Cold water Q's

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What Garrobo said. :cold:

Take time to read and research dry suit topics. There are different kinds, and have different pros and cons.

One that seems to have not done well is the Pinnacle Black Ice, a crushed neoprene suit that seems to spring leaks and not repair well.

You'll find die-hard DUI fans, but they are hugely expensive and have a history of needing to be re-worked several times to fit well.

I don't know anyone who does not like their White's Fusion, me included.

I know at least 4 people :) who switched from Fusion to DUI suits. Especially with the prices they are sold here for it would be the last suit I would consider. It might be the local trend here :S
 
The best price/quality suit I have seen so far is Bare NextGen. But it has some inconveniences - it's hard to glue anything on it like pockets, but it can be done and I know some people who did it.

Another issue with the Bare suits is there exhaust valve is not located properly for horizontal trim. You have to chicken wing to dump the air. Or you have to relocate the valve.

I have some issues with the Trilam HD - some of their seams rub agains the dry zipper and damage it. There were some other quality issues with the suit, including 2 leaks in different places within first dives.

So far though the number of issues I have had with the suit seems to be lower than many of my friends had with their suits made by other manufacturers. so I'm more less happy with the suit.
 
My new Fusion dry core came with Apeks valves.

I'd like to know how much motivation the people who switched from Fusions to DUI had from instructor input. I know there are some prominent instructors who hate the Fusion.
 
My new Fusion dry core came with Apeks valves.

I'd like to know how much motivation the people who switched from Fusions to DUI had from instructor input. I know there are some prominent instructors who hate the Fusion.

Its hard to say. I know 3 of them switched after the fundamentals one guy before and another one has nothing to do with gue at all.
Some switched to TLS one to CLX one to CF200

One person complained about the material bulking up on the biceps making it hard toreach the valves.

I think the more apparent reason is fusions here are superexpensive (can be just few hundreds short of TLS) Some of them still sold their fusions still at a good price.
 
I recently purchased a bare HD trilam tec dry suit. I had two dives this past weekend and it was my first time in cold water-0c- with this suit. With tri-lam, the suit is not as warm as neoprene but you have way more flexibility and less drag. I used to dive with a Sea Tux commercial neoprne dry suit for 13 years prior to this. It was warmer but did not go well with the bare dry glove system.

When diving in cold water, you want the best gear you can get. You may spend a little more, but you suffer less. I went with the Bare HD as I needed a new suit and already had the dry glove system. This is a must for cold water diving. For an entry level suit, neoprene will work but you will be more restricted. I would suggest getting latex wrist seals and the bare dry glove system if going neoprene.
 
After reading this thread I am really confused about dry suits...lol. So many suits which one to buy??? :confused:
 
After reading this thread I am really confused about dry suits...lol. So many suits which one to buy??? :confused:

That is the problem with a first drysuit purchase. The more you read and the more people you speak to the more confused you become. My solution was to jump in and buy an entry level drysuit so at least I could find out what I liked and didn't like. My choice was a Bare Nexgen which was reasonably priced and I used it for 5 years before deciding to upgrade. Now knowing the features I wanted I purchased a Whites Fusion Tech and have been very happy with it. I have kept the Nexgen as a backup suit and sold my 7mil wetsuit that was previuosly my backup. Neither of the drysuits have had any issues.
 
I think what it comes down to is that no suit is perfect, and you need to weigh the qualities that are most important to you to decide which one will annoy you the least :)

For me, two things are VERY important: Diving the very cold water where I live, leaks go from extremely annoying to downright dangerous. And after my one experience with a custom dry suit, I will NEVER get involved with anything that doesn't fit off the rack.
 
I have been looking at a Whites suit I tried on the other day that is a used suit but being sold by a dive shop. It is a camo suit but does not have the valves installed, he wants 350.00 for it. I am skeptical though because I think I should buy new to start, and from a dealer so that I have that resource to return to with my questions and concerns.

Also just wanted to check with you all, I just bought a used but professionally serviced MK18 w/D400 and D250 octo. Are there any issues with this setup in cold water? I assume not as the shop I bought it from is a great lakes dive shop. I also went ahead and bought a new SP frameless mask and a new set of Jets. Right now my next step is the suit. I think I will do more investigating and drive to some shops to try on suits. I am too skeptical to invest this much money without having eyes on my purchase.
 
I have been looking at a Whites suit I tried on the other day that is a used suit but being sold by a dive shop. It is a camo suit but does not have the valves installed, he wants 350.00 for it. I am skeptical though because I think I should buy new to start, and from a dealer so that I have that resource to return to with my questions and concerns.
What model of Whites suit were you looking at?

One thing to consider is that drysuits without valves target a different market than scuba diving community. I'd want to make sure that the drysuit material was suitable for diving.

Since the used suit lacks valves, it implies that the previous owner was using it for some purpose other than scuba diving (kayaking, hunting, sailing, etc.). Some activities don't have attached booties and instead use ankle seals. Although this may be OK for warm water diving (check out the DUI 30/30 suit), it is unacceptable for cold water diving. Yet another thing to consider is that, depending on the activity, the suit might have been subjected to use that increases the likelihood of a puncture...and that's not good if you hope to use it for diving.

You need to consider the total cost of making the suit dive-able. How much will it cost to add the exhaust and inflater valves?
$350 for a used drysuit without any valves is not a good deal, if you ask me.
Keep looking around. You'll certainly be able to find a better deal somewhere else.
Also just wanted to check with you all, I just bought a used but professionally serviced MK18 w/D400 and D250 octo. Are there any issues with this setup in cold water? I assume not as the shop I bought it from is a great lakes dive shop. I also went ahead and bought a new SP frameless mask and a new set of Jets. Right now my next step is the suit. I think I will do more investigating and drive to some shops to try on suits. I am too skeptical to invest this much money without having eyes on my purchase.
I'm not a Scubapro expert, but I believe that the MK18 is a balanced diaphragm design that is not environmentally-sealed. If you are diving in really cold water (near freezing temps), it would make more sense to get an environmentally-sealed first stage. A very similar, environmentally-sealed reg in the Scubapro line would be the MK19 (with swivel turret) or the MK17 (without swivel turret).

The second stages (D400 and D250) are OK, provided that they were tuned/serviced properly. They wouldn't be my first choices for cold water diving, though.

I keep mentioning cold water diving because you are located in the Great Lakes area, where, depending on the body of water and time of year, a diver might be diving in water temperatures reaching the low 30s (°F). I would say that qualifies as "cold water diving."
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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