what temp is too cold to dive in a wetsuit

[Ron Brandt]

Anythig below 68 is drysuit time. Also depends how long I am going to be in.

I know of one instructor from Canada who is now in Mexico that uses a drysuit if he is teaching in water for more than 3 hours.(77-82 degrees)

Ron

 

[MikeFerrara]

The only time I use a wet suit is doing shallow dives (usually teaching) in the summer when the water is near 80 at the surface. And then it's mostly to save wear and tear on the dry suit.

I get cold in the shower so I just haven't been around water that's too warm for a dry suit. Actually, I can leave most of the insulation off under the dry suit and get cool in 75 F water yet I'm still nice and dry and comfortable when I get out.

Deep and/or long dives and I almost always wear a dry suit regardless of temperature. For reference, I wear fairly heavy insulation with a dry suit diving in 72 F Florida caves and still get a little cold because of the length of the dive. I wouldn't be able to stand it in a wet suit.

The big problem with wet suits (besides the fact that you get wet is that they compress. At depth where we have the coldest water we have the least insulation. The damn wet suit keeps us nice and warm at the surface where we don't need it. LOL

In addition, if the water's cold enough to require much of a suit you're always overweighted at depth with a wet suit because of suit compression. With a dry suit, if you're weighted right at the surface you're weighted right at any depth.

If I was diving the tropics I would get one of those light weight tropical dry suits without the boots.

 

[Blue Space]

I know of one place I have never seen a dry suite being used.
Arizona in the middle of the summer.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

D/A that may all be well and good for a single dive on a hot or cold day, but regarding surface intervals and repetitive dives, a thick wetsuit will still be a problem with heat loss. The main drawback of wetsuit diving is during the repetitive dives, and during the surface intervals.

A drysuit keeps you dry, and therefore warmer during your surface interval on a cold day, or even more comfortable on a hot day, when you can fold it down and wear it half-way during the surface interval.

You need to spend the day on my boat. The diving starts at 7am and runs until dark. Two dives a day is the minimum, three is considerd a slow day and four is par for the course when the visibility is good.

The solution to evaporative cooling in a wet suit is to take the thing off between dives or wear something over it to keep the wind off it.

Folding a dry suit down half way is not a solution when the temps are 90 plus and heavy underwear is required for the 35-45 degree water at depth. A dry suit, like a wet suit, will get removed during the surface interval.

The air temp during the surface interval is important. If it is warm out, you will stay warm on repetetive dives, while if it is cool then you will struggle to regain heat and be miserable all day long and a dry suit makes sense.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I know of one place I have never seen a dry suite being used.
Arizona in the middle of the summer.

I don't know about Arizona but we sure use dry suits in florida and Missouri in the summer. The outside temp doesn't matter that much. The concern is the water temp. As far as I know Arizona doesn't have an ocean coast so you're talking about fresh water. What are the temps at depth and how long are you're dives.

If I could dive in a swim suit, that would be great but if I need exposure protection it'll likely be a dry suit. Besides that I don't find that my dry suit is any less comfortable to climb into on a hot day than a heavy wet suit.

 

[scubafool]

80 degrees!?!?! And I thought I was a wimp about cold water! Sorry, just couldn't resist. Around 45-50 minutes in 75 degree water, I start to get cool. 60 minutes I'm cold. That's with a 2.5 mil shorty under a 3 mil long.

 

[String]

The standard "recommended" temps here taught in the basic courses are 7mm under plus 7mm jacket semi dry suits are good down to about 10c.

Below that they recommend drysuits.

Its all down to personal preference and often the air temperature has more of an effect than water as the surface interval can be a real killer.

Personally with me as i feel the cold the MINIMUM i dive in is a 5mm full suit (thats about 28c water). Im happy in that down to 22c or so.

Below that, dry suit.

 

[Rick Inman]

My wife won, so we're going to Kona, HI in March. I was reading on a Kona Scuba web site where the local LDS was making fun of tourist divers who show up with dry suits. I own a 7mm wet, but was thinking about the weight I'd have to wear, the luggage space, the bulk... And my dry suit is a simple OS System nylon shell with latex booties. Perfect for Kona's 75 degree water with a light undergarment.
Yup, I'm taking the dry suit!

 

[drbill]

I dive my 7mm down to 45 degrees. Anything colder and it's a hot chocolate in front of the computer for me. The only way I "dive dry" is in my newspaper column.

Dr. Bill

 

[grazie42]

The coldest I´ve ever dived with my 7mm wetsuit is 6 C for some 20 mins (43F) and only because it was a pretty deep dive but the cold didn´t bother me at all (of course i didn´t have a comp then so didn´t know i was supposed to be cold)...I have a dry suit and I use it when the weather is bad during spring, autumn and winter (pretty much all the time here during those seasons). The effort required to maintain a drysuit properly keeps me from using it more than I have to...