Thickness of Wet Suit

[akirawut]

Hi Folks,

I am wondering what thickness of wetsuit most people use around Vancouver/Vancouver Island/Sunshine Coast during the summer? What about in the winter, anyone stick with wet suit or is dry suit a must?

Thanks,
-Tom

 

[cram]

A drysuit is strongly recommended but there are certainly a few out there who still wear a wetsuit, some even do it year-round. I think it depends a lot on personal cold tolerance though. I moved here in August and toughed it out in a 8/6 semidry for a while, but had to move to a drysuit by November when I felt that the temperature wasn't just uncomfortable but downright dangerous.

If you are going to wear a wetsuit, you'll probably want the thickest you can find - 7mm full suit plus 7mm vest.

 

[DaleC]

The Bare Arctic 7/7 suit works but as Dustin said a drysuit is usually wore by regular divers (with some notable exceptions).
Most anyone can do the first dive in such a wetsuit, even in winter, but you start to get chilled during the SI and the second dive starts getting cold. You also tend to shorten the dive times too. A couple of dives in those conditions leaves you pretty wiped.
I would use a wetsuit for simpler dives in the summer where you can warm up between dips.

 

[Slamfire]

I've dove the Bare Arctic 7/7 year round and in all weather conditions. I've done 150 ft staged decompression dives on it with no problems. I've also done 90 min long dives on it. My reason for moving to a drysuit is more related to redundancy than protection from the cold. I was getting nervous about the possibility of having a wing failure on a deco dive. If I lost the wing while using the wet suit on a deco dive, I'd have to drop some weight to avoid sinking (or claw my way back up on a wall or anchor line ). If I drop the weight, then how do I control my ascent and comply with deco obligations?

Back to topic, yes dry suits are warmer, but I wouldn't say they are a must for recreational no-deco diving around here. The hardest part is the surface interval during winter. Having a hot tea thermos helps, but there were several times when I only did one dive instead of the usual 2 per day. That's just me, though. People react differently to cold. The best thing to do is to try them out yourself and draw your own conclusions. Any diving shop will rent you wetsuits and drysuits, with the appropriate training, of course.

 

[Don954]

I have heard a lot of people say that drysuits are "strongly recomended" nowadays but I can remember before i started diving, when my dad was instructing and sister was an active diver(10-15yrs ago), about half the people dove wet! So I would say it is possible dry suits have become so popular because cost has come down (not much but enough, especially with used vic has some good deals once in a while) in the last 15 years and if you got the cash its convenient in some ways. I am a student myself so i had to collect my gear on budget so i dive wet with a 7mm farmer john style year round and it does me great and i wear a little less weight too. I've seen people use the next thickness down (5mm?) but i wouldn't recommend that for winter. Most importantly if your going to dive wet, make damn sure the suit fits your body well, cuz theres nothing more exciting than a quick shot of 5 degree water up your spine Also, i have noticed that a lot of the ladies are more likely to get uncomfortably cold sooner. So much so for my sister that she would get cold wearing a drysuit and wool underwear.. so it really depends on the person as Slamfire and cram both mentioned.

 

[DaleC]

What you say is true, and to be fair 20-30 years ago the majority of divers did the same sort of dives wet. I'm a diver on a budget myself so I feel your pain Don . I bought my DS used for $300 plus some bartered work.

 

[Darnold9999]

Learned to dive 20 plus years ago and learned wet. 3/8 John and 3/8 vest - don't know the metric conversion. Really comfy until you started to get deeper. The deeper the colder as the neoprene compressed and the water temp went down.

With a good wetsuit that fits very well you can dive up here with no problem - second dive will be cold however.

 

[akirawut]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I have a 5mm suit already, I'm thinking rent either a 5mm or 7mm hooded vest and try that over the suit. See how that is, at least during summer. Will go from there.

Thanks again!