Aqua Lung SolAfx 8/7mm wet suit question

[Noemi]

The only problem I have with this suit is my husband complaining how expensive my diving gear is

 

[tbeck3579]

No. Just swim shorts.

One more, well acutally 2 questions in one. What shoes/sock and gloves do wear to keep hands and feet warm? Thanks again for your valuable information.

 

[Noemi]

One more, well acutally 2 questions in one. What shoes/sock and gloves do wear to keep hands and feet warm? Thanks again for your valuable information.

I got 5mm gloves (the cheapest off Amazon) and 7mm boots (the same). Put the boots under the wetsuit pants but above the ankle seals, and gloves just on top of sleeves. Works for me.

You can get 7mm gloves, but they will be a lot less flexible, so by my friends' advice I opted for 5mm.

Generally I think it doesn't matter much. My cheap gloves are a bit too big and I still can dive with them. Will replace 'em sometimes down the road, but works for now.

 

[Noemi]

This is mine:

https://www.amazon.com/NeoSport-Wet...=1494010195&sr=8-1&keywords=7mm+wetsuit+boots

https://www.amazon.com/NeoSport-Wet...1494010223&sr=8-1&keywords=5mm+wetsuit+gloves

 

[outofofficebrb]

i have the solafx semi dry for women's as well and i wear their elle boots if it's 90 or 50 degree water with lycra socks. my feet don't really get cold - it's more the rest of body and core. i also have the ava glove (6/4). really, if i ever get cold, it's not the hands that I think about, it's the core and the body.

 

[tbeck3579]

Someone told me that 7mm suits compress at depth and don't do what they are supposed to -- what depth would that be? I hadn't heard of such a thing until today.

It's odd that I remember being dared to swim in very cold water, in my bathing suit, as a teen. I can still remember getting very cold but thinking it wasn't a big deal; mind over matter. I remember knowing it was time to get warm. I paddled to the boat expecting to climb in but I couldn't climb in -- my muscles would not do what my brain told them to do. It was very unnerving to lose muscle control in the water. Such a stupid thing for me to do -- typical stupid teenager move. So I do know what you mean about keeping your core from getting cold.

 

[stuartv]

I wouldn't recommend using wax on the zipper. Reson being is, it is more likely to attract dirt and increase the possibility of jamming the zipper. I would use silicone spray, before a wax..

I realize the comment is old, but since new people are reading the thread....

If you put silicone spray on your wetsuit zipper, you'll probably get it on the suit itself, too. And if you get silicone spray on the neoprene, that will probably make it where you can never get glue (e.g. Aquaseal) to adhere in that spot in the future - in case you needed to do a repair.

Personally, I would get some drysuit zipper lube. If the zipper is plastic, the TiZip drysuit zipper lube would probably work pretty well.

Also, I have to say that I have 3, 5, and 7mm wetsuits and 2 different drysuits. Looking back, I wish I had never bought the 7mm wetsuit. Any water that is cold enough to merit the 7mm is water I would much rather dive in my drysuit. I did not feel that way after getting my first drysuit. But, my second drysuit is a lightweight, breathable trilam and it is WAY more comfy than my 7mm wetsuit, on land and in the water.

If you are thinking about buying a 7mm wetsuit or a semi-dry, I would highly recommend at least doing a little research on drysuits first. You CAN even do your OW course to be combined with a drysuit course, so you don't ever have to dive cold and wet, even on your OW checkout dives. I think a lot of OW courses in the UK are actually taught that way by default (OW and Drysuit combined into one course).

 

[stuartv]

Someone told me that 7mm suits compress at depth and don't do what they are supposed to -- what depth would that be? I hadn't heard of such a thing until today.

Pretty much all wetsuits compress at depth, whether it's a 7mm or a 3mm. How much they compress just depends. But, a rough rule of thumb is that a suit will compress by 50% somewhere roughly around 100'. And could compress by 75% at 130'.

That is why a wetsuit loses its ability to keep you warm and also loses buoyancy, the deeper you go. A 3mm suit at 130' is going to be pretty darn thin!

Also, as you dive a wetsuit, each time you do so (to any depth where it has significant compression) it will lose a little thickness. You compress it repeatedly and it gradually becomes thinner and thinner as it fails to rebound to its fully uncompressed thickness over time.

Those are just more advantages of diving in a drysuit. They don't lose any buoyancy from going deeper and they don't lose any insulating properties as you go deeper, either (unless you have a normal, not-compressed neoprene drysuit, which are not all that common, compared to compressed/crushed neoprene and tri-laminate suits).

 

[Marie13]

Some folks' budgets don't stretch to the cost of a drysuit, so a semi-dry is an acceptable alternative.

I know several people who dive semi-dry very cold water, in the 30s and 40s. They're fine.

 

[stuartv]

Incidentally, drysuits are not as expensive as you might think. You can get a brand new made-to-measure Seaskin trilam for a little over $500. There are other options out there that are not much more expensive. So, in the same ballpark as the normal price on the AL SolAfx.

Dive Right In Scuba has the USIA Aqua Sport for $699.

And used is actually an option, too - especially if you are of a size and shape to normally fit in most off-the-rack sizes. My second drysuit, which is my favorite of the two I have, I got used in like new condition, for less than half what a new one sells for online.