Hi all,
I just came back from a spearfishing trip in the Med around Italy. I was able to try my new Elios wetsuit for the first time, fantastic I must say. One day we decided to hunt closer to the coast along rocky cliffs, it was a beautiful day, sunny, no clouds, 32C, water 27C on the surface, great visibility... The friend I went with has a store bought 5mm SCUBA wetsuit, mine is also a 5mm, both with hoods, I'm sure you have figured out the issue I had by now... I was so hot it made me sick, I tried to take the hood off which helped some but then I felt it was too tight around my neck, I tried letting cold water in (from 10-15m) but it warmed up too fast, I eventually took the jacket off and got a nice sunburn... My friend however was fine, he just took the hood off, his non-tailor made wetsuit lets water in all the time, even though it is super tight, so it kept his body temperature down.
I have since then decided to invest in a thinner Elios wetsuit as I have a 2mm (surf) shorty but I get cold with it after an hour or two. I would use it in this type of scenario, where the surface temperature is warm, around cliffs/rocks, etc. I will get a double lined for practical reasons: the outside for protection and the inside because I have to travel by plane to spearfish so I can't go as often as you guys. This means that it will be in storage in my basement inside a closet already full of jackets most of the time, also folding non-lined wetsuits and sticking them in a suitcase is not good as they are more fragile if my suitcase gets searched they could mess it up, etc. I agree non-inner lined wetsuits are better and if I buy property one day along the ocean I will get one of those and leave it there, but currently this is not the case and I don't want to get into the lined vs non-lined discussion, I just added that info since it has heat implications. I am thinking of getting a removable hood since as I saw with my current wetsuit it feels too tight around my neck when I take the built-in hood off, this way I can use it or not. It will have high waist pants, there are no zippers anywhere. The thickness is the thing I am not sure about, in your opinion, should I get a 2mm or a 3mm? I don't really have anything to compare with, my shorty is a shorty and lets water in everywhere anyways, my GF's 2mm wetsuit is a SCUBA one (she SCUBA dives and doesn't spearfish) and she gets cold in water where I where I wear my shorty when we snorkel together (I am usually cold at the same time she is) so I can't really judge the thickness; I know that SCUBA wetsuits aren't made like spearfishing wetsuits and especially tailor-made ones. My friend was fine in his 5mm SCUBA wetsuit when I was burning up, etc. I asked Elios this question and they gave me 5 options: three 3mm double lined, one 2mm double lined and one 2mm open-cell inside w/ outside lining. From this I assume they think a 3mm is better but I am not sure as it could just mean that this is all they have left (since they didn't offer the the same neoprene as my current wetsuit in 3mm, which exists on their website anyways) or maybe it is just that they didn't understand my question :-).
Thanks for the input,
Gabriel