First drysuit for a beginner diver

[isr_tt89]

Hello,

I want to buy myself a drysuit.

I mostly dive in colder waters - for example, last saturday we dove a wreck at 30ish meters deep and the water temp at the bottom was 8 degrees Celsius.

I have looked at the Scubapro Evertech Dry Breathable drysuit and the Aqua-Trek 1 Pro Dry.

I have 20 dives under my belt and 1 test dive in a pool with a drysuit which was too big for me.

For now, Im thinking of using wet gloves but maybe in the future I would like to upgrade to dry gloves - so my future drysuit should be able to take dry gloves or should be modifiable to use them.

Can anyone recommend a drysuit from these 2 suits or any other suits perhaps ?

Feel free to ask any specifying questions etc.
Any help appreciated!

 

[EireDiver606]

A drysuit is a drysuit whether it’s for a beginner or not. Santi, Ursuit, Otter, Seaskin.

Santi being the best of the list mentioned, and is located in Poland which isn’t a huge distance away from Estonia compared to USA.

 

[taimen]

Whether Santi is the best of the list or not can be argued. Also physical distance from Poland does not necessarily mean direct service. They still force you to use regional dealerships.

But answering the original question. The great majority of divers in the Gulf of Finland and Estonian islands choose to dive laminate drysuits. So I would look at those. Ursuit and Santi are common. Seaskin is a viable option but with some brexit uncertainty at the moment. Rofos has a dealer in Tallinn.
I would completely skip the idea of using wet gloves. Drygloves are the only viable option here. No discussion. In practice this means that you want to order your drysuit with glove rings. Santi with its own ring system and for others I would choose Sitech oval rings and a glove system.
Many people in this region have drygloves directly and permanently glued to their drysuit (without any wrist seals). All drysuit manufacturers don't offer this as an option, so if you know this is what you want, order the suit with simple latex seals and have gloves attached later.

 

[Scubatude]

+1 for Ursuit
An actual DRY dry suit! Its a great company too. Solid workmanship and customer service.

 

[isr_tt89]

Thanks a lot for the input,
I found out that Ursuit has an outlet in finland, which selles suits for 700 euros.

I am going to visit it in few weeks when I am back in Estonia.

If the size "small tall" fits me (im on the upper limits for the measurements for this size) then there should be few heavy lights at the outlet.

Other option is Santi Enduro.

 

[isr_tt89]

I ended up getting a Dive Rite 905 drysuit, which I got quite cheap.
Also got the Kubi drygloves installed.

I have done about 15 dives with the suit.

I have had multiple people telling me that the suit is too large for me. Even though the suit size was ordered with consulting the dive rite dealer and measurements should be pretty spot on.

So,
I want to ask for Your opinion on this.

Here is a link to some pictures(I am wearing 200mg/m2 merino wool, some fleece shirt/pullover and halo 3d under the suit).

Diverite 905 - Google Drive

If anyone could be so nice and give me some input on this.

Also, how much lead it usually takes to sink halo 3d ? I used 6kg when only wearing merino base layer in the summer but now with halo 3d I used 8,5kg and barely could manage to sink.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Looks like a good fit to me.

Regards weighting, layers make a big difference. Your starting point very much depends on cylinder(s), BC, etc, but 6-8.5kg doesn't sound bad for a single setup. I need to add 2kg when I change to my winter thermals. I would suggest you don't try and scrape the bare minimum weight in very cold water as it's nice to have a little puff to keep you warm.

 

[isr_tt89]

Just in case, I mention that I squeezed the air out of the suit on these pictures.

 

[dewdropsonrosa]

I recommend against the Aqualung Fusion series - there are ongoing issues with manufacturing quality and suit durability.

 

[taimen]

So,
I want to ask for Your opinion on this.

Here is a link to some pictures(I am wearing 200mg/m2 merino wool, some fleece shirt/pullover and halo 3d under the suit).

That looks pretty ok. 905s usually have somewhat looser cut that Santi or latest Ursuits. Many people like their 905s a lot.