I'm one of those people who didn't like the Whte's Fusion. I really wanted to, since I got a smoking deal on it ... but try as I might I couldn't make myself like that suit. First off, they're harder getting into and out of than other suits ... particularly for people like me who are not an "off the rack" body shape. To put it more bluntly, this suit ain't made for fat people ... and not just because of the doffing/donning issue, but because once you're in it, well ... they show off your body quite nicely. I once made the mistake of wearing this suit for a TV show on scuba diving, and I really shouldn't have. Then there was the pockets ... mine functioned nicely in the water, but on surface interval they somehow always ended up down around my ankles ... I had the tech skin and it just wasn't enough support to keep the pockets from sagging due to the weight of the contents. Oh sure, there's "fixes" for that, if you want to DIY your own suit and glue velcro patches to the two layers ... but that seems kind of a hokey way to do things. There were a few other things I didn't care for with the suit, but the bottom line is I eventually sold it and went with a more basic trilam.
I've owned a succession of trilam suits over the years.
Started with a Diving Concepts, who makes a great suit but their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. I loved that suit, and dived it till it was too worn out to fix anymore. But I still, to this day, avoid Diving Concepts for drysuit repairs ... they just never got their customer service act together.
Went from that to a Northern Diver ... HUGE mistake ... took four months to get a custom suit from them, and the suit they sent me was made for someone with a completely different body from mine ... then it took them three more months to make it right. I never liked that suit, and sold it for a huge loss. They may have gotten better since then (2004), but I'll never give myself an opportunity to find out.
Went with DUI ... had two different suits, a CLX450 for teaching and a TLS350 for fun diving. Thought the Zip seals would be a good idea, but they do have some drawbacks ... particularly for wrist seals if you want to use standard dry gloves rather than the zip gloves. Most folks I know who go this route opt for Zip seals on the neck only. My only complaint about DUI was that my TLS350 tended to spring leaks a lot ... not that I minded, I'd just find them, fix them, and keep diving ... that suit fit me like a favorite pair of jeans and I absolutely loved it. The CLX450 was tough as nails, but I never really felt as comfortable in it, so eventually I replaced it with ...
A White's Fusion ... they seemed all the rage, and as I said earlier, I got a great deal on one. So I gave it a try ... in fact, I gave it a lot of tries. I'm fortunate to live not too far from the White's factory, and to their credit these guys went far out of their way to make me happy ... allowing me to deliver the suit directly to the factory to add pockets and to replace the socks with booties ... even giving me a VIP tour of the factory while I was there. Their customer service is tops ... I just couldn't make myself love this suit no matter how much I wanted to. I eventually sold it to someone here on ScubaBoard ... last I heard, he's still diving it and loves it.
From there I went with a Santi eSpace. Very nice suit ... rugged and comfortable. I still own it, although it's now my backup suit. These aren't cheap, but they're a suit I'd recommend for someone who dives a lot and uses their suit hard. The only drawback to Santi is that if you have to send the suit back to them for any reason, it's going to Poland.
My most recent suit is a Bare Tech Dry XCS2 ... a pretty new design. It's a "lightweight" compressed neoprene suit that's very stretchy. I've only had it for about a month, and really like this suit a lot. It's easy to don and doff, very comfortable, warm ... I was able to switch to a pretty lightweight undergarment ... and has that new TiZip drysuit zipper. My only complaint about this suit was that ... like all of my suits it was custom ... when it arrived it was too long in the torso. But Bare's in the process of making me a new one, so I've now "tested" their customer service, and they've so far passed the test. Time will tell about durability, but so far I think this may end up being my new all-time favorite suit.
So none of that really helps anyone who's looking for someone to recommend a drysuit, except to say that following someone else's recommendation is really a hit or miss process, because even if "everybody else" likes a particular type of suit, you may not for your own reasons. Different suits have different advantages and drawbacks. Neoprene suits are warm and comfortable, but they are also heavy (don't travel well due to luggage weight) and tend to take a long time to dry out. Trilam suits are more travel friendly, but tend to require more undergarment for warmth ... and they have to be cut to allow freedom of motion, which means more wrinkles to push through the water. Customer service matters. I've had great luck with some companies (DUI, Whites and Bare) ... poor luck with others (Diving Concepts and Northern Diver) ... and the one time I had to send my Santi suit back they did a great job, but Poland is far from here. And none of these are what I'd call "starter" suits ... I agree with the person above who said buy the best suit you can afford.
About drysuit training ... I'm gonna disagree somewhat with the person who said only an idiot would dive a drysuit without taking a class. If that's the case, I'm an idiot, because although I teach drysuit classes I never took one. When I got my first drysuit, I had a mentor take me diving, show me the standard recovery exercise and drill me on connecting and disconnecting my drysuit hose underwater ... and did a lot of diving. So although I have issued several drysuit c-cards, I don't own one. Nor do you need to unless you're planning to rent a drysuit someday. When my own students ask me about drysuit training, my first question is do you want a c-card? If the answer is yes, we do a standard drysuit class. If no, then we include drysuit training into another workshop or specialty class in such a way that it saves them some money and more specifically targets skills that they want to learn. What you need to know about a drysuit is how to purchase one that fits properly, and how to take care of it once you own it. For the former, I'll refer potential buyers to a LDS I can trust to tell them about the pros and cons of various models and assure that a purchased suit will fit them properly. For the latter, I can show them how to maintain a drysuit in about 10 minutes ... and if you have a bit more time, how to leak test and do basic repairs. It's not rocket surgery. For the safety drills, I can demonstrate and have you practice them on a dive ... either as part of another class or just going out diving and doing them in the shallows at the beginning of the dive. Bottom line is I'll happily sell you a class if you need one, but not everybody does.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)