In Reply to: Re: you're diving dry - aren't you posted by divinotter on November 22, 2005 at 11:47:24:

52 degrees F last weekend, about 2 degrees colder than Monterey or Carmel, which is about average for us up here (north), if not slightly warm, compared to other years. We define “cold” as in the 40s F.

You see a fair amount of farmer john 7mm wetsuits up here on the north coast for scuba. For freediving, you could go with either a single piece 7mm wetsuit or else a farmer john. The single piece suit is going to use about 66% of the weighting of a double.

So if you are comparing a single piece 7mm wetsuit to a drysuit, then I believe that you are correct, in that a drysuit will probably require more lead weighting.

If you are comparing a farmer john 7 mm wetsuit, then I would guess that a drysuit would require LESS weighting. At least, that is how it works for me, with my trilam shell drysuit compared with a 7mm farmer john or a 7mm single piece wetsuit.

When I spear fish or harvest sea urchins, I dive dry on scuba, yes. But my buddy is wearing a 7mm farmer john wetsuit. The only difference between us seems to be that he is freezing after 2 dives, whereas I am ready to go at least 1 more dive if not 2 more (I usually bring 4 nitrox single tanks with me).

When I freedive, I dive with a single piece 7mm wetsuit. You simply float on the surface breathing through your snorkel until the sun warms up your back on a sunny day, and you are toasty warm within your suit. Then you surface-dive and kick down, get to your depth, look around, pull 3 big abs, head back up. You don’t really notice the cold.

“Streamlining” has never been an issue for me, it seems, for scuba. The main idea is to kick out to where you are going on the surface, or in a small boat, then dive, dropping down, and staying in one general area underwater. That wastes less air/nitrox, and you can stay down upwards of 45 mins or more, on one 80 cu ft tank.

Streamlining only seems to be significant for freediving, and therefore a single piece suit is indeed more streamlined. However others seem to do just fine in their farmer johns as well.