Semi dry - suitable for what temperatures?

[Christian Reslow]

Hey Lynne! My first diving suit was a 7mm N.O.C nordic semidry with hood and I´ve been diving with it during wintertime here in Sweden when iceslush floated around on the surfacelayer and the watertemp was below 2 degrees celsius. If the semidry fits you perfect (tight but not uncomfortable) you shouldn´t have any problems with the cold temperature. Let me explain: Just like a wetsuit the semi works with water as isolation, however. The semi also uses lamells to strangle the waterflow through the suit. If the lamells are tight enough they should´nt let water in faster then your bodyheat could warm it up to a comfortable temperature without any problems. This makes it extremely important that you have a suit that fits you perfect if you´re going to do a coldwaterdive and stay comfortable. If the suits too big, the volume of water in it will simply bee to big to help you stay warm througout all of the dive, however if the suits too tight It´ll simply fit bad and make it uncomfortable this way instead. The real problems with staying warm in a semidry during coldwater dives as I´ve experienced it does not show during the dive but after it. When you get out of the water the isolating water in your suit will leave the suit making the isolation against the chill much lesser. Have a towel close at hand when youre changing after the dive to get you dry as fast as possible.

Here´s a trick you can use that works aswell: Bring a thermos with warm water(not too warm though) with you that you pour into the suit right before the dive, It´ll help you stay warm, I promise!

Wishing you the best, take care!

[Ali_Mc]

I dive in a 6.5mm Semi all year round in the UK and Ireland. Last dive was around the 5th December in Stoney (don't know what temp it was). I look back on my first few years of diving when I went in a 3mm and wonder.....

Ali
x

[Tonto]

I think before I got the drysuit I'd have been happy to go down to 10 degrees, but as several people have said the S.I. is the crippler, I'd happily do a single dive to 10 degrees now in a semi but for multiple dives either have a spare dry semi or a drysuit.
HTH

[Moray]

3.7C in a 7mm semidry, no probs, and I detest the cold....