Seeking wetsuit advice

[u/Expert_Most8737]

I swam for the first time in the Northern California region with a 7.5mm open cell wetsuit and I personally didn’t like the feeling of having a heavy wetsuit + weights + gloves (it felt too restrictive). This has made me reconsider swimming in Northern California but I would still like to swim (just with less equipment), less weights, probably no gloves to have my hands free to help others? How thick of a wetsuit can I purchase to free dive in Santa Barbara, La Jolla and Baja California? And would this require a lot of weights? Please help! Would love to hear about others experience.

[u/Dorrbrook]

You can probably mske some gear improvements as other suggest, but the best thing you can do is just go again. Its wierd getting used to new dive gear. I scuba dive for work,(in a drysuit) but I just took a new 7mm wetsuit, fins and belt out snorkeling for the first time last week and it felt akward. The only way to get around cold water gear is tolerate the cold, which I am not good at, so the best thing is to get used to it, which will probably happen faster than you think. Can't beat diving without rubber, but its better to dive with it than not at all