How To Choose A Scuba Diving Wetsuit 🐟

Obviously, it's a pretty big question when everyone's going diving. It's one of the most important things unless you live in extremely warm watered areas, basically you're going to need a suit. So living here in Brisbane for the most part I dive in a 5mm wetsuit most of the year-round, except now I've been getting a bit older, I have now graduated to a 7mm because I realised that I'm not as tough as I once thought I was.

A big part of wearing a wetsuit is making sure the fit's correct. And it can be difficult to get that. My first bit of advice that I would advise if you have the chance to come into one of our stores because all the guys there can help you fit a wetsuit. If you can't we've got a massive selection online, and you can jump on live chat and we can help you out. But I can take you through a few features now of what makes a good wetsuit and what might be right for you.

There are 3 main thicknesses when it comes to scuba diving wetsuits 3mm, 5mm and 7mm. A 7mm wetsuit is something I'd advise for two types of people. People who are in cold water areas or someone who feels the cold. And one of the big things about feeling in the cold is once you get cold when you're diving, it's very difficult to become warm afterward. So a lot of people will go, no, I'm really tough. They'll jump in a 3mm wetsuit, go diving in winter, and then realise that as they get out of the water shaking, perhaps they should've worn something a little bit thicker.

The flip side can happen as well, someone might think they need a 7mm wetsuit. If you're wearing a 7mm wetsuit in the middle of summer in the Brisbane heat, it is going to be pretty unpleasant. One of the things you need to do, you can always flush your wetsuit. Also, if you get a suit that's too thick, you can overheat on a boat.

A 5mm wetsuit is an option in between a 7mm and a 3mm. The Adreno Nudibranch is a great example of a 5mm wetsuit. Very flexible and stretchy suit. A utility pocket on the front of the suit fantastic for fitting in any of our 1200 lumen range of torches. It means you can have the torch in there if you don't want to have it attached to your wrist. I don't think there are any other wetsuits that we stock or are on the market to my knowledge that have this little utility pocket. We’ve also got our nice heavy-duty reinforced knees here. On the inside, we've got our fleece quick lining as well. And we've got on the neck our smooth skin seal, which gives you a nice seal around the neck to prevent too much water from flushing through the suit.

You've also got smooth skin seals on this guy, on the ankles and on the wrists. Again, another feature to prevent the additional flushing of water through the wetsuit. The way a wetsuit works, if you don't know, you need a small amount of water inside the wetsuit. Your body heats that up and then that's what's keeping you warm. So you need some water inside. The benefit of these smooth skin seals is once that little bit of water is inside the suit, it stays there so you'll be nice and warm. Which is really cool aspect of these particular wetties.

Finally, we have our 3mm suits, these aren't fantastic for winter. It's definitely something I'd be suggesting if you're going to be diving in the tropics. If you're going to the South Pacific or Indonesia. Or if you're diving up on the reef during summer. In winter, this sort of suit not going to be fantastic, you will find yourself getting quite chilled in most places around Australia.

I think the biggest mistake that a lot of people have is they opt for a 3mm suit because it's generally the cheaper option. As you'll find thinner suits are generally cheaper, but not necessarily the best option based on where you might be diving.

All right guys, if you've got any more questions about how to pick a wetsuit you can browse our website. We've got an enormous range of wetsuits online, so click on the wetsuits link, jump in our live chat and hit us up for any questions. Or if you can, as I mentioned earlier, head into one of our stores so we can help you fit and get you into the right wetsuit.