Here's an easy one (I think)

[LKunze]

I used a 7mm wetsuit for my first year of diving as well.  I thought it was alright at first.  Being new to diving at the time my buoyancy sucked and my air consumption was crap.  I stayed fairly warm partly because I was wasting so much energy with my subpar skills and generating more heat.  My first dive in Lake Superior in 42F water was a real rude awakening in the wetsuit.  Also, towards the end of the dive season in colder weather I was downright frigid.  I went with a drysuit the next year and haven't looked back.  I still get cold in my drysuit & 400G thinsulate undies sometimes particularly early and later in the season when there aren't any thermoclines to warm up in but it still beats a wetsuit though and it is so much nicer to get into and out of a drysuit.

[scubert]

provided it's WARM and not OHMYFRIGGINGODITSHOT! and you roast someone !  ;D

[matt t.]

provided it's WARM and not OHMYFRIGGINGODITSHOT! and you roast someone !   ;D
[/quote]
Hey now, that only happened once! Luckily he moved away so I don't have to hear about it anymore  :o. In my post above I said "warm" water not "scalding hot" ;D. Like they say, you should learn something on every dive. We just happened to learn about really hot water that day.....

[dean810]

As Matt T. said, a lot of people in Wisconsin, and the Midwest I might add,  dive wet.  Some of them do it locally.  But I bet a big bunch of them don't.  They just dive the warmer water futher away, and pay the airfare.  Consider yourself special for thinking of local diving!

If you find you catch the bug, and can't afford it, I think another suggestion made earlier of renting, dry suit I mean, has merit.  I did it for quite a while myself.  Renting has it's many problems, but it does help you decide where to allocate your budget!  And it does help you stay local until you can afford to buy.

[fishchaser]

Thought I'd jump in on this one.  Almost exactly one year ago I had this same dilema.  Wet or Dry.  $600 or $1200.  (Henderson Goldcore 7mm + warmer or Bare Trilam drysuit)

Here's the way I looked at it.  I just spent about $2000 on all the other gear I needed.  Wisconsin is cold (as compared to the caribbean) and I could get by with the 7mm, but my diving season would probably be shorter than diving dry.  So, I could use that $2000 worth of gear for 2-3 months of the year, or spend a bit more on the drysuit and extend my diving season by several more months.  So I got much more use out of my other gear by spending a little more money.  Also, I figured that if I dove wet, and didn't like it, I'd be less likely to dive more frequent, and the other $2000 on gear is wasted sitting in a closet.  I'm all about saving money, but to spend $2600 and dive 2-3 months a year, or spend $3200 and dive 6 months a year....while it's more money, the drysuit is much more value.  And, as many people have mentioned, if you buy a wetsuit first, then go dry, you will have wasted that $400 on the wetsuit, as it will be difficult to recover much of that money, and it's too thick for diving in the caribbean (I bought a full 3/2 for that).

If you're not too sure about the hobby and spending that much money, I'd also reiterate with Omicron said "Instead of decidiing now, you may just want to try and find a rental that fits "pretty good"."  See if you get cold.  If you do, buy dry.

Whatever you do, good luck and have fun!

Chad

[dfreeman]

There are a lot of people in Wisconsin that dive wet.  Most do 20-50 dives during May through September and have a lot of fun.

However, most of the people that I know that do over 50 dives a year are in dry suits.  They can not wait for the open water season to start in April and end in December, then it is ice diving fun the rest of the year.  Once dry, you never go back.

Jason probably has it right.  Rent until you determine how serious you are and then decide.  Be sure to go to DUI Days at Lake Wazee in June to try out a dry suit or two.

I enjoy diving the lakes in Wisconsin on a regular basis.  Can not wait to get into a lake this weekend.  See you at Lake Wazee if you get out there.

Zipper on the ankles, not on the wrist.

Doug