First Diving Suit for Northern New England Diving

[Wathdoc]

If you want your diving career to be short, dive in cold water with anything but a drysuit.

 

[BoltSnap]

Ones that would be particularly good for me?

I'd start checking with your LDS and see what brands they have access to first. DUI is the big name and that has lots of models you can choose from, they don't only do upper end. They have less expensive models that are good. There is also Bare. Checking with your LDS will be your first step.

 

[Marie13]

Well I guess that settles it...

Thank you all for your responses.



Formernuke hit the nail on the head. Given my location, it will be difficult to make progress without making local diving comfortable and accessible. If I only dive during annul trips to warm places, I will never improve or feel really comfortable. Plus there is subtle beauty in the local spots and wrecks to keep it interesting. I've been in for a penny, so...I'm in!

As I said, I will not be making this purchase online, but either used and/or through a LDS so the fit can be as good as possible. Given my situation, do you have any advice regarding:

Brands/Models/Types that are best avoided? Ones that would be particularly good for me?

I have read that it may not be a good idea for a beginner to buy used equipment. Does this apply as much to drysuits?

Based on your replies, I would prefer a suit that is made here in the US, for servicing reasons, but that might be out of my price range. Will a LDS or even a regional shop service foreign brands it does not carry?

Lastly, is this thread at the point where it should be transferred to the Exposure Suits sub-forum? I want to make sure I am doing this in the right place.

Thank you for your thoughts so far and I look forward refining them to the point where I have a general game plan when I take that trip to my local shop. Portsmouth should be seeing 60 degrees today. WooHoo! I'm getting motivated.

Suits can be serviced by pretty much any of the shops that do drysuit repairs. For DUI ZipSeals, those do have to go back to DUI in California. For easier handling of issues, having a US dealer is key. If you had an issue with a Seaskin that needed a factory fix, it would have to go back to the UK, for example.

 

[Patrick Star]

Oh boy...

 

[formernuke]

One more thing for shore diving NE you need thick soles and good ankle support. Get socks and use drysuit boots rather than installed boots.

 

[lexvil]

Fully equipped nova drysuit (Seaskin) will come in at less than $1,000, I could come up with a lot of stuff that would be handy(like everything else) for the $3k savings.

 

[Cdncoldwater]

@Patrick Star I dive just north of you in the Bay of Fundy (New Brunswick, Canada) and local fresh water as cold as 35F. I have used a "semi-dry" Hollis NeoTek wet suit and dry suits. The price of a good semi dry is close to half of a dry suit not including under garments. I dive usually March-November here and would highly recommend a dry suit (buy once/cry once). You will have the option to have dry gloves and this will help with multi-dive trips. Undergarments adjusted to water temp/season as well. I live about 100 miles from the coast line so if I'm making a trip to the coast I plan more than one dive and in the early season or winter dry gloves make that difference in my experience.

Not sure of your size but I know my LDS has a custom BARE Tech on sale here and with the USD it could be an option. Men's HDC Tech Drysuit - FREE shipping

Regardless of brand, I would highly recommend a dry suit.

 

[GRH]

Are you able to get a great fit on stock sizes? I just picked up my new drysuit Saturday and while it took time to determine if my old drysuit could be repaired, it couldn’t, agree on a trade-in discount and get measured, the process due to custom size modifications took 5 months. That included Bare shipping out a blank suit to my LDS to make sure I got a perfect fit and BARE being closed for a couple weeks over Christmas and New years so if I subtract the holiday break, it still took 3 months from when the order was placed. Shipping and customs didn’t help.

I had a Bare SB drysuit that I loved but while in storage for over 4 years due to medical issues, a mouse chewed an unrepairable hole in the knee. Due to a substantial trade-in discount Bare offered, I decided to get another Bare Dry-suit. I debated Trilam vs. Neoprene and decided to order the Sentry Tech Dry made with high density Yamamoto neoprene. While much heavier than my SB drysuit, it came closer to the snugger fit of the SB while also having some stretch to the material. Important to me as I resume my UW photography passion.

I assume covid is delaying most manufacturers but since Bare’s manufacturing plant is in Malta and I needed custom alterations, it took much longer than I anticipated.

If you can get a good fit off the rack, might not be an issue. It also may not take as long if manufactured in the US and other brands may be quicker but something to keep in mind.

 

[BoltSnap]

I really can't believe that some are advocating to buy direct from a foreign company that has no presence or any affiliation with any business or support network in the US and no US based company or people would benefit nor would help create jobs in the US. If the OP is an American but living overseas that is something that is acceptable but somebody is recommending for somebody who is living in the US to order from overseas when there are many quality US based manufacturers exist all over the US is just beyond me.

 

[GRH]

I really can't believe that some are advocating to buy direct from a foreign company that has no presence or any affiliation with any business or support network in the US and no US based company or people would benefit nor would help create jobs in the US. If the OP is an American but living overseas that is something that is acceptable but somebody is recommending for somebody who is living in the US to order from overseas when there are many quality US based manufacturers exist all over the US is just beyond me.

I wish it was that simple. Even if a company has a HQ in the USA, do they manufacture it themselves or contract it out. Even if they manufacture locally, they need to order the material from a foreign manufacturer in many cases. High density Yamamoto neoprene from Japan for example.

Bare, now owned by Huish Outdoors, has its' HQ in Salt Lake City and the repair center in Vancouver B. C, just across the Canadian Border from Seattle where I live. Yet the manufacturing plant, while in-house, is in Malta.