[QUOTE=Scuba_Ben]
When I was in Turks & Caicos I hadn’t switched over to contacts yet, so my effective visibility was about 40 feet – good enough to see the reef shark coming by us about 15 feet away. (I made sure to put the dive guide between me and it, heh.)
I dove Ft. Lauderdale one July, my 1.5 mil skin was plenty. And a 3 mil wetsuit was enough for me in T&C in December. Maybe you had a cold current, it happens.
My most frequent dive site was Dutch Springs between Allentown and Bethlehem, PA. Below the thermocline, it’s about 55 - 60. Small wonder, then, that I got a drysuit certification along with the Advanced diver course.
(Technical note for non-divers: A wetsuit lets in a small amount of water, and no more; once the water’s been warmed, it has nowhere to go. A drysuit doesn’t let in any water at all, and so provides much better thermal protection. But a drysuit is also a separate skill, where a wetsuit is simply “Here, wear this.”)
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not a cold current, altho i wish it had been! florida was in the midst of the coldest weather on record down there. it was so cold they were worried about the palm trees AND the coral. not an experience i want to repeat. i thank the gods that our rental had heat. so many places in florida don’t have it!
the dive master also has a dry suit cert and is rebreather certified. i’ll settle for advanced open water and getting my nitrox cert.