For normal people, it would be a good suit for tropics. Popeye handles cold
a lot better than most, so he wears it a lot of places others wouldnt.

It's really good advice. You can dive in all waters comfortably with a
simple change in insulation.

Other than that, you would be looking at a 5 mil suit, I would guess.

I dont know how it will affect yours, but it'll sure affect Pops' buoyancy.

Not quite.  He's a different animal altogether, really.

No, just a welcome to rec.scuba

If they're black neoprene, they do...

and thus you win "The Laugh of the Day Award" !!

 Yah, and as a stand alone skin protection.

 Either way.

 Scott already covered that succinctly.

 They're not just for breakfast anymore.

A dry suit can be used for most water temperatures short of tropical.
Especially tri-laminate suits where you choose an undersuit to determine
the level of insulation. The bigger problem is sitting around on
land/boat fully sealed into a dry suit when the temperature is high.

I tend to choose what to wear not on the basis of "is it too cold for a
wetsuit?" but "is it too warm for my drysuit?".

Having said that, they're a lot of money if you don't really need one.

As Lee pointed out, lycra skins are fairly inexpensive. Any chance you're thinking of
a Polartec skin, which provides insulation and  may cost $200? Like lycra, Polartec
skins are great for sun protection and accidental encounters with stinging things
when water temperatures are around 78 and up (YMMV, of course). They won't be as good
as plain lycra for getting into a wetsuit, though, especially if you get a wetsuit
that fits well when you aren't wearing the polartec.

There's certainly no need to rush right into a drysuit, but you also don't need to
rush into buying a wetsuit. Just consider that if you want a drysuit in the future
several hundred dollars spent on a good wetsuit could have been a sizable portion of
the cost of a drysuit that makes the wetsuit unnecessary. While a wetsuit might be
more than adequate for 65 degrees, a drysuit doesn't have to be too warm. If you dive
in cool waters I think you might find that it's easier than you realize to find temps
into the mid or low 50's.

The mere thought of it increased my buoyancy a little.

I've sometimes worn a skin under a thicker wetsuit...and then end up
forgetting it half the time.  For my warmwater suit (3mm), I find it
easiest to put on when its dry, with or without a skin, and since it
takes me just as long to put on a skin as my (dry) 3mm, not using the
skin means it takes me half as long to put on.

For my coldwater suit (7mm Farmer John), I tend to try to not remember
which way is easier/harder by not doing much coldwater diving.
Overall, I don't really recall it really making that much of a
difference overall.

FWIW, since I usually spend less than $200 for a full 3mm wetsuit, I
wouldn't  spend that much for a Polartech skin, since a Polartech isn't
as much thermal protection as a 3mm.  Sure, you get to wear a few
pounds less lead weight, but my 3mm only adds around 3-4 lbs, which IMO
is pretty negligible.   OTOH, if only someone made a Polartech that was
the thermal equivalent of a coldwater 7mm Farmer John!

The real subject matter experts in this knows that it depends on
precisely how lacy/frilly they are and thus, solicit a photograph of
yours :-)

BTW, some of their pic's can be seen here (if you want to be included,
you're welcome to send me one of yourself...with or without
panties...if you wish):

http://www.huntzinger.com/dive/strokes/

BTW, Lee ... I don't have a pic of you in this directory, but JF has
one that IIRC he has linked to from someplace...mind if I grab a copy
of it?

Actually, its mostly harmless dirty old men wannabee's who flirt and
misbehave when we ^H^H they think our ^H^H^H their wives aren't paying
attention.

Welcome to <rec.scuba>, Amanda.

-hh

argh.  Reading and replying on the web as i haven't had time to do the
newsreader thing yet, not that I have a clue how. Lemmee see how many
times I can send this one ;-P

The boy had a lovely day at Mt. Rainier and is now in the kitchen
scarfing mass quantities of hotwings and beer, with a planned chaser of
moose tracks ice cream.  Life is good.

Dang it, you almost make me homesick for the Christmas Tree dive.  I
haven't been that cold in a good long time. Water here is still in the
50's as far down as we have ventured lately.  And we surface to air
about the same if not warmer, most of the winter.  And the octos are
positively ethereal.  I love it.  You must come out.

Remind me to pop the hood canal rainbow photos up somewhere, sometime.

*