24 replies to this topic

[Greg@ihpil]

I'm not going to buy now,as I'm not in a $ position to.However,I thought I would, find out what S D divers have & or get your opinions and keep the water or discussions flowing here ..I checked to see if this area had been addressed recently.To my surprise, no.

I know this is an area where there will be some preference to a Mfgr. The Mfgr's I am thinking about looking at are: Pinnacle,DUI,Bare & White. It's an area almost like picking out your first BC or Mask.The options are endless & selection to options are confusing sometimes.What are some of the pro's & or con's .What should I or anyone be looking for,in a drysuite?Price I know will be in the $1500.00 + range.
I will admit I'm a warm water Diver by choice,but would like to visit some of the inland Dive locations around the local area's ,that require a dry suite at times.
That being said,lets hear it..

[Greg@ihpil]

I don't own one myself but I have had White's Fusion drysuit recommended to me. They are almost form fitting which is very important I am told. They also have self sealing ankles and wrists. Whites was at the Texas Dive Show and their stuff looked pretty cool. Like I said, I don't a dry suit, so your impression may vary.

Scott ,I tried theres on at the Show here.Just not sure about the dble layer aspect.The sales person also said ,one can make their own repairs??.There is going to be some "open house "deals at a nearby quarry in the summer.I'm going to see what develops.

[Jerrymxz]

Hi Greg:

I ordered a whites fusion last year at Beneath the Sea thru my LDS. We went over to the Whites Booth where I tried on a Fusion.

It is different then any other dry suit as it is comprised of two independent layers. The inner layer is thin and the waterproof portion of the suit. It is much bigger then you would need in a single layer suit.

The outer layer is very elastic, either a Lycra or hyperstretch 1mm neoprene. The two are held together by Velcro at the wrists, ankles, neck and zipper. Over the rest of the suit the outer “floats” over the inner. When you are wearing it the inner layer has many small folds but it is held snug to the body by the outer skin.

There are many benefits of this system. My dry suit is more flexible then my 3mil one piece Waterproof brand wet suit. With this flexibility I can easily reach the valves on my double tanks. It also allows me to dive with minimal underwear in cool water. A thicker set in colder water and arctic underwear in frigid water. All this and my suit still fits like a glove.

If the outside gets damaged I can replace it for a fraction of a new dry suit. If it develops a leak it is very easy to repair and the repair is covered by the outer skin. As you can probably tell I very much like my Whites dry suit.

By all means check out the try out dives offered by most of the manufacturers before making a decision.

I have a full neoprene dry suit I’ve had for six or eight years and wanted a better suit. It is warm but it has horrible buoyancy characteristics

[peterbj7]

As with all other dive gear, your choice of a dry suit will depend on what you're going to use it for, and where. If it's for reef diving in moderately cold water than a lightweight stretchy one will do very well. If it's for serious wreck diving in really cold water then that'll be no use - it'll rip in no time - and you need something much more substantial.

The brand name means absolutely nothing. What matters is the design and construction, and above all the fit. I currently have two dry suits, and I have owned an additional four or five. One of the worst I had was custom made for me by DUI in England, because the fit was poor. Any system where you measure yourself and send in the measurements is unlikely to be a decent fit, and this wasn't. I eventually sold it to someone it just happened to fit fairly well. My lightweight suit is trilaminate, off-the-shelf made by Oceanic, again in the UK, and then modified by them to my exact measurements (at no additional cost). That is light enough to fly with, and I used it on a diving trip to Alaska a few years ago in Jan/Feb.

My heavyweight suit was made to measure by O3 in England, suitmakers to several world-class expeditions. They took the initial measurements, and I had three fittings during construction. After the first fitting they abandoned what they had made and started again. The suit is exceptionally heavy, made of 3mm crushed neoprene (that's 3mm after crushing) and covered with keflar. I can't imagine anything ever damaging it - you can't even cut it with a sharp knife. They had a hell of a job making it and it's the only one they ever made of that material.

The seals (neck and wrists) are neoprene (as they also are on my Oceanic trilaminate suit). I've tried latex - used it for several years - but it's never comfortable and it's too prone to ripping. Neoprene carefully measured and made is supremely comfortable on the longest of dives and never leaks a drop. On the wrists it gives a far better seal than latex.

This suit is very heavy to carry (I don't remember exactly how heavy, but probably 30lb plus) and very cumbersome and inflexible out of the water. It's also fairly rigid in the water, but that is forgiven as it gives such a feeling of total waterproof confidence. The only time I've ever had any water in it was on my first dive with it, when I didn't tighten the dumps as I had been told to. I thought they meant I should check they were tight, but they actually meant they hadn't screwed them in at all. That was a rather wet 80mtr dive, but even so I wasn't cold and completed the dive. Getting out wasn't easy though, because of the weight of water.

Two of the most important characteristics of a drysuit are the length of the legs and the size of the boots. It is critically important that these are exactly right for you, even if the suit was off-the-peg. Never dive a drysuit that doesn't fit you around the legs & feet - it's dangerous.

So in summary, look for a manufacturer who will measure you and fit the suit to you. The big names are factory operations and won't, so you need to find smaller specialist operations. Just as with beer, avoid the national brands.

[georoc01]

"Two of the most important characteristics of a drysuit are the length of the legs and the size of the boots. It is critically important that these are exactly right for you, even if the suit was off-the-peg. Never dive a drysuit that doesn't fit you around the legs & feet - it's dangerous."

Yeah, when I did my first dry suit dives, it was in a rental suit. And in order to get everything else to fit, it had size 13 feet and I wear size 10. The problem is that it creates an air pocket that can cause you to get inverted in the water and be a challenge to get righted. I used ankle weights to offset this.

Since then I went to a custom DUI that fits me much better. I have friends with BARE suits that don't have feet on them, instead a seal similar to what you have on the wrists.

[peterbj7]

In really cold water you want integral boots. I can't see the point of a drysuit that ends at the ankles.

[Jerrymxz]

In really cold water you want integral boots. I can't see the point of a drysuit that ends at the ankles.

I would agree with integral feet but not integral hard boots. With integrated boots you must wear the same weight socks so the boots fit. With the integral soft feet I can wear anything from gym socks to my 4th element arctic socks depending on the water temp. And all I have to do is tighten or loosen up my rock boots accordingly. My rock boots always feel secure on my feet no matter what insulation I wear in them. Something I can not say about my integrated boots. My 2psi

A dry suit that ends with ankle seals is as you say rather pointless. My feet are cold just thinking about that

[Dave L]

I have a White's Catalyst Classic. Pricey but I love it. Had the p-valve installed by the factory and got the arctic polar fleece undergarments. I've worn it off Hatteras in 70 degree water with only regular underwear on to off New Jersey a couple of weeks ago in 36 degree water. Warm and dry made a lot of difference. I got the gloves that seal to the suit if I want to wear them and the boots are great for walking on a deck or land. Had it fitted to my build which makes it nice and comfy.

Dave

[Cold_H2O]

I am on my second Whites suit... before you get all excited asking why the SECOND suit let me explain.

I bought my first Whites suit 11 years ago.. dove that suit hard for over 8 yrs..
Dove almost weekly for many of those years.. Some weeks I was lucky enough to get two or three dive trips in. (6 dives a week is a great feeling)
Lots and lots of UW time on that suit.

I finally had to buy a new one.. the zipper in the old one was leaking. Whites repair tech Brook told me he didn't want to replace the zipper on a suit that old.
It was a full neoprene with intergral boots. The neoprene was to old too invest anymore money in the suit.
But Brook was willing to do the zipper repair if I really insisted on it.
(love a company that gives you solid information not just fluff to get more $$$ out of you)

I now own a Catalyst 360 custom suit... LOVE it even more than my first Whites suit.
I would not get attatched boots again... Love that I can get boots that really fit my small feet.
Have known several divers that wear Converse tennis shoes instead of drysuit boots.

SiTech valves are the only valves I have ever used on my drysuits.. they always preform fabulously.

Key to a drysuit ~ GREAT FIT.

Edited by Cold_H2O, 10 March 2010 - 09:03 AM.

[gcbryan]

Like anything else there is a lot of personal preference involved. I prefer trilaminate. It's lightweight, dries fast, and is pretty tough. If you are into penetrating wrecks maybe you'll want something else (corduro covering or crushed neoprene).

Fit is important but to me, with a trilam anyway, it's more important to make sure it's not too small or tight. I don't put much air in the suit so if it's a little loose before I get in the water it's no big deal. It's compressed once in the water. I like attached socks rather than attached boots. If you do go with attached boots then fit is extremely important there. My current suit is a DUI 350 and before that I borrowed and put about 50 or more dives on a DUI 450. It fit perfectly, was a little heavy and took a little longer to dry but was nice (and much more expensive). The 350 is loose on me.

I've also have a OS Systems trilam. They all work. In part it's how much money you want to spend, what kind of diving you are going to do with it, and after that just plain personal preference especially with attached sock vs boot, neoprene vs latez seals. There are various choices in dry gloves as well.

If you buy one for cold water you will probably never go back to a wetsuit for cold water.

Edited by gcbryan, 11 March 2010 - 12:34 AM.

[Jerrymxz]

If you buy one for cold water you will probably never go back to a wetsuit for cold water.

I agree with everything you said I certainly agree with this. I have no use what so ever for 7mm neoprene. I may get a nice 5mm suit but right now the closest thing i have is a 3mm one piece Waterproof brand suit and a 5mm henderson hyperstretch hooded vest. Any colder then that and out comes the dry suit.

[Greg@ihpil]

If you buy one for cold water you will probably never go back to a wetsuit for cold water.

I agree with everything you said I certainly agree with this. I have no use what so ever for 7mm neoprene. I may get a nice 5mm suit but right now the closest thing i have is a 3mm one piece Waterproof brand suit and a 5mm henderson hyperstretch hooded vest.

Any colder then that and out comes the dry suit.

Thats my thinking.My 3mm has always worked well in the Carribean waters.If I'm going to do any local Diving in the Midwest ,I'd better be prepared for "cooler temps".My 7mm just doesn't help long with the cold temps.

Edited by Greg@ihpil, 31 March 2010 - 09:39 AM.

[Jerrymxz]

One more important fact is 7mm neoprene has horrible buoyancy characteristics. It takes a ton of lead to sink my fat butt when wrapped in 7mm neoprene. But then at depth the compression takes over and now I need to add a lot of air in my BC to balance out the lead. So at depth my 7mm wetsuit is much thinner and therefore not as warm. I'm swimming around with a bunch of lead I don't need at that point in the dive and a big bag of air to remain neutral causing unneeded drag.

[ScubaDadMiami]

The only time I dive wet is in a heated swimming pool. Otherwise, I do all my diving dry.

I have a DUI TLS350 with lots of extra added cordura added. This gives me the flexibility of a 350 with almost the durability of a CLX450. It is a pretty good compromise though it was a fortune.

I would also take a look at Santi if I were buying a new suit. I have had excellent results with their thermals though I have not yet tried their drysuits. I also hear good things about Pinnacle though they used to have pockets that were too small on the suit with no option for larger. This may have changed since the last time I checked.