Warning: I called BS on a hot water suit for 3 winters before I tried one in the Gulf

Fiona Kim · 2026-09-18T02:30:04.398178+00:00

For three winters working the Gulf out of Morgan City, I watched the older guys zip into hot water suits while I stayed in a 7mm wetsuit with a hooded vest, and I figured they were just soft. The math did not add up to me back then, because a suit and the umbilical run a few grand more and I did not see how warm water pumped down a hose could beat good neoprene. After a 4 hour inspection at 180 feet in February water that felt like it was cutting straight through me, my hands were so stiff I could not work the bolts and we lost most of a day. A supervisor named Ray finally put me in one the next week, and the difference hit me in about 10 minutes. My core stayed warm, my fingers kept working the whole shift, and my bottom time got more useful because I was not fighting the cold the entire dive. Now I am torn, because the gear costs more, needs a tender watching the temp, and a hose failure in cold water would be real bad, yet I cannot argue with how much more I get done. So where do you all land, is a hot water suit worth the cost and the extra setup, or am I just getting old and soft like Ray says?

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Warning: I called BS on a hot water suit for 3 winters before I tried one in the Gulf | Commercial Divers - Free To Speak