Miserable Westsuit Experience

[gcarter]

Yup! That was my experience first (and maybe last) time diving Tobermory. I figure I’m going to give it more time before trying cold water diving again, and it will be in a drysuit. I highly admire cold water drysuit divers. Cold water diving is a different beast altogether.

Pfft. Cold water drysuit divers are wussies. Real divers dive wetsuits.

 

[Neilwood]

Pfft. Cold water drysuit divers are wussies. Real divers dive wetsuits.

Exactly - once you have done 8C (45F) in a 7mm, you can call yourself a real diver (or stupid!).

 

[ljpm]

Exactly - once you have done 8C (45F) in a 7mm, you can call yourself a real diver (or stupid!).

Did that this summer (mid July). Dove a quarry for the first time. Dropped to 60' and temp dropped to 43F. I only stayed at 60' for about 5 minutes. Then spent the rest of the dive at 30' and 60F. I'll be getting a dry suit before I try the quarry again.

 

[gcarter]

Did that this summer (mid July). Dove a quarry for the first time. Dropped to 60' and temp dropped to 43F. I only stayed at 60' for about 5 minutes. Then spent the rest of the dive at 30' and 60F. I'll be getting a dry suit before I try the quarry again.

There are a couple of thermoclines. Morrison's Quarry goes to just over 120'. Always hovers around 3C at the bottom. The earliest I ever went in there during the spring was April 14, that was in 2012. At 60' I recorded 3.3C. I came back up to 49'. No Change. 20', no change. It wasn't a long dive

 

[Bigtank1958]

Pfft. Cold water drysuit divers are wussies. Real divers dive wetsuits.

As I age I like warm water. I'm ice certified and prefer to dive wet 7mm farmer john & jacket + 7mm hood and gloves. I've used a drysuit and didn't care for it. What ever you choose to dive in, it takes practice to get used to it. We dive a lot in Iowa in the 30-40' depth range. so your wet suit is rarely fully compressed.

 

[Steve_C]

Making several small adjustments and going up slowly helps. Go up a bit. Readjust. Go up a bit. Readjust.

 

[mcohen1021]

Yes, in Nova Scotia, or Delaware in the winter.

LOL - WOOPS - there's gonna be shrinkage!

 

[BRT]

Exactly - once you have done 8C (45F) in a 7mm, you can call yourself a real diver (or stupid!).

My wife and I certified in 43 deg water in 7 mils. Mine had a few holes.

 

[stuartv]

7mm wetsuits suck! I dived mine last weekend, for the first time in a long time. I dived my drysuit the next day. Managing buoyancy in a (trilam or other shell type) drysuit is easier (to me) than managing it in a 7mm wetsuit.

But, a 5mm or less wetsuit is totally fine (to me!). My 5mm is my "go to" suit nowadays. I only wear anything else if it's TOO warm for the 5mm, too cold for the 5mm and a hood and gloves, or if I need a drysuit for redundant buoyancy.

So, to the OP, don't give up on wetsuits completely just because 7mm suits suck!

Remember this:

Your biggest buoyancy change from the surface will be from the thickest wetsuit. With a drysuit, you add some air to the suit at depth, so your buoyancy doesn't (have to) change at all from the surface to the bottom.

With a thick wetsuit, you'll lose a lot of buoyancy at depth, which means adding that much more air to your BCD. And the more air you have in your BCD, the harder it is to control your buoyancy. Thus why (to me, anyway) controlling buoyancy in a 7mm is harder than a drysuit or any thinner wetsuit. AND, if you add "a little extra" lead, that means even more air in your BCD at depth, which means even HARDER to control your buoyancy.

 

[Dogbowl]

7mm wetsuits suck! I dived mine last weekend, for the first time in a long time. I dived my drysuit the next day. Managing buoyancy in a (trilam or other shell type) drysuit is easier (to me) than managing it in a 7mm wetsuit.

But, a 5mm or less wetsuit is totally fine (to me!). My 5mm is my "go to" suit nowadays. I only wear anything else if it's TOO warm for the 5mm, too cold for the 5mm and a hood and gloves, or if I need a drysuit for redundant buoyancy.

So, to the OP, don't give up on wetsuits completely just because 7mm suits suck!

Remember this:

Your biggest buoyancy change from the surface will be from the thickest wetsuit. With a drysuit, you add some air to the suit at depth, so your buoyancy doesn't (have to) change at all from the surface to the bottom.

With a thick wetsuit, you'll lose a lot of buoyancy at depth, which means adding that much more air to your BCD. And the more air you have in your BCD, the harder it is to control your buoyancy. Thus why (to me, anyway) controlling buoyancy in a 7mm is harder than a drysuit or any thinner wetsuit. AND, if you add "a little extra" lead, that means even more air in your BCD at depth, which means even HARDER to control your buoyancy.

I have to agree with this. In my very limited experience, a trilam drysuit was “easier” to dive than a 7mm. I’ve heard many people tell me, if you can’t dive it in a 5mm, then it’s a drysuit dive.