farmer johns or wetsuit??

Been ocean fishing 2 years now.Have thought about a wet suit. Need some suggestions on what works best and what mil is good.? Been just using rain pants, booties an a waterproof jacket with PFD. Never rolled yet but it is in the back of my mind. ED

Most people wear a 3mm farmer john. Make sure you get one with a relief (pee) zipper.

Spent my first year KAYAK fishing in a 3mil full wet suit. Killer suit, warm as hell, BUT..... For one it is very restricting paddling in a full surf suit, lots of shoulder/arm resistance, which tires you faster. Many times I overheated due to the extra force required to paddle in a full surf suit. I also HATED taking a piss in the suit near the end of the season, its cool if you have too but it sucks being soaked in piss all day long after a while (when everyone else seems dry). I drink a lot of fluids on the water. Pissing a lot is mandatory for me. I also ran 3 mil soft bottom surf booties, while plenty warm in summer, they hurt like hell when you step on rocks and such. Also the colder days end of season, my feet were cold. Same goes for the piss soaked full surf wet suit with the rear zipper. COLD IN FALL?WINTER!

Well, my awesome wife and daughter got me the suit and more I wanted for xmas. A NRS Farmer John 3mil, NRS 5/7 Mill hard bottom booties (walk over anything, forgot the name?), and a .5mil NRS Hydroskin LS shirt for the upper (wear under the farmer John).

I will use my existing jacket for now (My old burton gortex snowboarding jacket)

I CAN NO WAIT TO USE THIS SET UP!!!! My old gear is now loaner gear for friends....

Paid my dues, and now know what I want. Glad I held out on buying gear for this first year. I imagine I will be very happy!

Just got the stuff today!


oh and as far as warmth (3mil) and water safety, I only go out when its easily doable. I know that don't mean squat, but I'm saying i wont push it weather wise.  Doesn't mean I wont be in the water one day, but i feel comfortable in the 3mil, this is just my 2 cents on full surf suit VS NRS Farmer John... Both 3mil...

Hope this helps..

3mm Farmer John

3 mm NRS Farmer John.  But I put it over some synthetic fleece sweat pants, warmer and not so clammy on my skin. 
When this suit needs replacing (seems like it will last forever) maybe I'll try on a 5 mm john if there is one, but that might restrict movement too much.
  I, too, found a full surfing wetsuit way too restrictive in the shoulders even tho it works fine when surfing, but when surfing there is a little water inside to let it expand a little and lube it up.

I wear  5 mil FJ that I installed a relief zipper in.

IMO 3 mil isn't enough if things really go bad, or in my case 3 mil isn't enough to be comfortable for anything except a momentary dip.

I'm probably gonna upgrade to a 7mil FJ this year,

Then I wear a hydroskin shirt on top, very flexible,

add wind proof top and pants as needed.

Full suit is definetly too restrictive for paddling

Ive looked at a farmer john hydroskin grizzly. Didnt look at the mil.Any thought on the grizzly or does any 1 own 1??

The grizzly is just the cut of the suit (big), hydroskin is the material and is only 0.5 mm neoprene with nylon on one side, definetly won't offer much protection as a full body suit.

I put on the hydroskin shirt over the 5 mil FJ.