Wetsuits
Another very important piece of kit. Your whole diving experience will be largely governed by how comfortable you are in the water. Being warm is the greatest priority. A warm diver will have a more enjoyable dive, have longer bottom times and generally have a much longer dive.
Wetsuits for spearfishing work on a simple concept. It allows a very small amount of water into your suit, allowing your body to heat up that small amount of water. Body heat is therefore retained, allowing the diver to stay in the water for much longer.
Wetsuits are made of neoprene, which is very buoyant. To compensate for the buoyancy, a weight belt is needed. More about weight belts later.
Wetsuits come in various types of materials and thicknesses. The normal range starts from 1-1.5mm wetsuits, which are suitable for warm tropical waters. Many spearo's also use lycra suits in these warm waters. They offer protection from the sun, save your back and neck from getting sun burnt, as you tend to spend quite a bit of time on the surface, as well as protects you from various stinging sea animals, like blue-bottles, Portuguese-men-o-war, fire-corals, etc.
The next thickness is 3mm and 5mm suits. For very cold water, you would use up to a 7mm suit. Needless to say, the thicker the wetsuit, the heavier your weight belt will be.
The standard spearfishing wetsuit is normally a two piece: full farmer john/brown (that’s basically a wetsuit covering your legs, waist and chest going over your shoulders) and a jacket with a hoodie incorporated. Since most of your body heat is loss through your head, it’s imperative to have a hoodie on your wetsuit. In warmer waters, where the wetsuit is used more for protection that insulation, the hoodie is NOT incorporated into the wetsuit. It’s very easy for your body to overheat in warm waters, making diving very unpleasant and dangerous.
The most important part of a wetsuit is the fit. If you have an odd body shape, then a custom made wetsuit is the best option. Especially women spearo's would benefit greatly from a custom fitted wetsuit.
Open cell wetsuits. What makes them special? Most divers have used a normal closed cell wetsuit. These are hard, tough rubbery like wetsuits. They are generally cheap and will last for a very long time. Their downsides: they don’t insulate the diver very well, they’re cumbersome to put on and take off, they restrict mobility and they often cause bleeding by rubbing the skin off the back of your knees (especially after a long dive session). Open cell suits are much softer and much more flexible. They need soapy water for you to put them on, which makes them VERY easy to get into and out of. There softness and flexibility allows the wetsuit to keep you warmer, for longer periods of time and keeps abrasion against the skin down to a minimum.
Their downsides are: they’re pricey and have a short lifespan. Which-ever wetsuit you decide to purchase, ensure that the knees, elbows and butt section have additional padding as these are the area’s that take the most abuse. Furthermore, a loading pad on the chest, which basically is a piece of padded neoprene stuck onto the chest part, is essential. Will alleviate the bruising of your chest from loading your gun.