mixing jacket and pants thickness

[thrashlete]

Does anyone use a different thickness top and bottom? Any reason not to?

I'm thinking about getting 7mm long johns and wearing them with my 3mm top.

For context, I dive the Monterey Bay area, and my 3mm Yazbeck worked OK in the summer, but it's starting to get pretty chilly. I'm trying to avoid buying a whole new wetsuit for various reasons (cost, limited room where we keep wetsuits, etc). Also, the top is a little loose on me, and the 7mm long johns might help fill it out a bit.

 

[foxfish]

Yeah should work fine although 7mm might feel a little restrictive if you are used to 3mm.
I don't really know where Monterey is (California?) but 5mm is good for temps down to around 7-8c

 

[thrashlete]

Cool, thanks!
Yeah, Monterey is in central CA, water temps currently is about 57F (11-12C). 7mm might be a little overkill but I also get really cold really quickly.

 

[FraDive]

Sure you can! But usually the jacket is thicker than the pants since usually you feel the cold mainly in the top part of the body and also,as foxfish said, having a 7mm pants may make you struggle while kicking.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I would think you would need a complete 7 mm suit, top and bottom, in the Monterey area. I'm in Southern California and wear a 5 mm in the summer and a 7 mm in the winter, and many others do too. A well fitting 7 mm isn't going to restrict movement, but of course it will require more weight and buoyancy will change more with depth.

 

[thrashlete]

@Bill McIntyre - I wouldn't be surprised if I end up needing a full 7mm suit. If so, I'll already be halfway there and I'll just need to get a jacket.

@FraDive - I see your point on the jacket. So far my arms stay warm. My current 3mm jacket is just a little big on me, so I'm hoping the 7mm farmer johns fill it out.

We'll see how this experiment goes!

 

[Bill McIntyre]

For what its worth, I was diving yesterday and the sea temp had dropped from 65 a week ago to 62. My buddy and I were both wearing 5mm suits and got a bit cold. We think we'll be going to our 7mm suits before long. Of course cold tolerance varies between individuals.

I noticed another thing that seems strange, and I wonder if others notice it too. After we got out of the water the first time, we ran hot water down our wet suits and turned on the cabin heater to warm up, but I still dreaded going back in since I knew I would get cold in a shorter amount of time. But both of us felt warmer than we had the first time. It had been cloudy the first time in the water, but by the second time the sun had come out. Since even free divers are pretty much totally immersed in water, its hard to understand how sun could make a difference, but it seems to. I've noticed this in the past. And maybe that's one advantage to being old fashioned and wearing a black suit that absorbs the sun's rays.