Oceaner Wetsuits

I was curious if anyone had experience with the Oceaner wetsuit brand, and what their thoughts were on it. There is a nice deal locally for a 7 mm farmer john package with this brand.

Things I observed were:
- Wetsuit is pre-molded into body shape. Meaning it naturally has spaces for the calves
- Zippers on the ankles, makes getting it on so much easier
- Stitching looks excellent, though I'm not an expert on such matters

DeNomad:

I was curious if anyone had experience with the Oceaner wetsuit brand, and what their thoughts were on it. There is a nice deal locally for a 7 mm farmer john package with this brand.

Things I observed were:
- Wetsuit is pre-molded into body shape. Meaning it naturally has spaces for the calves

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So do all suits, not molded but rather cut to form.

DeNomad:

- Zippers on the ankles, makes getting it on so much easier

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Completely unnecessary, cold, and in a 7mm suit the mark of bad design.

DeNomad:

- Stitching looks excellent, though I'm not an expert on such matters

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Is it lock-stitched?

Maybe an acceptable suit, but I'm doubtful. What kind of rubbber? What is the exterior? What is the interior? What is the design? How does it fit?

The Black Shadow and Raging Inferno models might be a good choice if you could delete the ankle zips and get a good price.

I had an Oceaner dry suit for years, it was built like a tank, fit great and lasted a long time. There made in British Columbia, so they know cold water diving.
And zippers on the ankle are great.

JUMBO

I would not dismiss a suit because it has ankle zippers. If it's a good sturdy 7mm material and you have a fairly high boot it will be either difficult or destructive to get the suit over the boot without ankle zippers.

You do want to make sure that the suit has a pleated bellows behind the zipper. Not just a flap or nothing but a pleated closure that lets nothing hit you directly through the zippers. Admittedly this will create a very slight water path where the zipper and pleats stack up. In my experience by the time this is of significant detriment you are meeting or exceeding the capabilities of the suit elsewhere on you body as well.

That being said, if you can get by without zippers you do avoid that path and they will never break!

Pete