Cruisin Home
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I really recommend 1 piece with integrated hood.
What should I look for in a wetsuit?
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Fit??? I tell people a wetsuit should hug them ... not squeeze them. It seems to make sense to most people. Beyond fit, you get what you pay for. There is in fact a difference in the quality of wetsuit material ... you won't get the good nitrogen-filled stuff in a quality suit for $79.95.
We keep emphasizing "fit" as snug but not tight. Part of "fit" is where the suit doesn't snug up well. The suit may fit your torso, legs and arms well, but have areas that are loose. I see them often in the arm pits, crotch and lower back. Loose "pockets" in those spots are particularly troublesome. This will create a large enough pocket of water that your body won't be able heat & you will be cold.
DeusVerto
Contributor
I agree with Emily; you have to stay color-coordinated or why bother?
:-Q
Seriously, I picked blue as an accent color and try to stay in the same scheme of black/blue, although I ended up with a gray jacket BC...
You're diving in warm water mostly like me, but I'm a "price is no object, but I'm not a fool" kinda guy. I seriously contemplated getting a custom-made suit, but decided to buy very well off-the-rack. I am not an easy to fit guy, necessarily, being 5' 11" tall with a 42" chest and a 3...errr....38 inch waist. Think Celtic-stocky.
I don't know if easy-on-off and "fits like a glove" are necessarily mutually exclusive, but the compromise might be a custom suit bristling with zippers everywhere. So the subsequent endorsement comes with the caveat that a suit that "feels like a second skin" might have to be peeled on an off. This one does, but it's not too bad.
The Henderson H2 Titanium feels like a second skin, yet stretches so easily if feels like it's a spandex body sock. Despite being a "stock" size, there is no puckering of suit material around my shoulders/arm pits, crotch or even knees when crouching. Yet despite the fit, and because of the tremendous elasticity of this material, the freedom of movement is extraordinary. The suit I have is 3mm; perfect for Keys/Caribbean diving year-round.
And the dark blue accents match the rest of my gear perfectly.
:-D
:-Q
Seriously, I picked blue as an accent color and try to stay in the same scheme of black/blue, although I ended up with a gray jacket BC...
You're diving in warm water mostly like me, but I'm a "price is no object, but I'm not a fool" kinda guy. I seriously contemplated getting a custom-made suit, but decided to buy very well off-the-rack. I am not an easy to fit guy, necessarily, being 5' 11" tall with a 42" chest and a 3...errr....38 inch waist. Think Celtic-stocky.
I don't know if easy-on-off and "fits like a glove" are necessarily mutually exclusive, but the compromise might be a custom suit bristling with zippers everywhere. So the subsequent endorsement comes with the caveat that a suit that "feels like a second skin" might have to be peeled on an off. This one does, but it's not too bad.
The Henderson H2 Titanium feels like a second skin, yet stretches so easily if feels like it's a spandex body sock. Despite being a "stock" size, there is no puckering of suit material around my shoulders/arm pits, crotch or even knees when crouching. Yet despite the fit, and because of the tremendous elasticity of this material, the freedom of movement is extraordinary. The suit I have is 3mm; perfect for Keys/Caribbean diving year-round.
And the dark blue accents match the rest of my gear perfectly.
:-D
emilyrose
Registered
I'm not exactly easy to fit either, though I guess probably at the opposite end of the spectrum... at 5'5" I'm just about average height for a woman (about 1/4" over I think), but with a 26" waist and 31" chest I don't exactly have the curves that women's suits are designed for, at barely over 100 lbs (don't know exactly; I think that as an adult my weight has ranged from about 120 to something like 96 lbs, but I think as of when I bought my wetsuit I was somewhere around 105-110... key point though is just very small) I'm not even close to big enough to fit into a men's suit (plus they don't come in pink), and at 5'5" I'm too tall for a children's one... but even so the one I ended up with is an off-the-rack size and fits perfectly. Granted it's the smallest size they make (whenever I spend too long in a place I don't like the food, I'm constantly haunted by the fear I'll lose weight and my wetsuit won't be small enough anymore), and it was one of the more expensive brands they had (although that was partly because it was the only one that came in pink
), but it's stretchy enough that it fits perfectly even though I'm not even close to the size/shape it's meant for (when I looked at their size charts, each measurement I picked put me at a different size... and actually, none of them matched up with the size that turned out to fit me -- from the size charts, it was between the size bigger than I got, or the next size up from that, but even the smaller of the sizes that might have fit based on the size chart turned out to be too big, just cause of how the proportions worked out I think).Can't we just like exchange some body mass or something and average out to normal wetsuit sizes though?
emilyrose
Registered
I think that depends a lot one where you're diving though.
Granted I'm saying this having only one suit myself, which is a 3 mm without a hood, but at the temperatures I use that one at, it's plenty to keep me warm, and a hood would just get in the way, and probably make me overheat as well. And considering that I wear my full 3 mm when everyone around me is in just a bathing suit, others might be more than warm enough in some form of 2 piece suit that's easier to get on and off in water that's a bit cooler than I wear my 3 mm in, but where normal people might be starting to want some form of wetsuit. But on the other hand, if I were going to try diving near home in something other than a drysuit, there's no question I'd want an integrated hood (and a one piece attached to it, but I'd add at least another layer over that, and I'm not sure at what point it would stop counting as all one piece.).
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DeusVerto
Contributor
Emily, I make it to the Bay Area a couple times a year on business and for some reason, never considered diving there, usually because I'm working and on a tight schedule. I know a guy there who surfs a lot, and all he seems to use is a 5mm shorty. So I figured the water was too cold without a full suit of some kind, but you make it sound like diving the Bering Strait.
(my apologies for this drifting off topic)
(my apologies for this drifting off topic)
emilyrose
Registered
Oh, lots of people dive out of Monteray in just 7 mm wetsuits, and it's sometimes warm enough that people end up not wanting their hood and/or gloves with a 7 mm. When I dive there, there are usually one or two other people on the boat in drysuits, but most people are just in 7 mm wetsuits (that's what my dad always wore apart from one dive when he wore a drysuit just to try it). A 5 mm shorty definitely wouldn't do it for diving (it might be fine for surfing if the air temperature is warm enough, go down 60 feet and you'll definitely want more than that), but an ordinary 7 mm wetsuit with 3 mm hood and gloves is fine for most people. I just get cold really easily... I wear my full 3 mm when I dive in Belize, where the water temp is usually like 80-something and most people are totally comfortable in a swim suit, and just a T-shirt or rash guard or something under their BCs.
Maybe this isn't entirely off topic though, cause certainly warmth is an important consideration when buying a wetsuit, and I think this kind of goes to show that it depends a lot on the individual, and not just the water temperature, which I don't think has been mentioned yet... Where my dad would have worn a 3 mm shorty, I'd probably want a full 5 mm suit, so even when we were diving in the same place, we'd still need totally different wetsuits in terms of thickness and style (full vs. shorty) as well as the obvious differences in size and fit.
Maybe this isn't entirely off topic though, cause certainly warmth is an important consideration when buying a wetsuit, and I think this kind of goes to show that it depends a lot on the individual, and not just the water temperature, which I don't think has been mentioned yet... Where my dad would have worn a 3 mm shorty, I'd probably want a full 5 mm suit, so even when we were diving in the same place, we'd still need totally different wetsuits in terms of thickness and style (full vs. shorty) as well as the obvious differences in size and fit.
Emily, I make it to the Bay Area a couple times a year on business and for some reason, never considered diving there, usually because I'm working and on a tight schedule. I know a guy there who surfs a lot, and all he seems to use is a 5mm shorty. So I figured the water was too cold without a full suit of some kind, but you make it sound like diving the Bering Strait.
(my apologies for this drifting off topic)
Yes. I have seen the temp @ 46ºF a number of times (45º once). 52ºF is normal.
Surfing is often more active than diving & surf suits aren't compressing due to depth. I can get away with a lighter suit if shore diving (7mm wet or thinner undergarments)--hauling gear across a beach has a warming effect.
Thanks for all the suggestions and comments. Taking your suggestions and other info I have read on SB, I am leaning towards a 5mm Pinnacle Merino Elastoprene wetsuit. I know that the hyper stretch will compress more, but I figure it will be a tighter fit which will make up for some of the compression and the wool part does add additional warmth. This suit seems to get good reviews and some say they are a little easier to get on and off. I would like to do some diving in the late fall and early spring and I hope the 5mm will be enough for NC.
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