Are dry suits worth it?

[Lorenzoid]

Despite the specific situation in this thread that you noted, Santi suits are high quality and loaded with features. If Santi has a problem with their Flexsole boots wearing prematurely or with their US representative mis-handling repairs, the positives about their suits may still outweigh those few negatives.

 

[2airishuman]

Despite the specific situation in this thread that you noted, Santi suits are high quality and loaded with features. If Santi has a problem with their Flexsole boots wearing prematurely or with their US representative mis-handling repairs, the positives about their suits may still outweigh those few negatives.

I do understand that it may make sense to look past the boot problems and service problems and look at the broader picture.

 

[TMHeimer]

If you're diving all winter in a cold climate (not talking Carolinas....) and expect to do two dives in a day, you would need one. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother, considering all that you mentioned-- particularly the costs.
Needless to say, it depends on your cold tolerance and how cold it has to be (water OR air) for you not to enjoy diving wet. I've seen people in drysuits on the Florida panhandle in winter.

 

[rivers]

Put it this way, I don't dive wet. In the off chance I go somewhere warm, my drysuit comes with me. My last drysuit lasted me around 600 dives, and it cost me less than £600. It started to get a bit leaky, but I dive every week, sometimes multiple times a week, and I'm anything but easy on my gear.

 

[Brandon]

...we have to put up with poor quality and poor service because the market is small and there are no alternatives

Welcome to scuba, I see you're new here.

But seriously. Yes, if you have the Great Lakes in your backyard and dive 2x a week, it seems like a drysuit would be very helpful in extending your dive season. I've had 4 different drysuits now; none of them have been all that much of a hassle. Most of the major maintenance stuff you deal with every 2-3 years or so, the rest is just keeping the zipper lubed and patching minor leaks when they come up.

 

[Storker]

All drysuits eventually become wetsuits ... and then you get 'em fixed.

IME there's no such thing as a dry suit. They're reasonably-dry-most-of-the-time suits. I still prefer them over a wetsuit.

for many of us, winter's the best time to go diving

Not the least because of the winter viz. Up here, it's easily three times the summer viz. Pretty close to good blue water viz.

 

[grf88]

I have owned 2 drysuits, the first was an entry level Bare Nexgen, never had a problem with it and still have it as my backup. Cost about $1000 with hood underwear and boots. I currently have a Fusion Tech that was under $2000 Canadian. Also no problems and dives dry. I know others who have spent several thousand more for custom suits that seem to spend most of their time in for repair, in fact I am sure a couple of those suits have their own frequent flyer points for the times they have been back to California.

 

[kelemvor]

I got a dry-suit.. maybe 2 years ago now? The expense, and learning curve are the only negatives vs a thick wet-suit. The learning curve wasn't as bad as some on SB make it out to be. My drysuit is easier to don/doff, warmer, more comfortable on land and in the water. It's all good news for me.

For the price you're expecting to pay, I hope you're looking at a custom suit and I also hope that price includes training. I think that might be slightly more than I paid for my "Bare Tech HDC Expedition" which was custom cut and has every option and came with free classes from the LDS. I did have a problem once, and BARE repaired it under warranty as they should have.

There's a slightly lower model bare suit for sale here on SB for like $500. Bare suits come with a lifetime warranty and it is transferable to new owners. It doesn't have all the options like sitech rings etc.

New Drysuit BARE HDC Expedition Tech Dry by Aaron Kelly, on Flickr

 

[2airishuman]

For the price you're expecting to pay, I hope you're looking at a custom suit and I also hope that price includes training.

I will either have to get a custom suit or pay to have the sleeves lengthened.

Training is readily available and inexpensive, so I hadn't thought much about it. DUI has a local dealer here, and a pool, so I would probably ask them to include training when the time comes.

Size problems complicate my effort to find a used suit, and also make some of the less expensive dry suits less attractive, due to the cost and practicality of customization.

 

[vinegarbiscuit]

I got cave certified one January in a 7 mm suit. I will never forget the misery of stripping off my suit in 50-degree weather to change for a lunch, a gas fill, and a de-brief, only to have to shiver and shake my way back into my wet skin and wetsuit for the second dive after lunch. My husband and instructor were toasty in their drysuits - they stripped off to their long underwear, and that was that. I started shivering as soon as I got back into the water - they didn't. Right then and there, I knew I would have to invest in a drysuit.

Don't get me wrong - a drysuit presents its own issues. The upfront cost, obviously, and ongoing maintenance (seals, etc). Reconfiguring your gear (BC, even fins) to accommodate the suit and the different buoyancy characteristics. The humiliation of the inevitable feet-first ascent while you're learning to drive it. The discomfort of roasting in hot weather topside. Figuring out the whole pee-thing. (Blokes have it much easier!) The frustration of the occasional leak or even outright flood. Thing is, is that drysuits open doors that will be forever closed if you keep diving wet. Cave dives lasting hours in cold water can be managed in a drysuit (although one may have to up the ante re: thicker underwear or even heated vests), but in a wetsuit: not so much. There are always exceptions - I know a few folks here in the Northeast that dove wet for ages, and people in cave country today that do staggering dives on OC in a wetsuit, albeit with heated packs to help them - but for most people, dry is the way to go.