller it can pack and got interested in diving that could use all of that...and my BCD got punctured too which, although it is repaired probably dropped it's resale value (low anyway) quite a bit. Buying a BP&W when I started out in any of the shops that I knew off at the time was also next to impossible (Now I know the right shops of course). I tried (not really knowing what I was doing) and they talked me out of it (and as it turns out did not really carry them). That much more reason to consider joining a club - if you can - especially if they have various gear that you could try.... but also to really get you started to use and set up a BP&W in a good way...
Depending on how you run your life you may be better joining a club close to home or work. Take a look at
SCUBA diving find it tool, trip reports to wrecks, to big critters
to find one locally. Certainly there is an active club in Harrow.
steady1570
Contributor
Much as I wish it were different, I think even in the summer (or is it "summer"?) the UK waters are generally cold enough for a drysuit, especially as your dives get longer or you do multiple dives per day. Sitting on the rib / hardboat in a wetsuit isn't much fun either. Whilst a custom fitted suit can be ££, there are plenty of cheaper alternatives to start with. Honestly, I really doubt you would use even a 7mm very often in the UK once you've tried a drysuit.... A decent suit and a few different thickness undersuits for throughout the year would be a better choice IMHO... even though I want to dive in the UK I probably will stick to summer time for now. But I might consider it for the future.
-Mark
The few people I know who dive wet in the summer only do it July - September; and then only on the South coast. As said by @steady1570 sitting in a rib or re-suiting on a hardboat will be uncomfortable. I did a few years in a wetsuit, normally doing one dive when all the drysuit divers did two.Thanks for the offer! I'm not so sure about the drysuit though, even though I want to dive in the UK I probably will stick to summer time for now. But I might consider it for the future
If you join a BSAC club and start training for Sports Diver (you can continue with PADI if you wish and dive with the club on you current qualification) they will run you through a dry-suit course.
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