Many divers in todayʼs world will not contemplate entering the water without a  drysuit.

For all of my working dives both teaching and guiding and my fun dives in large caves and on deeper shipwrecks, in the colder waters of the UK Iʼm using my OʼThree 90-ninety Tri Lam drysuit. Combined with good thermals a superb system for long duration dives when I need the equipment to just work in  the background whilst I concentrate on the student, wreck or cave. 

But what if we say the drysuit is not always the best choice for every dive ? If we are Sump diving or traditional cave diving in the UK, involving long sections of  dry caving before and after the diving sections. This can sometimes be multiple  sumps, caver then diver. Cave, dive and so on. A wetsuit is a far better tool for  the job. In a drysuit you run the high risk of damaging the suit and overheating  on the approach, in a wetsuit we are also able to wear neoprene socks and  caving boots with a better grip on the cave than a drysuit boot or rock boot. 

Now if the sumps are short and shallow and the approach long I will use the GBS  3mm wetsuit and if the trip involves longer dives but still has dry caving involved the 65 semi-dry wetsuit is a lovely warm suit. My son and I recently did a 90  minute test dive in Wookey Hole Caves, water temperature 10.c in this wetsuit  and we both surfaced warm but with chilly feet in our wetsuit socks and caving  boots. A proper pair of wetsuit boots would have stopped that issue. A wetsuit is  not just for caves, shallow water sea diver in the spring to autumn time in the Uk  can be superb and easily achieved in a good wetsuit, think Chesil Beach,  Swanage Pier or Babbacombe for example.

Then we go onto foreign climates and the wetsuit system can be adjusted to suit the sea temperature. The  Humble wetsuit has much to recommend it for certain dives, far cheaper than  the drysuit, less maintenance and not a drama if you manage to put a hole in the  wetsuit. Personally I love the freedom of wetsuit diving.