Start with 7mm or just get drysuit

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I dove for the first 4 years of my career in 6.5mm semi-dry, UK all year, Ice and all… With a good pair of gloves/hood it’s bearable. I choose this route because: I was skint, had to buy the rest of the kit and didn’t want to waste money on a leaky second-hand one (a lot around).

If you have the money though, buy a dry-suit.

BTW A lot of trainees here do use wetsuits, they’re cheaper to maintain and are more flexible in sizing. Also, if you are young and still growing (not from cakes) then spending on a suit that you will outgrow isn’t a great idea.

I eventually bought a new O-three suit which I loved till it sprang a leak I chased for a year, so it’s not all nirvana with a dry suit.
 
PADI explicitly lists OWD as a prerequisite for the Dry Suit class
I took my PADI OWD in a drysuit. Much safer than having students freezing their privates off during the OW dives. Besides, as in the UK, everyone dives dry by default anyway.
 
OP, how cold tolerant are you? What is your budget? Those are the two main questions you need to answer. If you can afford a drysuit, I would absolutely go that route. I did, and there is no way I would be diving locally as much as I do if I had to don a wetsuit. Everyone's tolerance for cold is different, but I would say I'm somewhere in the middle of the pack based on how I see other people react to water temps. In the summer, water temps at my local spots range between the mid-40s to the mid-60s at depth. I see people dive those conditions in double 7mm suits and they are generally pretty chilled after one dive when the water is at the colder end of the range. Most call it quits after a single dive, and only a few hardy souls are up for a short second dive. All of us drysuit divers, on the other hand, are fine.

I have the Scubapro Everdry, which is the same suit you are looking at but with neoprene seals. I bought it because I got it on a major discount. It's a good suit but it has some quirks, mostly to do with Scubapro's odd sizing. Scubapro models must all be tall and thin with narrow shoulders. By design, the suits tend to fit rather snugly. That's good if you are diving at the upper end of typical drysuit diving water temps, because you don't need a lot in the way of undergarments to stay comfortable, and the streamlined fit makes diving in them easy. They also take a lot less air to stave off suit squeeze, making buoyancy control much easier than in a traditional trilam suit. On the other hand, you will likely find that you have to size up at least one full size just to fit in one, and might need to go up several sizes if you intend to dive in colder water and require thicker undergarments. Length might then become a problem. Definitely try one on in person. This is always the way to go with any thermal protection, but I can't stress this enough with the Scubapro drysuits.

For what it's worth, I plan on ditching mine and getting something else this spring (maybe an Aqualung Fusion Bullet). I find that my suit is too snug to fit the thickness of undergarments I need for diving in the spring and late fall. It is also a bit too snug in the shoulders for my liking. It didn't bother me at first, but I don't have quite the shoulder mobility I would like and that can be dangerous. Back-zip is kinda getting annoying too, and I would prefer a self-donning suit. Lastly, I want dry gloves and, given my other issues with this suit, don't want to pay to have this one customized to accept them.
 
I am often advised to switch to drysuit by a number of divers here who refuse to go wet even in warmer waters. Those saying to do so are also the people I hear complain about bubbles in feet, chasing leaks in a suit, issues with seals, it being gone at inopportune times for repairs etc.
So personally it's never been a move I want to make. I balance it like this, 2 dry suits and the required repairs etc over the next 5 years is at least 3 or 4 nice warm water trips in cost. So for the extra 50 dives a drysuit would give me over my 7mm semidry, I will gain more than that in warm water dives WHILE BEING SOMEWHERE WARM.
I'm not cold in my 7mm with 45 degree water as long as air temps are reasonable in between dives. I will still do 3 -60 min dives a day. But there are plenty that wouldnt do those dives in a drysuit, so I guess yo each their own.
 
great replies. The Exodry suits are not tooo much more my 7mm that I’m taking back. A bit more but survivable. I hear you on warm water, but I’m in Europe and I’m diving Europe for now. Most places here are $50 to $250 plane tickets or a fun road trip to Italy or Croatia. Anyplace warm is $1500 a ticket. Multiply that x 4 and it’s $6000 a trip...just for airfare to get somewhere warm. Soooo....for cheap airfare, we’re diving Malta, Italy, Canaries, Croatia, Austria, Mallorca, etc. That means either a 7mm or a drysuit or a 2-3 month season.
 
I am often advised to switch to drysuit by a number of divers here who refuse to go wet even in warmer waters. Those saying to do so are also the people I hear complain about bubbles in feet, chasing leaks in a suit, issues with seals, it being gone at inopportune times for repairs etc.
So personally it's never been a move I want to make. I balance it like this, 2 dry suits and the required repairs etc over the next 5 years is at least 3 or 4 nice warm water trips in cost. So for the extra 50 dives a drysuit would give me over my 7mm semidry, I will gain more than that in warm water dives WHILE BEING SOMEWHERE WARM.
I'm not cold in my 7mm with 45 degree water as long as air temps are reasonable in between dives. I will still do 3 -60 min dives a day. But there are plenty that wouldnt do those dives in a drysuit, so I guess yo each their own.

Indeed, to each their own. I just don't see myself lobstering or spearfishing in a drysuit, no matter how cold the water is. It would be way too awkward and uncomfortable.

Somewhere towards the end of last season I purchased a used DUI drysuit for a fraction of the price that I'm planning to use for deeper wreck diving either locally or in the Great Lakes and to extend the season a little bit, but if all the diving I was doing was within the temp range stated initially by OP I wouldn't have bothered.
 
I am often advised to switch to drysuit by a number of divers here who refuse to go wet even in warmer waters. Those saying to do so are also the people I hear complain about bubbles in feet, chasing leaks in a suit, issues with seals, it being gone at inopportune times for repairs etc.
So personally it's never been a move I want to make. I balance it like this, 2 dry suits and the required repairs etc over the next 5 years is at least 3 or 4 nice warm water trips in cost. So for the extra 50 dives a drysuit would give me over my 7mm semidry, I will gain more than that in warm water dives WHILE BEING SOMEWHERE WARM.
I'm not cold in my 7mm with 45 degree water as long as air temps are reasonable in between dives. I will still do 3 -60 min dives a day. But there are plenty that wouldnt do those dives in a drysuit, so I guess yo each their own.

I dive dry, all the time.
I don't have problems with bubbles in my feet, leaks or issues with seals.
IF I encounter a leaking seal I can swap it in fewer minutes than you have fingers, doesn't matter if it's the neck seal or the wrists.
Glued latex seals obviously aren't sorted that quick in the field, but silicone seals with the right system is so insanely easy to swap even a monkey can get it right in a couple minutes.
It doesn't matter if I'm doing a dive in ice cold water or a steaming hot pool, I'll still use my drysuit because that's what I dive in the ocean and I want to keep working on my skills in the gear that I will be diving in.
I dive a WP D7X and changing the seals is insanely simple, you seriously can not go wrong with their system.
 
I dove in a 7 mm farmer john attached hood wetsuit when I started out. Figured out pretty quick that it is not pleasant getting into a cold wet wetsuit for a second dive. Bought a drysuit in my second year and never wore the wetsuit again. Your latitude isnt far off from mine and I imagine lake conditions and the north sea are pretty much the same as western Canada. Go dry.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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