Thanks for the compliment, my friend!
You mentioned the suit dries as fast as any trilam. How fast is that for you? It still takes me at least 1 full day for the suit to dry, though the neoprene socks take longer.
I'm a commercial diver, so I wear my SB pretty much every day. When I come home from work around 5, I hang it up in my shop... Which, by the way, is possible with the BARE SB because it has no telescoping torso. I hang it on my Z-Rack.
Drysuits with telescoping torsos are too long for the Z-Rack and must be hung on the wall by either a pulley system or a ladder, which is just silliness. Unfortunately, all other self-donning trilam drysuits require this oddity (except Whites, and they're odd on their own), and is the reason why so many commercial guys prefer back-zip drysuits. So there ya go... Another BARE SB advantage: It dons like a self-donner (eg. without help from others) but dries like a back-zip.
...Anyway, when I come in in the morning around 9, it's usually pretty dry... And I'm in Savannah, where there's high humidity and dry times are slow. The shop is unheated, too.
Forced to compare, I'd say it dries about as fast as a SANTI E.lite or E.motion - DUI CLX450 or FLX Extreme. A SANTI E.space or DUI TLS350 might beat it out, but not by much... And only because their materials are so thin, which causes other issues when wrecking or commercial diving like you and I do.
For what it's worth... Donning a dry drysuit is nice, but not a requirement, so it's not like it should be a real game-changer anyway. Perhaps our idea of "dry" is different from yours. Keep in mind that when we dive wet, our wetsuits stay wet for months and often never dry at all (we don't even hang them up - they live in a Rubbermaid box in the back of the truck), so we don't think much of it.
On the other hand... If you're talking about the INTERIOR of the suit, I can see how that'd be a bigger deal. And since you appear to be having problems keeping water out of yours, I assume that's why you're concerned.
If we get water in a drysuit, we'll turn it inside-out prior to hanging. You can only do so much... For example, you can't turn the boots inside-out... But we do as much as we can and it's usually dry by morning. Obviously we take great care not to stress the zipper and valves and surrounding fabric when inverting a suit.
Secondly what is this butt pad you spoke of?
It's an option when you order a BARE SB suit. It's the same material that the kneepads are made of, which has proven to be very durable.
As an owner of the original and a remade SB, i have to say the remade version is not very stretchy. It is difficult for me to get my head through the neck seal now as I have to depend on starchiness to do that. I do miss that about my suit.
I've never seen or dived the original SB, but I have heard that there is a difference in the amount of stretchiness between them.
Without a telescoping torso, the suit does - and always has - relied on it's stretchiness to get the diver's head through the neck seal. Perhaps what you mean is that it's not as easy in the new SB as it was in the older one. I haven't experienced any difficulty at all, but I do notice that there's less room in a thick undergarment than there is in a thin one. I have to pull a little more to get the room I need when the water's colder and I'm in a thicker undergarment. I don't find it an issue, though, as it seems to stretch plenty either way. To me, any issues I had with it would be a small price to pay to have the simplicity and streamlinedness of a self-donning suit without a telescoping torso... Especially since the excellent TiZip Masterseal zipper makes getting my noggin in so easy. It'd be more complicated if I was still diving a suit with a brass zipper.
I have taken this suit on a few wrecks and haven't had any problems with it in terms of abrasions. However this suit just doesn't keep me very dry. Lately it seems to be leaking around my foot and my crotch. Have you really not had any leaks?
None whatsoever, and I'm probably 120 dives into this suit, and diving in a pretty brutal environment.
...Which isn't exactly fair to say, because I have experienced water entry at the wrists when I'm working really hard. I have rather pronounced wrist tendons, and if I move in a certain way I can get any wrist seal to leak. But this BARE came with bottle seals rather than trimmable cone seals, which tend to do better. With cones (which I have always dived in the past), I notice I get a better seal pushing my cuffs up some, past my tendons. With these bottle seals, I've found the best results pushing the seals DOWN as far as possible, which is odd... But effective.
I also thought I had a leak at the shoulder dump between dives 60-70. It turned out that the job I was working on I was jamming myself up into a crevice and inadvertently pressing the manual override on the shoulder dump, allowing a little bit of water in. Duh! Problem solved.
Neither of these "issues" had anything to do with the suit - it's design or it's materials. BARE uses the same SiTech valves and seals that come on most drysuits, which is to say that I'd have had the issue with any brand of drysuit.
If your suit has leaks at the crotch or around your foot, you should send it back and have them diagnose the hole.
I actually do wish pockets could be glued on.
Your concern is mirrored by others, but as a commercial guy that typically carries a lot of stuff, I can't see why you'd need it. The left leg interior pocket is fantastic, and quite clever. It's large and sealed well and very streamlined, which is a huge advantage when the current really starts kickin'. If you need more and/or a bellows pocket, try a
Halcyon Weighted Bellows Pocket. We have them but never use them. Our small tools are all equipped with a bolt snap and thus clipped off to our rigs. Our large tools are brought down specifically in a basket for quick access - it's easier to pick the tool you need if you can see it, than it is by feel.
Originally a p-valve could not be put on this suit and when I called the support line that is what they told me.
A p-valve is now a factory option. By default it's installed in the typical place on the right leg, but you can specify otherwise. It's the Si-Tech p-valve, and is very simple, includes an integrated one-way valve, and can be shut off manually without a separate bolt... So nothing to lose. It's great. No bolt also means less entanglement hazard.
It's true that the material is too stretchy - even in this new version - to receive patches or pockets. In fact, my BARE SB logo between my shoulder blades has begun to peel off at the edges, presumably because that's the area most stressed. I have avoided putting our company patch on the left shoulder as we usually do with our suits because of it. Pockets probably wouldn't stand a chance unless they made them out of the same material and attached them as any other SB suit panel - through-stitched and then sealed from behind. Alternatively, they could offer another internal pocket like they do on the left leg, but that would limit p-valve installation options unless they made the pocket smaller - 'cause their internal pocket is pretty big.
Personally I'd recommend that the pocket issue is inconsequential. There's simply too many other options for mounting gear and/or mounting pockets to sacrifice the awesome stretch material of this suit.
A dive last week on a client's boat
Fair Ellen. Water 45 degrees:
