HeXx
Contributor
I ordered mine with metal because of the feedback I read that metal zippers outlast by quite a bit the plastic ones.So my Seaskin saga somewhat related to 80's rockstar latex fit... during a recent trip to northern Vancouver Island, a helping hand from a dive buddy pulled hard on my partially plastic zipper before I had a chance to get the zipper sides/teeth close together - and pulled the car clean through the teeth on one side. Zipper is apparently not serviceable and will need replacement. This while stuffed in the suit wearing the Seaskin 250gm thinsulate layer.
I'll be sending my suit back to Seaskin for repair ( 126BP, 80BP x 2 shipping next day = 386BP total). I'm also going to discuss what can be done to make alterations to the suit for more crotch and shoulder room.
On a side note, I was lucky enough to have booked the God's Pocket trip through Ocean Pro Divers who (Shawn) had brought 1 spare XL Bare drysuit from their rental fleet. Saved by the loaner suit... this on dive day #2 of 5! Then down in Campbell River at Ocean Fix, rented a Bare "NextGen" for one day of diving with them.
I've had a lot of compliments about how well the Seaskin suit looks, but man, it's not like "I told you so" and had treaded this issue was just waiting to happen at some point. Sum total, 9 dives before user/helper error trashed zipper.
This was my first owned plastic zipper. Should I have Seaskin switch to metal?
I'm still waiting for mine to arrive.
In my opinion, like you said, the zipper was improperly handled and broke. User error.
If a Bare drysuit could handle that abuse? Maybe, but do they use the same brand and model zipper? Perhaps their high quality zipper is what justifies the price being double or triple what a Seaskin costs.
The feedback I read is that Seaskin is durable with many people reporting hundreds of dives without fail, and i'm really hoping they are because I have one ordered