Well, that was a bust...

I hate to report that my first cold-water diving trip ended up with a whopping zero logged dives. I was so looking forward to diving the kelp forests off Point Loma, but alas, I've learned the hard lesson of never trust size charts.

My son and I drove out to San Diego on Wednesday afternoon, getting into town around 7 in the evening. I stopped at Sport Chalet to rent the 7mm wetsuit (only place I had found that was open that late, and none would be open before the Marissa sailed on Thursday morning).

I arrived at the boat plenty early, and felt great all the way out to the first dive site.

Then I suited up.

Before I got my weighting adjusted to a suitable level for the gear, I was feeling strangled by the wetsuit. It wasn't just snug; it was like constriction bands around the chest. It didn't just have me feeling like I couldn't breathe; I was actually getting nauseous from the pressure on my stomach.

No, it wasn't seasickness. I've never been seasick or any other motion sickness in my life, despite having been on similar sized boats in heavier seas (the Pacific off La Jolla was actually pretty calm on Thursday morning).

This was no way to start a dive, so I scrubbed this one. By the time I climbed back aboard, and before I could get the wetsuit off, I lost breakfast over the side.

I didn't even make it into the water for the second dive site. I tried, but as before, the moment I zipped up the wetsuit, the squeeze and the queasy feelings returned. I felt like I couldn't get enough air sitting on the boat, without even using the regulator yet. I don't imagine the feeling would have gotten better forty or fifty feet underwater.

I know wetsuits are supposed to be snug. I know they're supposed to hold close enough to the skin to create a restricted boundary layer of water, rather than a free-flowing current against the skin. I can't imagine, though, that they're supposed to feel like an instrument of the Inquisition, or a Reticulated Python wrapping around my torso.

The crew of the Marissa was terrific. They were helpful and understanding, and didn't push one way or the other. The boat was nice, and the trip itself pretty cool (saw dolphins before we even got out of Mission Bay, and no matter how many I see, I still find dolphins a highlight of any time around the ocean). It sure wasn't their fault I didn't get to dive, and if I get another chance to come out for a trip, I'll certainly look at their schedule first.

But lesson learned. Next time, I'll get into town early enough to not only rent the wetsuit if needed, but to also suit up with it and make sure it feels right BEFORE getting on the boat (and before the store closes). With needing to get my son to Comic Con that evening to pick up his exhibitor passes and to check out the table, I didn't have a lot of extra time for much more than the quick stop to rent the suit.

Why not buy your own wetsuit?

Apecks:

Why not buy your own wetsuit?

Click to expand...

That way you know everyone who has in it!

Or better yet a drysuit!

Well, the plan is to eventually buy my own suit, though I'm not completely encouraged by the experiences of a couple of co-workers. When they went looking for their 7mm wetsuits recently, one found out his wife had gotten rid of it when she noticed it was dry rotting, and the other figured out he must not have his any longer, either.

Tucson isn't exactly a prime location for cold water diving. Our LDS didn't even have any 7mm suits in stock. Not just none in my size; none at all.

The shop in Mesa had one model of 7mm in stock, but I'm still researching which style I want to buy when I'm ready to plop down the money.

As far as a dry suit, I like the idea, but right now the majority of our dive money is going to pay off the Fiji trip before we go. The plan is to NOT put any of the trip on a credit card. From what I've seen, a decent dry suit isn't anywhere near what most would consider "inexpensive" (unless they're someone like Bill Gates, in which case a deep-sea submersible is chump-change).

Ya that definitely doesn't sound right. I use a XL farmer john style 7mm and it doesn't feel very tight at all. But it's still tight enough to keep me warm down to mid-40s (around 45 I start to get the odd chill). So if you look around hopefully you can find something to rent that fits. I've rented from around 5 different shops, and everyone an XL fits me perfectly, so sounds like you just might need to go a size up (and try it on in the shop next time: it takes 5 minutes).

Yeah, according to the size charts, an XL should have fit me.

The wetsuit caused it? LOL

Was this your first time wearing such a thick wetsuit, or a wetsuit thicker than 3mm?

I can tell you that the first time I put on a 6.5mm farmer john (for 13mm across the core) and a thick hood, I felt like I was going to die. It was heat and claustrophobia (which I'd never really had before) - mostly the latter. The second time was much better, because I was prepared for the situation. Same suit - different day.

I'm not saying you're wrong - it's entirely possible that your suit really was way too tight. It's just that I've had an experience with a perfectly fine suit that somewhat resembled your description of an overly tight one.

I suppose it's possible, but it's hard for me to imagine that anyone could get through that to actually dive. I'm certainly not beyond considering it was just unfamiliarity with a thick wetsuit, which resulted in some kind of claustrophobic or other such reaction.

I felt NO nausea whatsoever until the wetsuit was zipped. Once I was out of it, I was fine until I put it back on. It wasn't the motion of the boat or floating in the water. The wetsuit brought on the feeling of inability to breathe, along with queasiness and light-headedness. The nausea persisted after getting out of the wetsuit the second time, but since I had nothing on my stomach from before, that was just as likely a low blood sugar reaction. I've gotten nauseous just sitting in a chair before when my blood sugar has gotten low.

The wetsuit was difficult to get zipped. Pulling the leash didn't do it; someone else had to pull the zipper up the back for me. If that had been the first time ever that I'd worn a back-zipped wetsuit, I might have thought it was just me, but when I tried on my 3mm before buying it last year, I had no problem zipping it, even though at that time I still had the tendonitis in my shoulder that made much of any movement of the arm painful.

Again; maybe all that is normal. Maybe 7mm wetsuits are a major PITA to get zipped. Maybe they're supposed to be really tight across the torso. Maybe all that unfamiliar compression made me more susceptible to seasickness.

Or maybe the damned thing was just too tight.