Wetsuits are usually made for a wide range of uses such as Snorkeling, Water Skiing, Surfing, Surfing, Jet Skiing and of course SCUBA Diving. The majority of them are completely interchangeable between sports - the 3mm Shorty that you may use Scuba Diving one day in Hawaii can be used next weekend back home water-skiing.
They are made of neoprene, a porous material containing factually millions of tiny bubbles. Neoprene is a superb insulator because it places a barrier of air, in the form of the nitrogen bubbles, between your body and the surrounding water. A thin layer of water will be quickly warmed to body temperature. And when you dive deeper and deeper - neoprene compresses against itself, which makes the suit become looser, and looser, and make it easier for any water in the wetsuit to leak out.
Here are 4 tips to help you choose the right wetsuit:
1. It must fit tightly as it should be effective to keep you warm.
2. Water temperatures through out the world are different in winter than they are in summer, varying as much as 20 degrees. For instance, in Caribbean the water temperature can be in the 80's in the summer, and in six months later it can be in the low 70's.
3. As women are usually getting colder easier than men (that is because women tend to have more surface area (curves) then men do), it will almost always make more sense for the woman to have a warmer suit than a man would to the same destination at the same time of year.
4. If you are hesitating, always buy a wetsuit slightly warmer than your needs. In case your wetsuit is keeping you too warm you can always let water in to cool you down. But if you are cold during a dive there is not much you can do except stop diving.
The benefits and drawbacks of one-piece wetsuits and two-piece wetsuits:
Two-piece wetsuits will keep you warmer than one-piece wetsuits since a two-piece wetsuit has the advantage of double the insulation around your chest and groin area. Surely the two-piece suit is more restricting and will be more buoyant (which means that you will need to carry more lead) than a one-piece wetsuit of equal thickness.
Warm Water 75F°- 85F° (25C°-29C°) 1/2mm to 3mm (1/8 inch) is for SCUBA diving or snorkeling in such areas as: Florida, Texas, Cozumel, Bonaire, Cayman, Belize, Hawaii, Sea of Cortez, Northern Great Barrier Reef, Fiji, Sipidan, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti, Seychelles, the Mediterranean and warm waters throughout the world.
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