Wow, With that many dry suits under your belt i have to pick your brain and ask which one was or is your favorite?
All of my suits were custom-cut (made to measure in drysuit terminology) ... all were front-zip. They all had pros and cons ... I'll give a synopsis of each ...
Diving Concepts Ultra-Flex Pro - trilaminate, great suit, fit me beautifully. My only issue with Diving Concepts is they had very bad customer service. The company is now out of business.
Northern Diver - don't recall the model name, it was a cordura suit ... heavy and durable. Very poorly cut ... so much so the company ended up making me another one (equally poorly cut). I didn't keep this suit long ... in drysuits, fit is at least as important as function.
DUI CLX450 - a lighter weight cordura than the Northern Diver, but by far a more flexible, comfortable suit. I loved this suit, and used it for teaching classes, where you can put a lot of wear-n-tear on a drysuit. But I gained some weight and ended up selling it. Last I heard, the guy I sold it to is still happily using the suit.
DUI TLS350 - I went for a lightweight suit, thinking to travel with it. Fit and comfort wise, this was my all-time favorite suit. Only problem with it was it seemed to find lots of ways to leak ... Dry Until Immersed. But because it was so comfortable otherwise, I was OK with constantly having to find and fix the leaks I could easily repair. I found out on this suit that DUI's customer service is excellent. Eventually wore it out (maybe 600 dives) ... I'm so reticent to part with the suit that it still sits in my garage, despite the fact that it will never go diving with me again.
White's Fusion - I tried hard to love this suit, and just couldn't. I was an early adopter, and the early core was not made for people with "hefty" bodies ... the core would bind at the forearms and calves, eliminating the advantage of the suit design. Pockets would sag down around your ankles whenever you put stuff in them. Suit was a pain in the neck to get into. I was never comfortable in the suit ... which is the opposite experience that most folks I know who own them have had. Goes to show that nothing's right for everyone. I eventually sold the suit to some guy in Colorado. AFAIK, he's still diving it.
Santi eSpace - another trilaminate ... somewhere between the CLX450 and TLS350 in weight. I still own this suit, and it's now my backup (it's the one I described earlier with all the leaks). I got a LOT of diving on this suit, including all but one of my cave trips (my first cave trip was using the Fusion). It is, however, a bit heavy for travel.
Bare XCLS2 - a 2mm compressed neo suit. Once again, I was an early adopter for a new design and material, and initially experienced some issues. Bare eventually built me a new suit, but I learned in the process not to expect Bare to be in anything remotely resembling a sense of urgency in taking care of customer issues. I like the suit ... although it's heavy and therefore won't travel with me, it's well-suited for our cold conditions. I probably won't buy another Bare drysuit though (love their wetsuits, and recently purchased my second one) ... as an instructor I just can't afford to wait two months for my suit to come back from the factory, especially when it has to go there repeatedly.
Of all the suits and manufacturers, I'll give the nod to Santi and DUI ... and my next suit will be either another TLS350 or Santi's most lightweight suit (I believe it's called E-Lite) ... which I'll likely be buying sometime in 2014 ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
