Drysuit opinions sought

[BradnerBoy]

OK, guys/gals, while this has been asked before in other forums, to some degree or another, I wanted to pose the question in "our" forum based on our local diving conditions.

I'm researching a new drysuit and am amassing quite a list of potential candidates. To narrow it down, I'm using a "weighting" system for my specific wants and needs and will assign a weight to each want/need that a given suit meets.

My initial list:

Fit
comfort/warmth
mobility
self sufficiency (don/doff easily)
buoyancy characteristics
durability
built-in pockets
able to accessorize - i.e. "convenience" zipper, dry gloves

The dilemma I keep coming back to is the inability to "try before I buy". Yes, I could rent a suit, dive it and see if I like it, but that's certainly not true for many of the suits I'm considering. I'll probably call around to a few LDS and see what line they rent, but I'm pretty sure the majority will be Whites and Bare. If you know of a store locally that rents, say a Pinnacle Evo2 or Black Ice or a Hollis BioDry FX100, please let me know

I'm very interested in people's opinions and experiences with various types of suits. We have a large contingency of local divers and oddly enough (aside from the tech crew who seemed to have purchased a Costco case lot of Fusions from Whites - yes, I'm looking at you Wet Rookie et posse ), everyone seems to have different tastes in suits.

So, a few questions, if you don't mind:

What drysuit do you currently dive and why?

Did you get to dive your suit before you bought it?

If you could have your choice of any suit, what would it be and why?

NOTE: Some of you may have strong opinions on what makes a good drysuit/bad drysuit, but please appreciate the simple fact that it's only your opinion and it therefore doesn't apply to me or anyone else, for that matter. So, let's try to keep this away from a "split fin" type of fluster cluck and see if we can all play nice.

Thanks in advance for everyone's opinions/comments/suggestions.

 

[Slamfire]

OK, guys/gals, while this has been asked before in other forums, to some degree or another, I wanted to pose the question in "our" forum based on our local diving conditions.

NOTE: Some of you may have strong opinions on what makes a good drysuit/bad drysuit, but please appreciate the simple fact that it's only your opinion and it therefore doesn't apply to me or anyone else, for that matter. So, let's try to keep this away from a "split fin" type of fluster cluck and see if we can all play nice.

Now you've done it, Todd! You messed up our peaceful and harmonious home forum.

You know about my drysuits so I'll just let others reply.

 

[Julian55]

I am in the same dilemma now myself, I have just lost 40 pounds and hopefully 10 more so my suit is BIG to say the least.
3 years ago I bought a DUI CLX 450, I love it other than the fit. I went with DUI for the warranty, 7 years vs 1. That and I got a great deal.

Now I have been looking around and honestly Bare is not that much cheaper? maybe 500 compared to DUI, but if like me the thought of NOT having your suit for 6-8 weeks while they repair anything is not appealing then look for local.
I am considering a Bare HD Pro, nice suit, local. I have found a guy that sells them much cheaper than here if your interested and it is in Canada.
I did rent a neoprene suit a few weeks back and found it a bit restrictive for getting fins on etc, but otherwise it was fine


Fit Trilaminate
comfort/warmth Neoprene
mobility Trilaminate
self sufficiency (don/doff easily) Front entry
buoyancy characteristics not much difference
durability Neoprene
built-in pockets any
able to accessorize - i.e. "convenience" zipper, dry gloves Any

 

[BradnerBoy]

Now you've done it, Todd! You messed up our peaceful and harmonious home forum.

I'm hoping there will be more action than Iron Man 2.

You know about my drysuits so I'll just let others reply.

Yeah, rub it in Gabriel. Your "drysuits"...plural.

Hurry up and get your nice new FREE Whites Fusion Bullet so SB can remove all the flashy banner ads saluting your triumphant win

 

[walrus2]

I'm going to bet the responses you'll get wont be useful

I only tried a handful of suits on and only actually dove with 4: a very old DUI CF200, a newish DUI CX450 (?), a Whites suit (all rentals) and my own suit, a DUI TLS350.

It's hard to compare by renting, maybe a demo day is more useful. Trouble is even if a shop rents the model you want they may not have the size you want. The Whites was horrible for me, to fit my length I needed an XXXL or something like that which would have allowed me to weigh a few hundred pounds more but still was on the short side. Both of the rental DUIs fit, largely because of the telescoping torso, although the CF200 I realize now had sleeves that weren't long enough.

I picked a TLS350 because:
- custom sizes (I don't have a full custom one but the 'semi-custom' category produced a good fit; the standard sized wouldn't have)
- lightweight. Not so much an issue for you with your oversized SUV but I need it to fit in a suitcase. Fast-drying also is good if you have to travel -> limited the choice to trilam
- generally good reputation (with its detractors - I've met people who think DUI stands for Dry Until Immersed)
- self-donning
- good price during a recent promotion (including boots, pockets, underwear, hood)
- local dealer
- your choice of colored ribbons
- I'm betting it is relatively easy to get it fixed or altered although I realize customer service tends to vary over time

I didn't try it before I bought one but it's more or less as I expected based on the CX450, maybe a bit baggier. For now I'd buy the same one (hell, I just bought mine). I think perhaps I should have gotten the kneepads though, and am a bit worried by Swankenstein's description of a shore-entry as a 'cheese grater'.

 

[Slamfire]

Hurry up and get your nice new FREE Whites Fusion Bullet so SB can remove all the flashy banner ads saluting your triumphant win

I know what you mean, having your name flash in big red letters, every 5 seconds while I'm trying to complete a post can be distracting. It reminded me of this:


But I can't complain, far from it . The guys from Whites had a backorder on Bullet skins. It seems they were not feeling too good about delaying my drysuit shipment, so they sent me a Fusion Sport, mine to keep, and a few days later they sent me the Bullet skin. So I ended up with two skins

.

It was all on their own initiative too. I was not bugging them on the whereabouts of the suit or how long it would take to arrive. One day I just get a call from them telling me they're shipping me a Fusion Sport while they get the Bullet ready and, BTW, I get to keep both. If that's how they treat a non-complaining, non-paying "customer", I would imagine the service to real customers would be superb.

 

[a22shady]

For me after trying on several suits it came down the DUI TLS350 and Bare trilam HD tech dry. Both to me were equal suits as far as quality goes. Personally I liked the look of Bare's tougher exterior Vs Dui's Smooth. Then after evealuting everything $$$ and the suit's. My G/F and I both decided to go with the Bare Tri-lam HD Tech dry. We got it with Suspenders and 2 large pockets with zippers. and Just upgraded with the New version of Si-tech dry gloves. We got the Latex seals and we are both very happy with suit's have close to 40 dives on them abd have been dry every dive. Not to mention we also saved close to 800.00 per suit and Nice thing about Bare is they have a lot of in between "Stock" sizes in which cost extra with Dui. Also Bare has a Lifetime guarentee on there suits.

 

[BEM]

What drysuit do you currently dive and why?

Bare - trilam HD tech. Wanted to have lots of options on the amount of undergarments; and got a great price (41,500 incl. suspenders, bellows pocket, shipping) - that was in 06.


Did you get to dive your suit before you bought it?

No, never had done a drysuit dive before. Couldn't stand to freeze in a 7+5 mm anymore.


If you could have your choice of any suit, what would it be and why?

I like the Bare and would probably go with it again. Although I'd like to see what other suits are like. I'm sure there are many great ones out there and may be better than the one I have.

 

[BEM]

Should be $1,500 not 41,500....

 

[Sintax604]

When I bought my suit, I chose the cheapest off the rack suit I could find - Bare NexGen (<$700). I didn't want to break the bank before KNOWING that I would stick with diving. I've got around 200 dives on it with zero complaints and plan to dive it into the ground. The turn around time on a zipper replacement (my fault, no problem with the suit) was 7 days which made me very happy.

If I was to buy a new suit, it would most likely be a Bare.
However, I've been diving with a lot of "old timers" lately and almost every one of them dives and swears by a Brooks neoprene suit. They are also local (Burnaby, I think) and very durable. The one guy has been using the same suit for over 20 years... it's got no leaks/patches and the original zipper!

That's what I know.
Good luck with your research and purchase!