In cold water, wearing dive boots (sometimes referred to as scuba diving shoes) can extend your dive time significantly. Diving boots are essential in cold water because they protect your extremities, which are sensitive heat loss zones. Cold water divers will enjoy the added layer of warmth, but the right pair of dive boots can also make it more comfortable for you to navigate warm waters.
Apart from providing excellent thermal insulation, diver’s boots also protect your feet from cuts, scrapes, and stinging creatures. They offer better support to improve your finning strength and make your skin less prone to irritation caused by your fins. Feel more comfortable during your next dive and purchase a pair of high-quality boots from Scuba.com today.
Dive Comfortably with a Durable Pair of Diving Boots
Dive boots are often an overlooked part of scuba diving gear. But wearing scuba boots is a must because you can quickly lose heat from your feet. This is why you need to bundle up and wear your boots with gloves, hoods, and a drysuit. When wearing fins, you can further insulate your feet and protect them from the elements by wearing dive socks.
Suiting up allows you to maintain a comfortable body temperature and makes your dive sessions more enjoyable. Depending on how far you plan to go underwater, you need to protect your feet with hard sole dive boots if exploring wrecks or reefs is part of your itinerary. After all, these sites can have sharp, abrasive surfaces that could cut or scrape your skin. And if you want to improve your grip on slippery surfaces, don a pair of felt bottom dive boots instead.
If dive boots feel too clunky, you can wear dive slippers or dive booties instead. Made of neoprene, they are lighter and more flexible, allowing you to move more freely underwater. But keep in mind that they provide a lower level of protection against rough surfaces.
Do You Wear Wetsuit Boots Over or Under Wetsuit?
You should always wear your wetsuit boots under your wetsuit, so the leg material helps keep water from seeping into your boots. It's best to put on your wetsuit while you’re barefoot. Then, roll up your wetsuit legs, pull on your boots, and roll the legs down to cover the tops of your booties.
What Thickness Wetsuit Boot Do I Need?
Wetsuit boots come in a few different thicknesses, depending on the conditions you expect while diving. The most common thickness is 3mm, which is usually sufficient for warm and cool-water dives. For cold-water dives, a 5mm or 7mm wetsuit boot provides better insulation and improves your comfort.
Some diving boots are made entirely of neoprene for use with fins. Other varieties feature a rubber sole for better grip on wet surfaces like the dive boat deck or wet rocks. If you regularly practice shore diving, look for thicker wetsuit boots with rubber soles to better protect your feet.
Should I Size Up or Down for Wetsuit Boots?
For the best fitting wetsuit boots, you should try to match your shoe size exactly. Trying to size up or down will result in a boot that’s either too tight and leads to numbness, blisters, and constriction, or a boot that’s so loose it takes on too much water. Your boots should feel snug, but comfortable.
If you wear a half size shoe and wetsuit boots aren’t available in your size, then rounding up to the larger size is usually a safer bet.
Do Wetsuit Boots Keep Your Feet Dry?
Wetsuit boots aren’t designed to keep your feet dry while you’re underwater. Instead they’re meant to keep your feet warm and protected as you dive. Neoprene boots insulate your feet most effectively from the cold when there’s a thin layer of water between your skin and the wetsuit boots.
To avoid taking on too much water in your dive booties, make sure to wear the correct size and tuck your boot tops under your wetsuit legs.
Order Top-Quality Dive Boots from Scuba.com
Your wetsuit boots have to feel comfortable when you’re wearing them, so make sure you try them on before getting in the water. Avoid boots that feel too tight since this could limit your movement, and steer clear of loose-fitting ones since this could cause the water to seep in. Ideally, your dive boots should allow you to rotate your ankle so that you can move your feet around while your boots are on.
Scuba.com has an extensive collection of dive boots ranging from low cut diver shoes perfect for beaches to 5 mm dive boots with great ultra-grip properties. Browse our inventory to find dive boots of different thickness, boot cut, sole, color, and more. Shop with us to find the best scuba boots and scuba booties today.
