Its been a fantastic two months of diving and I've been holding my thoughts/comments about my new Seasoft drysuit until I had a bunch of dives on it. Having just returned from a fantastic dive trip in the north east, hitting a wide variety of spots, I'm finally ready to spill the beans.
I graduated from Captain Slates diving academy in 2002 and started teaching a few days later, having assisted with another instructor for more then a year prior. I pretty much lived in the water and had a great rig, which included a Typhoon trilam suit. It was heavy, baggy and because I lived at the local shops, I tried everything and found it to be the best compromise at the time.
One day I was finishing up some open water dives and got a reverse block. Took me about 20 minutes to surface and when I did, my right ear drum got damaged. The membrane separating the two sides, had holes in it and as a consequence it flap around and not stay rigid. The doctors said I may never be able to equalize again and all of a sudden, my carer of teaching diving went right out the window. I decided to move to L.A. with some friends and kept trying to dive against doctors orders, but could never equalize and sold all my gear a few years later so it wouldn't rot in my garage.
My ear issue healed up in a few years, but I didn't want to push it. Summer 2013 I said enough was enough, made some new friends, borrowed some equipment and did some testing in a local 15ft deep pool. Sure enough, I could equalize again and from that day on, I've been on a quest to buy the right gear and do as much diving as I can.
Having done the whole trilam thing, rubber (viking), standard neoprene (7mm) and even some early crushed neoprene suits, nothing really wet my whistle. I wanted a suit that fit like a wetsuit, but with the dryness of a drysuit. No crazy brass zippers which need constant maintenance, no bulkiness or trash bag suits either. I wanted something that didn't appear to exist on the market. Except, I saw a video of a Spanish drysuit maker who was marketing their use of "Tizip" instead of a brass zipper. It didn't take long to do some cross referencing and discover Seasoft Scuba also produced a suit in the US with tizip.
The research went on for a few weeks and I decided to meet Bruce Jensen at the Long Beach Scuba show in June of 2013. This would have been the first diving related activity I'd been to in 10 years and to say the least, I was slightly nervous. I understand Bruce completely, his attitude, his mentality, his desire to not make a cookie cutter suit. To me, just meeting him made up my mind. I knew, no matter what, he'd have my back. Of course, the test suit fit perfect, best fitting suit I'd ever put on.
A year later, I did my first open water dive with my new VX-4. Financial situations and a mixup at Seasoft, delayed my eventual purchase, but it only took me a few days after the suit's arrival, to hit the water.
The first thing you notice with this suit is the build. The suit is made by a company in Canada called Oceaner and they are absolutely the best neoprene manufacturer in North America. Its made the proper way, with less seams and an eye on quality over quantity. The center/chest area is all one big piece with one seam on each side and NO crotch seam. I know a tiny bit about cutting material from my roadracing days and leather suits, I know how complicated it is to make a one piece suit like this. The upper arms are super wide to allow proper air flow and range of motion. The neoprene is this amazing material which drys instantly. By the time I took the suit off after my test dive in a local pool, it was already dry. You can throw it right in the gear bag and the only thing wet are the gloves and hood. The $1000 ScubaPro Everdry 4 had three times the seams in the upper body alone, took hours if not a day to dry and didn't have any boots! So you're not just buying "a drysuit" you're buying the expense of making a suit properly.
The neoprene neck seal was a big problem for me right away. It leaked a tiny bit no matter what I did, no matter how I trimmed or tucked the neck seal. I decided to replace the neoprene seal with a rubber one before my dive trip and had no issues. The exhaust valve was also a small issue initially, but once you get use to how it works, its no problem. It also took me a few dives to get my weighting proper, this suit is pretty positively buoyant.
Honestly, after I figured everything out, the suit has been absolutely fantastic. The rubber neck seal doesn't leak a drop, the neoprene wrist seals are also excellent. I did dives with a wide range of temp's from 42 to about 72 in California. The suit was always toasty, even though my head and hands were cold on that 42 degree dive. It feels like a wet suit without any underwear. I find a simple under armor cold gear top and bottom to be enough extra warmth. I carefully removed the suspender system from the suit because without underwear, the grommets glued inside the suit, will dig into your body. A heat gun and some finger nails, removes the light-weight glue they use and the whole kit is gone in a few minutes.
I got a lot of complements about the suit during my dives. People flocked at one point, watching me don and doff a rear entry suit by myself, in less time then the guys with front zip suits. This is by far the easiest suit to get on and remove. All 16 of my North East dives AND the few California dives I've done before and since, were 100% dry. No issues with the zipper, no issues with the seams or glue. In fact, I'd say the suit is extremely robust. I brought it to my local shop so I could compare weights. I was shocked at how light the VX-4 is compared to the competition. The ScubaPro everdry without its boots was substantially heavier. The trilam suits were as well.
In the end, I'm very happy with the purchase and would recommend this suit to anyone who wants a high quality recreational drysuit.
I did a little video review of the suit for Bruce because there just doesn't seem to be any video marketing out there and I felt bad about that because its such a great product.
Enjoy and thanks for reading my diatribe!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkJrckGig7Y
I graduated from Captain Slates diving academy in 2002 and started teaching a few days later, having assisted with another instructor for more then a year prior. I pretty much lived in the water and had a great rig, which included a Typhoon trilam suit. It was heavy, baggy and because I lived at the local shops, I tried everything and found it to be the best compromise at the time.
One day I was finishing up some open water dives and got a reverse block. Took me about 20 minutes to surface and when I did, my right ear drum got damaged. The membrane separating the two sides, had holes in it and as a consequence it flap around and not stay rigid. The doctors said I may never be able to equalize again and all of a sudden, my carer of teaching diving went right out the window. I decided to move to L.A. with some friends and kept trying to dive against doctors orders, but could never equalize and sold all my gear a few years later so it wouldn't rot in my garage.
My ear issue healed up in a few years, but I didn't want to push it. Summer 2013 I said enough was enough, made some new friends, borrowed some equipment and did some testing in a local 15ft deep pool. Sure enough, I could equalize again and from that day on, I've been on a quest to buy the right gear and do as much diving as I can.
Having done the whole trilam thing, rubber (viking), standard neoprene (7mm) and even some early crushed neoprene suits, nothing really wet my whistle. I wanted a suit that fit like a wetsuit, but with the dryness of a drysuit. No crazy brass zippers which need constant maintenance, no bulkiness or trash bag suits either. I wanted something that didn't appear to exist on the market. Except, I saw a video of a Spanish drysuit maker who was marketing their use of "Tizip" instead of a brass zipper. It didn't take long to do some cross referencing and discover Seasoft Scuba also produced a suit in the US with tizip.
The research went on for a few weeks and I decided to meet Bruce Jensen at the Long Beach Scuba show in June of 2013. This would have been the first diving related activity I'd been to in 10 years and to say the least, I was slightly nervous. I understand Bruce completely, his attitude, his mentality, his desire to not make a cookie cutter suit. To me, just meeting him made up my mind. I knew, no matter what, he'd have my back. Of course, the test suit fit perfect, best fitting suit I'd ever put on.
A year later, I did my first open water dive with my new VX-4. Financial situations and a mixup at Seasoft, delayed my eventual purchase, but it only took me a few days after the suit's arrival, to hit the water.
The first thing you notice with this suit is the build. The suit is made by a company in Canada called Oceaner and they are absolutely the best neoprene manufacturer in North America. Its made the proper way, with less seams and an eye on quality over quantity. The center/chest area is all one big piece with one seam on each side and NO crotch seam. I know a tiny bit about cutting material from my roadracing days and leather suits, I know how complicated it is to make a one piece suit like this. The upper arms are super wide to allow proper air flow and range of motion. The neoprene is this amazing material which drys instantly. By the time I took the suit off after my test dive in a local pool, it was already dry. You can throw it right in the gear bag and the only thing wet are the gloves and hood. The $1000 ScubaPro Everdry 4 had three times the seams in the upper body alone, took hours if not a day to dry and didn't have any boots! So you're not just buying "a drysuit" you're buying the expense of making a suit properly.
The neoprene neck seal was a big problem for me right away. It leaked a tiny bit no matter what I did, no matter how I trimmed or tucked the neck seal. I decided to replace the neoprene seal with a rubber one before my dive trip and had no issues. The exhaust valve was also a small issue initially, but once you get use to how it works, its no problem. It also took me a few dives to get my weighting proper, this suit is pretty positively buoyant.
Honestly, after I figured everything out, the suit has been absolutely fantastic. The rubber neck seal doesn't leak a drop, the neoprene wrist seals are also excellent. I did dives with a wide range of temp's from 42 to about 72 in California. The suit was always toasty, even though my head and hands were cold on that 42 degree dive. It feels like a wet suit without any underwear. I find a simple under armor cold gear top and bottom to be enough extra warmth. I carefully removed the suspender system from the suit because without underwear, the grommets glued inside the suit, will dig into your body. A heat gun and some finger nails, removes the light-weight glue they use and the whole kit is gone in a few minutes.
I got a lot of complements about the suit during my dives. People flocked at one point, watching me don and doff a rear entry suit by myself, in less time then the guys with front zip suits. This is by far the easiest suit to get on and remove. All 16 of my North East dives AND the few California dives I've done before and since, were 100% dry. No issues with the zipper, no issues with the seams or glue. In fact, I'd say the suit is extremely robust. I brought it to my local shop so I could compare weights. I was shocked at how light the VX-4 is compared to the competition. The ScubaPro everdry without its boots was substantially heavier. The trilam suits were as well.
In the end, I'm very happy with the purchase and would recommend this suit to anyone who wants a high quality recreational drysuit.
I did a little video review of the suit for Bruce because there just doesn't seem to be any video marketing out there and I felt bad about that because its such a great product.
Enjoy and thanks for reading my diatribe!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkJrckGig7Y
