othree are a high quality outfit but specialise in neoprene and compressed neoprene drysuits. Make sure you price in the options you want. There is a lot of drysuit diving around the UK so quite a bit of competition, their prices are reasonable in the UK and with the dollar rate right now, must be good. See Steve Lewis's blog (Doppler) for his experience of them, although I believe he also has a commercial interest now.
Give me your dry suit wisdom
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I dive a Seaskin suit, no complaints at all and the price is amazing, more so now with the exchange rate at 1.22, I have the nova, si-tek valves and seal systems, was thinking of another in neoprene, less than $600 right now. It took about 7 weeks from order to delivery, I'm not an off the rack size so custom sizing was a nice option.
WarrenZ
The Ultimate Bad Example
Dont pee in your drysuit if you haven't hooked up to your pvalve.
I was looking seriously at Seaskin recently. There wasn't much about them here on SB, but it seemed to be all good. Then I went on a UK diver's forum (thediveforum.com) and found a lot more posts about them. The sentiment there seemed to be that Seaskin used to be great, but in the last year or two, their quality has become somewhat questionable. I don't know, myself. I'd just say that if you are considering Seaskin, go on that other site for a bigger base of knowledge.
I have a crushed neoprene suit and a "shell suit". I had shied away from a shell suit before because the less snug fit made me think it would be much harder to manage the air bubble inside. What I have now found is that the shell suit seems to compress around my body to be even more form-fitting when I get in the water, as compared to my crushed neoprene suit. The result seems to be that it is actually easier to dive in. I.e. in the shell suit, I feel like I have less air just running around inside trying to upset my trim. And the shell suit is way more comfortable to be wearing the surface. It's lighter. Mine is breathable. And it doesn't make me sweat my butt of anywhere near like the crushed neo does. OTOH, the crushed neo is so tough it's like it's nearly indestructible. OTOH, my 4th dive in my shell suit I was taking pictures during a wreck swimthrough and bumped my legs on something that was sticking up from the bottom and I got a small hole cut into the thigh of my suit. I got out very wet. Not a total flood or anything. Just pretty well soaking wet, mainly from the waist down. When I eventually found the hole, I dried off the inside of the suit and put some Gorilla tape over it and that allowed me to continue diving with no more water coming in. Then some Aquaseal and a piece of drysuit material and I patched it good as new.
I have not seen one in person, but the things I have read here on SB make me feel like the top suit I would look into if I were buying a new suit would be the USIA Techniflex. It's a stretch tri-lam. And you can get one custom sized to your measurements for something like half the price of a Santi or DUI. And they are made in the USA. Dive Right In Scuba is a major dealer for USIA and also has awesome custom service, so I would talk to them about one.
I would definitely make sure whatever I got has thigh pockets. My first drysuit does not have thigh pockets. My newer one does. I am SO glad for the addition.
I have not used a DUI suit or zip seals. What I've seen/read/heard makes me think that when you use dry gloves that attach with the zip seals, you have to attach the gloves to the suit before you put the suit on. If that's really how it is, I would not like that at all. I like to put my dry gloves on pretty much last when I'm gearing up. I've tried it a few times where I put my dry gloves on as soon as I don the top part of my dry suit and it sucks.
Latex seals are actually pretty durable and most off-the-rack suits come with them. They are definitely durable enough that you should not feel like you have to start right off with a suit with changeable seals. If you find a suit that fits well, for a good price, and it has glued-on latex seals, don't let that sole fact put you off of buying it. You can always get it changed to use replaceable seals later. As long as you take pretty basic care of them, stock latex seals will last a long time.
I have a crushed neoprene suit and a "shell suit". I had shied away from a shell suit before because the less snug fit made me think it would be much harder to manage the air bubble inside. What I have now found is that the shell suit seems to compress around my body to be even more form-fitting when I get in the water, as compared to my crushed neoprene suit. The result seems to be that it is actually easier to dive in. I.e. in the shell suit, I feel like I have less air just running around inside trying to upset my trim. And the shell suit is way more comfortable to be wearing the surface. It's lighter. Mine is breathable. And it doesn't make me sweat my butt of anywhere near like the crushed neo does. OTOH, the crushed neo is so tough it's like it's nearly indestructible. OTOH, my 4th dive in my shell suit I was taking pictures during a wreck swimthrough and bumped my legs on something that was sticking up from the bottom and I got a small hole cut into the thigh of my suit. I got out very wet. Not a total flood or anything. Just pretty well soaking wet, mainly from the waist down. When I eventually found the hole, I dried off the inside of the suit and put some Gorilla tape over it and that allowed me to continue diving with no more water coming in. Then some Aquaseal and a piece of drysuit material and I patched it good as new.
I have not seen one in person, but the things I have read here on SB make me feel like the top suit I would look into if I were buying a new suit would be the USIA Techniflex. It's a stretch tri-lam. And you can get one custom sized to your measurements for something like half the price of a Santi or DUI. And they are made in the USA. Dive Right In Scuba is a major dealer for USIA and also has awesome custom service, so I would talk to them about one.
I would definitely make sure whatever I got has thigh pockets. My first drysuit does not have thigh pockets. My newer one does. I am SO glad for the addition.
I have not used a DUI suit or zip seals. What I've seen/read/heard makes me think that when you use dry gloves that attach with the zip seals, you have to attach the gloves to the suit before you put the suit on. If that's really how it is, I would not like that at all. I like to put my dry gloves on pretty much last when I'm gearing up. I've tried it a few times where I put my dry gloves on as soon as I don the top part of my dry suit and it sucks.
Latex seals are actually pretty durable and most off-the-rack suits come with them. They are definitely durable enough that you should not feel like you have to start right off with a suit with changeable seals. If you find a suit that fits well, for a good price, and it has glued-on latex seals, don't let that sole fact put you off of buying it. You can always get it changed to use replaceable seals later. As long as you take pretty basic care of them, stock latex seals will last a long time.
To piggyback on Stuart's post, my USIA suit has the Si Tech replaceable seal system with the silicone seals. I got the Si Tech QCP dry glove system and have used it on 2 dives. I've seen folks with DUI suits and the Zipseal gloves. They have to go through some funny contortions to get their arms out of the suit. I just unscrew my gloves and get my gear off gloveless. Well worth the $$
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One that fits you. (
). With DS seal material, you just can't win: gain some, lose something other. It's a zero-sum game. IMO silicone is more comfortable, but (again IMO) that's a lesser issue than proper fit and keeping dry. If serviceability is a major concern, go for silicone. They can be changed while on a trip. If longevity is a major concern, go for latex. IME they last a lot longer than silicone. My current DS is a Waterproof D7 with silicone seals. I love to be able to change seals easily (wrist seal replacement takes literally about 5 minutes), but I don't like the durability of the seals. I got about 50 dives out of my suit before my seals were full of holes and had to be replaced. My son has latex seals on his suit and still hasn't had issues with leaks. Gonna be a PITA to change those when they're spent, though, since they're glued into the suit. The SiTech silicone seals seem more solid than the original Waterproof seals, though. My suit's neck seal is still good, but the ring is an annoyance. It interferes with my harness: if the shoulder straps are correctly placed, the ring is under the straps. That's only an issue topside, though, not underwater.
I've seen others with Si Tech dry gloves. I have the Kubi dry glove system. I like the Kubi system better than any Si Tech system I've seen. The rings come in different sizes, so you can get the smallest ones that will fit you, making it more streamlined (unless you need their biggest rings, of course). And the Kubi rings just press together, with an O-ring to make the seal. No twisting, screwing, or clips that have to click in place. Just nice, durable, machine aluminum.
Best money you can spend regarding a drysuit is a P valve. Make that a priority.
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