Preface: I'm a SoCal, recently relocated to SoFL. Nearly the entirety of my 20+ years of diving (after about dive 25) have been in Drysuits... not a fan of wet diving.
But here in SoFL, if I'm going to dive several times a week, I realized I need to lean into wet diving. So the search began for a proper 3mm suit that would meet my crazy quality standards...
I'm a gear snob. There. I said it. I buy good stuff, dive the snot out of it, and take very good care of it. I hate cheap gear. I hate poor designed gear. I hate throw away gear. I hate fake gear. So the Deep6 wetsuit looked promising, despite the fact the description on their site features only three lines:
Admittedly, $299 is ambitious for a 3mm wetsuit. I was looking at several others, but also spying the Apeks pocket shorts ($165...)... as most other pocket shorts suck. So I figured I'd take a look at the Deep6 suit and decide for myself if its really badass.
Oh, it is.
Below are all the features and thoughtful design elements they don't tell you in their three line description (they do go into a bit more detail about the suit on the page, but a lot of that is branding, and very little about the suit....) - so here goes.
Review
I now have 9 dives on this suit. Moderate depth stuff (127 FSW wreck), shallow reef stuff (40 - 60 FSW), guppy diving (10 - 25 FSW) and some stuff in-between. The suit is fabulous.
FIT - I'm 5-9 and about 170 - 173 pounds. I have stubby legs and short arms, big shoulders and thick legs and calfs. Generally I take a large short. They only have Med and Large. When I called Deep 6 (answered 2nd ring), they suggested a large. I agreed... better longish arms and legs than a crunched shoulder and mid-section. And as suspected, the arms and legs are a bit long. My plan is to cut off an inch, inch-and-a-half and stitch the seam. I'll get to that this or next week.
DESIGN - so many amazing details. This suit was absolutely designed to be badass, and not some $149 best seller (only $129 this weekend!!).... the suit is loaded with features and design elements that tell me these guys just get it:
Interior
Exterior
The Good - super comfy, very mobile, easy to get in and out of. Love the pockets, love the zipper velcro tab
The Great - super knee pads, dig the huge crotch gusset and the crotch pad... although I dive with the 3-point harness these days (crotch Dring pulling from your bum, not from your crotch), if I still dived with just the single point, this would be awesome.
The Meh - gauge pads so far up the forearm. Pockets on the downward side of my thighs (I am a photographer, so my full pockets are the first things to hit the bottom, the sand, the reef....
The Poor - not much After just 9 dives, I'm already wearing and fraying the suit behind the armpits (my lats) from my backplate. I'm going to need to glue on some protection there, for sure. (hint: take those forearm pads and move them back to the arm pit / Lats area.
Ambitious at $299 for a 3mm? Yeah... puts it right near the top of the category. But you know, I'm not doing 20 dives a year. I need more than a Body Glove or a Roxy or a (insert cheapass $99 - $149 3mm here)... this is a serious suit for the serious grind I'm going to put it through. It looks great. It fits great (albeit a little long in the arms and legs for me), it is constructed very well, it has design features you just don't find a lot of... I'm impressed.
I need to address the fraying Lats after 9 dives... but aside from that, I'm sure this suit will take quite the beating.
Thanks, Deep 6.
Pics below
- Ken
Exterior Photos
Side Dots....
Crotch Pad and forward leaning pockets and real Kevlar knee pads
Glue on pockets - tacked on the corners.
Behind the knee ribbing
Exterior sealed seams
No more flapping zipper pull!
Full Suit Exterior. Some badassery for sure.
View attachment 547192
But here in SoFL, if I'm going to dive several times a week, I realized I need to lean into wet diving. So the search began for a proper 3mm suit that would meet my crazy quality standards...
I'm a gear snob. There. I said it. I buy good stuff, dive the snot out of it, and take very good care of it. I hate cheap gear. I hate poor designed gear. I hate throw away gear. I hate fake gear. So the Deep6 wetsuit looked promising, despite the fact the description on their site features only three lines:
- 3MM Neoprene
- Pockets
- Badass
Admittedly, $299 is ambitious for a 3mm wetsuit. I was looking at several others, but also spying the Apeks pocket shorts ($165...)... as most other pocket shorts suck. So I figured I'd take a look at the Deep6 suit and decide for myself if its really badass.
Oh, it is.
Below are all the features and thoughtful design elements they don't tell you in their three line description (they do go into a bit more detail about the suit on the page, but a lot of that is branding, and very little about the suit....) - so here goes.
Review
I now have 9 dives on this suit. Moderate depth stuff (127 FSW wreck), shallow reef stuff (40 - 60 FSW), guppy diving (10 - 25 FSW) and some stuff in-between. The suit is fabulous.
FIT - I'm 5-9 and about 170 - 173 pounds. I have stubby legs and short arms, big shoulders and thick legs and calfs. Generally I take a large short. They only have Med and Large. When I called Deep 6 (answered 2nd ring), they suggested a large. I agreed... better longish arms and legs than a crunched shoulder and mid-section. And as suspected, the arms and legs are a bit long. My plan is to cut off an inch, inch-and-a-half and stitch the seam. I'll get to that this or next week.
DESIGN - so many amazing details. This suit was absolutely designed to be badass, and not some $149 best seller (only $129 this weekend!!).... the suit is loaded with features and design elements that tell me these guys just get it:
Interior
- All of the 'points' (places where seams come together) are dotted... love this.
- The orange interior is a bit plush... super comfy, and easy to get into...even when wet from the previous day's dive. Not sure what its made of, but it reminded me of a softer, tougher wool that some manufacturers use. Its pretty awesome
- Long skin 'seals' at the legs and arms - and these skins, in addition to being glued, are tacked at the seams at the exit point. Very cool and another thoughtful detail
- Zipper pad is wide, soft, and comfy... I'll never feel the zipper digging in.
- The gussets are in the right places.... the suit moves very well... I'm a frog kicking back plate wearing scootering kinda guy. Its super easy to move in this thing. The crotch gusset is about twice the size of my lame Body Glove 3mm this is replacing... Flexibility isn't just a function of the neoprene, its also a function of seam placement and panel cuts... and these guys got it right.
Exterior
- Kevlar in (nearly) all the right places.... serious knee pads (wrap around... not just spray on dots on the knee caps)... Kevlar in the crotch (nice!) for us scooter types
- The backs of the knees have this ribbed flexy stuff (not a WS designer... sorry)... impressive detail
- The seams are all sealed with a bead of orange stuff... apparently this is to reduce flush. I like that the seams aren't exposed. It also adds a bit of head-turning flair to the suit (this thing does get the comments when I wear it on the boats....)
- There are these dot things under the arms on the side of the suit... presume they are there for both looks and for arm wear. Not sure that they're for. The suit really needs protection from the backplate straps (more on that below....)
- Pockets!! They're glue on pockets (boo) tacked on the corners (yay!) The pockets are large (smaller than my DS pockets), they have contrasting bungee loops already installed, they drain fast, are velcro closure (Super Wide velcro strip) and there is a stiffener in the pull flap so you can't miss it. The flap also has a pocket for small stuff (for me, car key) I dig them. NOTE: they are not on your hips, where your last suit had them. They're more in front... probably for side mount divers and such. Took me a bit of getting used to the placement.
- Velcro tab on the zipper! Thank you for that.... nothing worse than a zipper pull, flapping in the current.
- There are 'pads' on your forearm that are intended for gauges. I don't wear mine that far back so they're not great for me.
- Reflective strip on your wrist. No a fan of these either, as I'm a photographer, and when my buddy had a BARE suit with these, we ended up getting a paint pen and blacking them out... she lit up every time I shot her.
- On the neck, there is the word "Doublet" screened on... not sure that that means.
The Good - super comfy, very mobile, easy to get in and out of. Love the pockets, love the zipper velcro tab
The Great - super knee pads, dig the huge crotch gusset and the crotch pad... although I dive with the 3-point harness these days (crotch Dring pulling from your bum, not from your crotch), if I still dived with just the single point, this would be awesome.
The Meh - gauge pads so far up the forearm. Pockets on the downward side of my thighs (I am a photographer, so my full pockets are the first things to hit the bottom, the sand, the reef....
The Poor - not much After just 9 dives, I'm already wearing and fraying the suit behind the armpits (my lats) from my backplate. I'm going to need to glue on some protection there, for sure. (hint: take those forearm pads and move them back to the arm pit / Lats area.
Ambitious at $299 for a 3mm? Yeah... puts it right near the top of the category. But you know, I'm not doing 20 dives a year. I need more than a Body Glove or a Roxy or a (insert cheapass $99 - $149 3mm here)... this is a serious suit for the serious grind I'm going to put it through. It looks great. It fits great (albeit a little long in the arms and legs for me), it is constructed very well, it has design features you just don't find a lot of... I'm impressed.
I need to address the fraying Lats after 9 dives... but aside from that, I'm sure this suit will take quite the beating.
Thanks, Deep 6.
Pics below
- Ken
Exterior Photos
Side Dots....
Crotch Pad and forward leaning pockets and real Kevlar knee pads
Glue on pockets - tacked on the corners.
Behind the knee ribbing
Exterior sealed seams
No more flapping zipper pull!
Full Suit Exterior. Some badassery for sure.
