Wetsuits are a Scuba diving basics. We think it’s a must-have Scuba essential as we mentioned in the 10 Rules of Buying Scuba Diving Gear post. Picking the right wetsuit to suit your needs right from fit, thickness and style can be a little tricky if you don’t know much about them. Here’s a complete guide to buying your first wetsuit.

Wetsuit Styles
There a several choices of styles, when you go wetsuit shopping. There’s the Full wetsuit also known as the full body wetsuit with sleeves right up to the wrists and legs to the ankles. Needless to say it offers full protection and better warmth as it covers most of your body. Secondly there’s the Shorty. Shorties as the name suggests have short sleeves and end just above the knee. A good choice for warm water diving, many divers prefer shorties because it allows greater flexibility in movement underwater. They’re also a easier to put on and take of than a full length wetsuit.

Another option in style of wetsuits is the Farmer John/Jane which are two piece suits, with a sleeveless full length piece worn with a covering jacket. This style is also available in the shorty form. The question of whether one should wear a shorty wetsuit has been asked and debated constantly by divers and you can read up more of our thoughts on the subject in - To Shorties or not to Shorties?

Wetsuit Thickness
Thickness is probably the most important consideration you’ll have to make when buying a wetsuit. It’s a critical factor in keeping you warm and and toasty during a dive. The thicker the wetsuit the warmer it will keep you. Some wetsuits actually have 2 thicknesses on different parts of the wetsuit. For example a 5/3 mm wetsuit means the thickness would be 5 mm on the torso and 3 mm on the arms and legs.

While there’s no particular guide to which thickness is best in a wetsuit as it differs according to the temperature of the water and the relevant conditions, here’s a rough guide to what water temperatures and suitable wetsuit thicknesses are often recommended. But your preferences can differ depending on your cold threshold.

2 mm: Water temperatures above 85 F
3 mm: Water temperatures between 70-85 F
5 mm: Water temperatures between 60-70 F
6.5 mm: Water temperatures between 50-70 (at these temperatures the use of a drysuit can also be recommended)

Wetsuit Fit
It’s very important that your wetsuit fit perfectly for it to be effective. So trying on wetsuits before you buy any is crucial. It can be frustrating and time consuming as trying them on is not always easy but don’t skip this step or you’ll regret it for sure.

If you haven’t worn a wet suit before, you should know that if you can put it on easily it’s too big for you. Especially since you’ll be wearing your wetsuit when it’s dry on land, a sign of the right fit is, a little struggle, huffing and puffing when you put it on. Scuba diving wetsuits feel snug on you and it will probably feel that your movement are restricted, which is normal.

The wetsuit shouldn’t be too tight so that it cuts of circulation at your wrists and ankle or your can even bend your knees in them. It shouldn’t be loose either cause that will allow water to flow freely through it defeating the purpose completely. There should not be any large gaps in the underarm or crotch area. However, it may probably have a gap at the small of the back, which is ok.

No matter how time consuming it is to try on different wetsuits, it’ll be well worth all your time and effort to have a perfectly fitting wetsuit that keeps you warm during your dives. There’s nothing that can ruin a dive faster than being cold and shivering while you are underwater, so get it right when you buy one the first time.

Mares Trilastic Deluxe 5-4-3mm One Piece Wetsuit, Henderson 3-MM Titanium Hyperstretch Mens Shorty, Henderson 7mm Gold Core Neoprene Men’s Wetsuit all available at LeisurePro.com

Have you ever been on a dive where you look out not too far away into the distance and see a massive shoal of barracuda’s, jacks, fusiliers or other variety of fish give you that feeling of being small and insignificant in their world? Well, that’s exactly the kind of feeling some fish off the coast of North Sulawesi would have had when they saw a slightly different although extremely large shoal of a completely different species in August this year! 2861 divers went for a 31 minute dive simultaneously off the North Sulawesi capital Manado to earn themselves a new Guinness book record. A press release posted by Hobie on DiveBuddy.com quoted

“We have just smashed a world record today. It gives us pride as we can prove our country is a strong maritime nation,” Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Minister Freddy Numberi said after the mass dive.

The number of participants in Manado set a new world record of “most people scuba diving simultaneously”, breaking the previous mark of 979 set in Maldives in 2006.

North Sulawesi Governor Sinjo Sarundayang, Gorontalo Governor Fadel Muhammad, deputy Navy chief Vice Adm. Moekhlas Sidik and 51 foreigners were among the participants of the record breaking dive, which was held as part of the Sail Bunaken festival.

This couldn’t have been an easy feet and just considering the logistics of arranging such a dive would be a nightmare for even the most seasoned dive operators. A feat of this sort would involve 2,861 sets of masks, air tanks, , regulators, wetsuits and no less than 5722 fins! That is one large dive group to say the least.

If only we had some underwater images of what 2861 divers in the water looked like I’m sure it’s an image the fish of that region won’t forget. For each one of those divers, it would have been something fresh for the long book which most other divers couldn’t claim to have seen on their dives.

Photos by: The Daily Telegraph Australia & iTelegraph uk

A common question from divers and non divers alike is what’s the difference between a wetsuit and drysuit and how can you tell one from the other. The most obvious answer comes from the name itself- a drysuit keeps you dry and a wetsuit doesn’t.  Then the question arises, why use a wetsuit instead of a drysuit? Here’s a closer look into exposure suits or exposure protection as they are called in Scuba Diving.

The Need to Wear an Exposure Suit
When diving in waters cooler than your body temperature, it brings down your temperature. In even the warmest, tropical waters, you tend to need a bit of thermal protection to keep warm on long dives. Hence, the need to wear an exposure suit like a wetsuit or dry suit. Another plus of wearing a wet or drysuit is that it provides your skin protection from the harsh sun, which divers seem not to notice when they are underwater but still affects our skin.

Wetsuits
The most popular form of thermal protection for divers is the wetsuit. Made from neoprene, a synthetic rubber foam filled with thousands of tiny gas bubbles, wetsuits work on the principle that your body is the best source of heat.

Wetsuits fit snugly, close to the body. Once you enter the water the material allows a thin layer of water through the suit filling the space between your body and the inner layer of material. This layer of water warms up because of your body temperature and it helps to keep you warm throughout your dive. A loose fitting wetsuit will let water flow in and out of the gap between the wetsuit and your body has to waste energy heating the “new” water making it pointless to wear.

Wetsuits come in various thicknesses providing more protection and insulation for colder waters and lighter insulation in warmer waters. Some scuba divers can dive in tropical water wearing only a lycra body suit, commonly known as a dive skin, while others need a 2mm wet suit. Some scuba divers can dive in cold water wearing only a 6mm wet suit, while others need the protection of a dry suit. If you are scuba diving in water below 55F (12.7C), a dry suit is the warmest type of thermal insulation available.

Drysuits
Drysuits as the name describes keep you completely dry. A dry suit can be made out of foam neoprene, crushed neoprene, vulcanized rubber or heavy-duty nylon. They use a combination of wrist seals, a neck seal and a waterproof zipper to keep you dry. Drysuits fit more loosely than wetsuits and allow you to wear clothes or other insulating layers underneath.

Drysuits allow you to add air in between the layers of material from your tank which provides insulation which is also why maintaining neutral buoyancy in a dry suit requires different skills than maintaining buoyancy in a wetsuit. Drysuit diving usually takes some getting used to and there are special courses to teach it.

Drysuits have inflator valves, which allow you to add air into the dry suit, and an exhaust valve, to release air from the dry suit. Commonly found on the outside of the left bicep and the exhaust valve automatically releases air as you ascend. The inflator valve is similar to the power inflator on a buoyancy compensator vest and is often situated on in the middle of your chest on the suit.

Exposure Suit Recommendations

76°F – 86°F     1/16″ (1.6mm) neoprene or lycra dive skin/wetsuit
69°F – 84°F     1/8″ (3mm) neoprene wetsuit
64°F – 77°F    3/16″ (5mm) neoprene wetsuit
49°F – 75°F    1/4″ (6.5mm) neoprene wetsuit
33°F – 66°F    3/8″ (9.5mm) neoprene, drysuit

Temperature and  Suit Thickness based on average manufacturer recommendations

Pictured above: Henderson H2 Titanium Women’s 3mm wetsuit, Bare CD4 Men’s Pro Drysuit available at www.leisurepro.com

A shorty wetsuit or known simply as ‘Shorties’, refers to wetsuits that covers the torso and has short sleeves for the arms and legs. The question of whether one should wear a shorty wetsuit has been asked and debated constantly by divers. When should a diver opt for shorties over a full body wetsuit?

Hyperflex Access Men's 2.5mm

The primary function of Wetsuits is to help to preserve body heat by trapping a layer of water against the skin; this water is warmed by body heat and acts as an insulator. The foam neoprene material wetsuits are made from; trap air bubbles in the fabric that in turn helps trap the layer of water. So won’t a full body wetsuit provide better insulation than shorties?

It is indeed true that a full length wetsuit will provide better thermal insulation than shorties. Shorties are best used in warmer waters where flexibility in movement is preferred over the need for thermal insulation. Shorties work best in water temperatures upwards of 72F (22C) providing sufficient insulation to the body to allow the diver to stay in the water longer.

Shorties are also easier to wear. Many who prefer board shorts to a cumbersome wetsuit will transition with greater ease to wearing shorties, which are easy to put on and take off. This is probably one of the greater advantages of the shorty wetsuit, ease of wear, coupled with flexibility in limb movement.

Hyperflex Access Women's 2.5mm Springsuit

There is much debate over the fact that shorties offer less protection to the arms and legs of a diver from bumps, scrapes and jelly fish stings. Those that swear by shorties will disagree, and argue that the benefits of having a lightweight easy to pack, easy to wear wetsuit far outweighs the need for the slightly greater protection that a full body wetsuit offers.

At the end it boils down to two simple factors, water temperature and personal preference. If you dive in warmer climes and find getting in and out of a wetsuit cumbersome, you may want to opt  to include a pair of shorties as part of your dive gear and equipment ,that will provide you with far better insulation and improved buoyancy compared to not wearing one.

* Pictured above- Hyperflex Access Men’s 2.5mm Springsuit and Hyperflex Access Women’s 2.5mm Springsuit