Start with 7mm or just get drysuit

[Zef]

PADI explicitly lists OWD as a prerequisite for the Dry Suit class: Dry Suit Diver | PADI:

"If you’re at least 10 years old and certified as a PADI (Junior) Open Water Diver or higher, you can enroll in the Dry Suit Diver course."

Not sure about other agencies.

EDIT: you can easily do 15C in a wetsuit.

There is more to the world of diving than PADI....how about asking the OP what agency they plan on training with before stating standards that are not universal throughout the industry.

To the OP, whether or not you go with PADI or any other agency/organizatiom, or if you and your kids are already certified, for the weather here in western Europe (I live in Belgium), I would definitely recommend going with a drysuit if you can. Unless you have polar bear blood, I find that the season that I can comfortably dive in a wetsuit is very short, and there are only a few weeks in the summer that I find the air temp to be hot enough to make it uncomfortable to don my drysuit. You and your kids will find it more comfortable and be able to extend your diving season by learning how to dive a drysuit...and the age of your kids is not an issue. I was working in the pool the other night with an 11 year old who was testing a new drysuit...his old one needs new seals so he was using a loaner while his was in for repair....his dad is the president of the club as well as a PADI instructor.

-Z

 

[1atm]

The only reason I can see going for a 7mm instead of a drysuit is $$$$. If you can swing it budget wise...get a drysuit.

This.

I live in Munich and I only started diving locally after I got a dry suit. There are folks here that dive the local lakes in wetsuits, but 98% of them are Open Water students and about 90% of them look somewhat miserable unless its in the middle of August ...

 

[TMHeimer]

Simple answer. How is your cold tolerance? What % of the year would you find diving wet to be too cold to be enjoyable? We usually spend part of winter in Florida, so I figured the expense of a drysuit is not worth the $ for a drysuit for those 2-3 months when diving wet would be really uncomfortable (like my dive next week...).

 

[Scuba-74]

There is more to the world of diving than PADI....how about asking the OP what agency they plan on training with before stating standards that are not universal throughout the industry.
-Z

OP asked for thoughts, I expressed my thoughts. Then I cited PADI (with a link) and wrote "Not sure about other agencies."

 

[almostDIR]

Here one can usually choose if doing OWD in wetsuit or drysuit. drysuit may be some extra pool training so the ow course could be slightly longer.
Wetsuit divers here are mostly those who intend to dive only on vacations in tropics and will only do a practice dive or two locally per year.... those who want to seriously dive locally will end up purchasing the drysuit anyway pretty soon because it is pretty miserable to go below the thermocline in a wetsuit here and the first thermoclines may not be much deeper than something like 4 or 5 meters in summer so it seriously limits your diving to only have a wetsuit available. Dry gloves are also pretty mandatory here though you can get away with wet gloves in summer.

I personally have a 5mm wetsuit for vacation diving and a trilam drysuit with cuff rings, dry gloves and heavy 10mm wet hood for local diving. at summer I could use 5mm hood and wet gloves with the drysuit if practical and staying in shallow water but that is pretty much what would be required if doing any deeper dives here at all and not getting cold immediately.

so yes, get the drysuit and cuff rings to it so that you can change between normal wrist seals+no gloves/wetgloves AND dry gloves depending on where you dive and how cold the water is. separate wet hood could be most practical for you I believe.

wetsuits are relatively inexpensive compared to drysuits so it would not hurt much to have a wetsuit as well for vacation diving

 

[MrBigfins]

59 to 75 farenheit is more than comfortable in my 6/7/8 hollis neotek semidry, even with cooler airtemps.

 

[1atm]

In that range yes... but you will find that many of the local waters here dont get much above 4degC / 39F even in summer, at depth that is. Dont be fooled by the water temperature you read on the web, this is often for swimmers and measured at the surface. Some places might be warmer and get to 10deC / 50F, but in my books thats still drysuit territory.

wetsuits are relatively inexpensive compared to drysuits so it would not hurt much to have a wetsuit as well for vacation diving

Agreed, but in this case the OP would probably want a 5mm or 3mm, rather than a 7mm.

 

[MrBigfins]

In that range yes... but you will find that many of the local waters here dont get much above 4degC / 39F even in summer, at depth that is. Dont be fooled by the water temperature you read on the web, this is often for swimmers and measured at the surface. Some places might be warmer and get to 10deC / 50F, but in my books thats still drysuit territory.



Agreed, but in this case the OP would probably want a 5mm or 3mm, rather than a 7mm.

But the op stated he would be diving I water 15c to 25c. That's 59 to 75ish, definitely well within wetsuit range for anyone with resistance to cold

 

[almostDIR]

yep a 3 or 5mm would be best for vacation diving. the 5mm could also be used for summer activity locally if not going deeper than the warm surface water.
5mm suit is great for snorkeling here so it is useful in other ways even if not very warm for scuba diving.

it may be possible to get a unused outlet drysuit for cheap, for example half the price, if there is a manufacturer near you.
here the divers may go to the local drysuit manufacturers factory every now and then to look if they have anything suitable on sale (for example a unused demo suit or a suit which got a small imperfection during manufacturing and after repairing it they will sell it much cheaper due to that small imperfection in a otherwise new suit)

 

[almostDIR]

But the op stated he would be diving I water 15c to 25c. That's 59 to 75ish, definitely well within wetsuit range for anyone with resistance to cold

yep but water bodies tend to have thermoclines and the water may be very cold below that even in the summer. your surface water may be anything but just couple of meters down below the thermocline it can be 10°C or lower, even 4°C if going deeper.
If wanting to only stay in warm surface waters it would not matter but it restricts a scuba diver so much that they will eventually want to go deeper anyway and will need to make the switch by then