Newb Here

[teddygrahams]

Hello everyone. I found this site searching google for Snake Proof wetsuit because I want to get into some close to shore diving where I hope I wont run into any sharks, but the thought crossed my mind, what about snakes, then I thought to myself, maybe snakes can bite through wetsuits, but maybe they can? Anyway, all my searches turned up a Guy walking around in a big contraption created for him to be "Eaten" by a gigantic snake on Discovery...which lol "wasn't" what I was looking for, does anyone know if wetsuits are snake bit proof or....?

 

[TMHeimer]

Logical guess would be depends on the size of the snake. Good question though. I was walking in foot-deep water in Panama years ago and saw a green snake swim by (about the size of a Garter Snake). A local said these can be deadly.

 

[Dan]

Hello everyone. I found this site searching google for Snake Proof wetsuit because I want to get into some close to shore diving where I hope I wont run into any sharks, but the thought crossed my mind, what about snakes, then I thought to myself, maybe snakes can bite through wetsuits, but maybe they can? Anyway, all my searches turned up a Guy walking around in a big contraption created for him to be "Eaten" by a gigantic snake on Discovery...which lol "wasn't" what I was looking for, does anyone know if wetsuits are snake bit proof or....?

LOL Welcome to scubaboard!

OK, you are a newbie, so I can understand your fear of sea snake biting you. Don't be afraid! The chance are slim to none. Its mouth is so small to even bite on your finger. A DM showed me one swimming over his hand, below. As long as you put your finger together to cover the thin skin web between your fingers, it has no place to bite you, if it even make an attempt, which hardly would. They are pretty mild manner creatures anyway.

Check out this Jonathan Bird of Blue World video where he dove in snake pit of Manuk Island in Indonesia & playing with some of them.


Sharks are even more shy and run away from you. Hammerheads are even worse. I had to hide under a rock while diving in Galápagos to get a good shot of this guy, which was soon swam away in a hurry as soon as the camera flash fired:

 

[drrich2]

The poster is from Arkansas and talking about near shore diving; I'm guessing his concern might be cottonmouths. Unless you aim for an area with a particularly overgrown border that's known to have a lot of them, I suspect you're worrying about a trivial real world risk. I was raised in Arkansas; I know what cottonmouths are, and roaming creeks for tadpoles and crayfish as a kid, I ran across a number of them.

Where do you plan to dive?

Richard.

P.S.: While I realize venomous snakes pose at least a tiny risk in some areas, once you get in the ocean, even in the Caribbean (where they don't have sea snakes or stonefish), you've got stingrays, scorpionfish, lion fish, bristle worms, moray eels...there are a lot of things that hurt somebody every once in awhile.

 

[RyanT]

Our venomous snakes in the SE U.S. can indeed bite through a wetsuit. As drrich2 said, though, the risk of being bitten is really small. The only way you are going to be bitten is if you step on one or pick it up. Just look carefully where you step.