Bare Drysuits: Soliciting your opinion; the good, the bad and the ugly
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ahereng
Contributor
I also have the Exp HDC tech, since 2015. I use it as my Winter-suit, and have also fitted the Finnish Loitokari dryhood and drygloves.
Regarding mobility, depending on you height(I'm 185cm) you might feel restricted. I use three different drysuits, all in size XL. The Bare suit is noticebly shorter, and for OC-diving I have trouble reaching the valves for shutdowns, but for CCR-diving it is very good. My other suits are Ursuit One and Sant Emotion, both fairly similar in length.
I have changed zipper and shoes, also had to patch some leaks. But the suit is used a lot..
Regarding mobility, depending on you height(I'm 185cm) you might feel restricted. I use three different drysuits, all in size XL. The Bare suit is noticebly shorter, and for OC-diving I have trouble reaching the valves for shutdowns, but for CCR-diving it is very good. My other suits are Ursuit One and Sant Emotion, both fairly similar in length.
I have changed zipper and shoes, also had to patch some leaks. But the suit is used a lot..
I was a beta tester for the Sentry, so I pretty much did no maintenance on mine for a year or so, with a lot of pool sessions as well as open water dives.
I like the neoprene, good amount of stretch so the suit can be a little snugger fitting. I haven't had any suit leaking problems from the material or seams, but have had leaking via the "through hull fittings" so to speak. My shoulder dump seems a little leaky right now, probably just needs a rebuild. I've also had a little leakage through the inflator, but I think that was with no hose connected and pulling a vacuum. For pool sessions I've had p-vavle leaks, but I'm pretty sure that is because I don't hook it up, and might have left it not fully closed at the connection point. So the majority of my leaking has been user error.
I did get it with a neoprene neck seal, which I really like, until I look down without a hood on.
The ti-zip has been a non-issue even with zero maintenance.
My contribution to the suit design was the data pocket on the back of the thigh pockets. The top of the back of the pocket (on the outside, not under the flap) is closed with velcro, and is a perfect size for wetnotes. I'm not sure if that made it into the final design or not, there is no mention of it on the website. ETA: here it is, but they still don't show the opening on the back: Expandable Tech-Data Pocket - BARE Sports
Things I don't like about it:
The suspenders are entirely too long. I have them shortened as much as possible and they are still about 2'' too long for me so my wrist seals drag on the ground if I have the suit half up. They must be made for people that are 6'9" and 375 lbs.
It was a custom cut suit, but the legs are still a little long.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. Not sure I would spend what the market price is on it, but I haven't dove any other high end suits to be able to compare. It is 1,000% better than my old leaky Hollis biodry though!
I like the neoprene, good amount of stretch so the suit can be a little snugger fitting. I haven't had any suit leaking problems from the material or seams, but have had leaking via the "through hull fittings" so to speak. My shoulder dump seems a little leaky right now, probably just needs a rebuild. I've also had a little leakage through the inflator, but I think that was with no hose connected and pulling a vacuum. For pool sessions I've had p-vavle leaks, but I'm pretty sure that is because I don't hook it up, and might have left it not fully closed at the connection point. So the majority of my leaking has been user error.
I did get it with a neoprene neck seal, which I really like, until I look down without a hood on.
The ti-zip has been a non-issue even with zero maintenance.
My contribution to the suit design was the data pocket on the back of the thigh pockets. The top of the back of the pocket (on the outside, not under the flap) is closed with velcro, and is a perfect size for wetnotes. I'm not sure if that made it into the final design or not, there is no mention of it on the website. ETA: here it is, but they still don't show the opening on the back: Expandable Tech-Data Pocket - BARE Sports
Things I don't like about it:
The suspenders are entirely too long. I have them shortened as much as possible and they are still about 2'' too long for me so my wrist seals drag on the ground if I have the suit half up. They must be made for people that are 6'9" and 375 lbs.
It was a custom cut suit, but the legs are still a little long.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. Not sure I would spend what the market price is on it, but I haven't dove any other high end suits to be able to compare. It is 1,000% better than my old leaky Hollis biodry though!
The pockets are indeed gargantuan. I can fit everything I need into one, and my suit came with two of the pockets. Could probably fit a pony bottle and regulator in there if I had to
. Not really, but the pockets are big for a pocket. Much bigger than the diverite thigh pockets I use when I'm not diving the drysuit. Probably twice the size of those.
I did some leak checking on my old Bare Trilam HD last night. It needed a couple dabs of aqua seal, but I'm considering ice diving with it on Tuesday. I checked my dive log and I did the first dive on the Trilam HD on October 11, 2003. Ironically it came with a hole in it. Despite the rocky start with the Trilam HD, I'm a long time Bare fan. I'm just not overly impressed with my X-Mission not staying dry. I received a shipping notification from Huish on Thursday. This coincided with an email I received that indicated my suit was repaired. On Friday afternoon, I received an invoice for return shipping and my suit still hasn't shipped. I wasn't charged return shipping the first time it was in for warranty repair. I don't know if they charged me this time because there was one pinhole that wasn't a warranty fix.
I just picked up my custom sized Sentry Tech Dry on April 3rd. It took 3 months from time of order. Fit is great though and seems worth the wait but diving it will tell for sure.
Interesting comment on the suspenders. Mine seem to have plenty of adjusting left after getting it close and you can always cross the straps if needed. I like the pocket in the suspenders as well. It looks like a bit more is involved in taking a quick pee. Seems that will be a hassle and I didn't opt for a pee valve.
The Data Pocket seems to have made it into the final design, Nice touch.
Interesting comment on the suspenders. Mine seem to have plenty of adjusting left after getting it close and you can always cross the straps if needed. I like the pocket in the suspenders as well. It looks like a bit more is involved in taking a quick pee. Seems that will be a hassle and I didn't opt for a pee valve.
The Data Pocket seems to have made it into the final design, Nice touch.
Are the pockets you have on the front of your thighs or side? Difficult to tell from the pictures
They are on the side, the legs are just twisted while laid out on the table.
Nice to see the data pocket made it through!
Those suspenders are a complete redesign over mine it looks like. That's good, they needed it! Or at least have a "Giant" and "everyone else" size option. You also have the front zip version, mine is back zip, might be the difference. But I hope they redesigned them.
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