Wetsuit for woman with large breasts... Serious question

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I dive Bare wetsuits now and whilst there's still a bit of extra length here and there, it's nothing like my Mares suits of old.

Those fit my curves well but were way too large in the shoulders, so would have been good for large breasted woman that also had muscular back, upper arms and shoulders. (Not me)

I cut the bottom of the legs back and had the ankle zippers adjusted.

Then I started diving the Bare Velocity suits and haven't looked back. Unfortunately, Bare has quit making them.
 
I dive Bare wetsuits now and whilst there's still a bit of extra length here and there, it's nothing like my Mares suits of old.

Those fit my curves well but were way too large in the shoulders, so would have been good for large breasted woman that also had muscular back, upper arms and shoulders. (Not me)

I cut the bottom of the legs back and had the ankle zippers adjusted.

Then I started diving the Bare Velocity suits and haven't looked back. Unfortunately, Bare has quit making them.

I like how Bare has the plus size range as well as the 'normal' set of numbers. My current suit is a Bare Evoke and the plus size is the best thing I've ever seen for how big my hips are without being too big for my shoulders.

I've seen quite a few Velocity's on used selling pages. I've also had decent luck buying discontinued Bare stuff at other online retailers that stock pretty much all the big suppliers and just had leftover suits in their closeout section. Got a $45 7mm vest and hood that had been discontinued from Bare that way.
 
I am a DD and find the Henderson Hyperstretch neoprene wetsuits very forgiving. I have their 3mm and their 7mm full wetsuit.

Good luck in your search and safe dives!
 
I didn't read the full thread, and I am a man. But I can feel your pain. I am 72 and have more gut than I should. When I did my OW the 7mm suit and 28# made it almost imposssible for me to get my fins on, The instructor assumed I was panicking - NOT. I just couldn't breathe while I was bent over trying to get my fins on as quickly as I could.

Hope you can find a solution.
 
My wife just bought a suit from Truli and seems to feel that it fits her better than her older Henderson. Truli's sizing is... non-standard, so might need to contact them for specifics, but their whole deal is that they are supposedly trying to make sizes that work for non-standard sized females.
 
My wife just bought a suit from Truli and seems to feel that it fits her better than her older Henderson. Truli's sizing is... non-standard, so might need to contact them for specifics, but their whole deal is that they are supposedly trying to make sizes that work for non-standard sized females.

And Truli suits are well made and very cool!!
 
I bought a semi-dry wetsuit with good fit in the chest so i don’t have stress trying to get a breath. Then i am left with baggy waist and thighs. I just added bottom half of neoprene shortie so it fills just the baggie part of my suit. This doesn’t seem to matter honestly, so i left them out after a trial. Tight wrists, ankles limit water exchange a lot.
 
Rocking DDD's and I have a Henderson Aqualock.

If I had to buy a new suit, I would go with BARE products
 
Maybe also try a front zip if you are shopping for one and/or your instructor has those for rent. When I was fitting clients for rentals at the shop where I was a DM, ladies with more generous curves often found donning a front zip to be less awkward. Once you get the arms on, you can hunch your shoulders to create some slack around the front zipper. You can also just leave that zipper partially undone until you get wet. The water will give the suit some more give.

I am pretty curvy and I dive the Bare Evoke (a back zip). Definitely stretchy and not only is it built a little curvy to start with, but on my 5mm, it also has a short “comfort” zip at the front of the neck. I leave that undone to add a little more give in the chest area until I’ve started the dive. If I am cold or there is a lot of water flowing in, I just zip it up.

One last suggestion on the wetsuit front is to think about layering a vest or other top under the wetsuit. It would allow you to use a thinner overall suit and add warmth to your core. I have a sharkskin chillproof top that is made of a wind resistant fleece and adds the equivalent of 2-3mm of warmth without a lot of bulk. I can put that on and add a 3mm full suit over it and 3mm suits are going to be much stretchier than 5mm. Besides Sharkskin, there is lavacore, thermoprine, and bare just started making a line called Exoware that I think is similar. I don’t know how the other brands fit, but my sharkskin is cut pretty generously in the chest area. I actually had to go down a couple of sizes to get it to fit snugly enough.

Related, if you are looking for a BCD that accommodates a curvy chest, take a look at the Oceanic Hera. The shoulder straps are on a sliding rail that allows you to position them forward towards where the waist cummerbund is or tucked back under your arms. I wear them tucked back so they aren’t pressing on my chest. Though this being scuba board, I anticipate a horde of zealots to rush in and tell me I should just recommend a backplate/wing anyway.

Good luck!
 
I feel you - it’s a nightmare trying find a wetsuit that fits big boobs and doesn’t choke you in the process... I did my OW and AOW in Thailand and Bali in warm water so that I wouldn’t need to wear a thick suit. In Bali I managed with a rash guard only which was a lifesaver... with a few colder water dives I had to squeeze into a 5mm borrowed wetsuit and the pressure on my chest made me so anxious I couldn’t really enjoy the dives, plus the roomy bottom let the water in and I got cold.
Now I’m planning on my DM and need to get a 5mm suit and it’s been a truly devastating search. I haven’t tried Henderson hyperstretch or Fourth element proteus 2 yet but everything else standard sizes has failed. I’m quite short, size 6 or 8, but would need size 14 for my chest according to the size charts. I will try to find a shop to try on the Proteus (they have short sizes at least so I might be ok with short 10 maybe), but will probably have to go for a custom one. It’s a shame though, I haven’t found a custom wetsuits dealer with all sustainable and high quality neoprene. Going to check out Truli next, hadn’t heard about it before I read this thread!
For the BCD I went for scubapro hydrospro, although Oceanic Hera was a good fit too.

Which suit did you end up buying? I hope you found a good fit!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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