wetsuits

what equipment do you all recommend for ab'ing and spearfishing?  what thickness of a wetsuit etc?

Most wear a 7mm.  I get hot, so I wear a 3/4/5 combo.  Hood, gloves, booties etc.

I just came up with what i think is an ideal combo for a fishing and diving trip (for me anyway).

I wear a 3-mil farmer john pant when paddling / fishing.  I found that this is also plenty of leg inuslation for me when ab diving as well.  So I really only needed a 7-mil top to go with it.

I recently bought a Harvey's Flex 7mil top with a beaver-tail closure (the beaver tails were custom ordered by Pinnacle's Dive Center in Santa Rosa).  The Harvey's Flex neoprene is Soooooooooooo flexible... compared to my old wetsuit, it doesn't even feel like I'm wearing one.  It really is an unbelievable difference... and being as out of shape as I am... the less I have to fight against the neoprene the better.  The top cost me about $200 and is well worth it.

http://www.harveys-divesuits.com/coldwater/index.asp

So If I want to dive, I just take off my pfd and paddling jacket, put on the 7-mil top and all the other gear and hop in the water.  Then I can remove the top again to resume fishing.  The beaver tail is easy to get on and off while sitting on the yak.

Henderson also makes a stretchy neoprene... it's called Hyperstretch but is more expensive than Harvey's... it's also even more stretchy than Harvey's... but Harvey's is way stretchy enough for me.

Erik

Most dive shops rent 7mm wetsuits, but they do this because people like to scuba dive with them.  At 30ft the pressure is doubled and the bubbles in the neoprene shrink to half their original size - making the material half as thick and half as good at insulating.  

I freedive with a 3mm farmer john and jacket and that keeps me as warm as I'd be with a 7mm 2 piece at 30ft down.  95% of the time you're at the surface and the 30 seconds you're on the bottom isn't enough to get cold, besides you're generating heat by swimming.  Wearing this thin suit allows me to get by with a 12lb weightbelt, compared to a 28lb weightbelt with a 7mm suit.  That right there is a HUGE difference in comfort.  Also, as you go down and the neoprene compresses, you lose bouyancy - with a thick suit your bouyancy will change dramatically between the surface and 20ft down.  The difference is probably between 8 and 3lbs of negative bouyancy at 20ft.   The wetsuit crushing effect also causes your weight belt to slide upwards (to your armpits unless you've got a beergut to stop it) a thinner suit reduces this tendency, and a rubber strechy belt eliminates it entirely.

Last, get a low volume mask.  I got mine at spearfishinggear.com when I got my speargun, because it was only $20 and I wanted to see what a low volume mask was like.  Now I won't use anything else.  It prevents the mask from sucking your eyeballs out as you go down - which forces you to exhale through your nose to equalize it - but then you have to push the air out of the mask again as you go up.  That's just more junk to distract you and burn your O2 when you should be sizing up abalone or lining up on a lingcod.  There's no drawback to low-volume masks, and I don't even know why they still make the high-volume boxy masks.  Black skirted masks reduce the light in the mask to the light from stuff you can actually see - your pupils get bigger and you'll see better.  It gets dark quickly with depth.  The difference is like looking through a window into a lighted room when it's dark out, or doing the same when it's sunny out.

Good stuff Josh... thanks for the tid bits.

I'll tell you josh;

If I weren't married

and

you were a woman

and

you were a lot better looking... I might marry you!  

Thanks for all the info.

what's a low volume mask?

Most dive shops rent 7mm wetsuits, but they do this because people like to scuba dive with them.  At 30ft the pressure is doubled and the bubbles in the neoprene shrink to half their original size - making the material half as thick and half as good at insulating.  

I freedive with a 3mm farmer john and jacket and that keeps me as warm as I'd be with a 7mm 2 piece at 30ft down.  95% of the time you're at the surface and the 30 seconds you're on the bottom isn't enough to get cold, besides you're generating heat by swimming.  Wearing this thin suit allows me to get by with a 12lb weightbelt, compared to a 28lb weightbelt with a 7mm suit.  That right there is a HUGE difference in comfort.  Also, as you go down and the neoprene compresses, you lose bouyancy - with a thick suit your bouyancy will change dramatically between the surface and 20ft down.  The difference is probably between 8 and 3lbs of negative bouyancy at 20ft.   The wetsuit crushing effect also causes your weight belt to slide upwards (to your armpits unless you've got a beergut to stop it) a thinner suit reduces this tendency, and a rubber strechy belt eliminates it entirely.

Last, get a low volume mask.  I got mine at spearfishinggear.com when I got my speargun, because it was only $20 and I wanted to see what a low volume mask was like.  Now I won't use anything else.  It prevents the mask from sucking your eyeballs out as you go down - which forces you to exhale through your nose to equalize it - but then you have to push the air out of the mask again as you go up.  That's just more junk to distract you and burn your O2 when you should be sizing up abalone or lining up on a lingcod.  There's no drawback to low-volume masks, and I don't even know why they still make the high-volume boxy masks.  Black skirted masks reduce the light in the mask to the light from stuff you can actually see - your pupils get bigger and you'll see better.  It gets dark quickly with depth.  The difference is like looking through a window into a lighted room when it's dark out, or doing the same when it's sunny out.

http://www.spearfishinggear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=LFM13&Category_Code=M

It was 19.99 when I got it though...  Low volume masks are labeled as such, asking for one in a dive shop might produce something from a top-shelf - but it'd probably be an expensive brand name mask.  I was always under the impression they were costlier than I was willing to pay for the feature, until I saw this one while ordering the speargun - after my tax return...

Should check out the marseles rubber weight belt w/ buckle on that site too. I love that thing.

http://www.spearfishinggear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=LFM13&Category_Code=M

It was 19.99 when I got it though...  Low volume masks are labeled as such, asking for one in a dive shop might produce something from a top-shelf - but it'd probably be an expensive brand name mask.  I was always under the impression they were costlier than I was willing to pay for the feature, until I saw this one while ordering the speargun - after my tax return...

Should check out the marseles rubber weight belt w/ buckle on that site too. I love that thing.

Josh, will the low volume mask work for scuba too...or do I need a different one?

It works great for both.  There is one minor drawback of the low volume mask in that you can't keep water in it to swish around to defog the lenses.  So make sure you use de-fogger or you'll be flooding/clearing the mask regularly.  Close your eyes when you flood it too, with a high volume mask you can let a bit of water in with your eyes open, but a low volume mask floods very quickly.

It all depends on how long you want to be in the water.
If you just want to get your abs then get out, a 3mm bottom and 7mm top are the way to go. The lighter weight belt is a definite plus as well.
I however like to spend a TON of time in the water.
Driving from Placerville, I have to make the most of my time at the coast, so I am in the water for a minimum of 2 hours, longest has been 5.
I just enjoy it. I could get my abs in one dive and call it a day, but there is so much to explore. I would stay in longer, but I just get dog tired.
I have a 7mm Henderson Gold Core farmer john, and I wear a big 2mm vest under. I put the bottoms on 1st, then my hood, then slide the vest over that, then the top. No water goes down my neck this way. I do pay for it by having to wear 30 lbs of weight.
I know it is overkill, but if you are in the H2O for a LONG time, the cold will get to you. If I was just doing a grab and go, I would go as thin and as light as I could get away with.
Rent a few diff combos and see what works best for you. Its all about comfort, and everyone is different.
Hope this helps, Tote