Again take the classes and make sure you can dive and it's something you like enough to spend a lot of money on. Personally I'm fine in a wetsuit and I live in Northern CA where the water is normall in the high 40's to low 50's during winter and not much warmer during the summer. I have a 9mm XCEL which is extremely warm. But I also run warm because I rarely dive with gloves and have only been cold in that suit once and it was at 110' and the water was 44 deg F. I'm sure dry suits are great for some but right now I'm fine wet, so don't jump in determined you must dive dry, and again MAKE SURE DIVING IS FOR YOU!!!