Has anyone used a Diving Concepts Drysuit?

[Juls64]

Has anyone used a dry suit from Diving Concepts?

My LDS is recommending a new Neo Z suit . The Pinnacle also looks interesting. Just looking for some type of feedback.


Juls

 

[gaustad]

It took almost three months to get it made, but it looks like it will have been worth the wait. I made two dives in it this weekend and am new to diving, so I probably don't have much useful information for you. However, I can compare it to a shell dry suit I rented for previous dives. I much prefer the flex, inherent insulation, and less air trapping associated with the compressed neoprene material. However, I did have to adjust my concept of undergarmets for the new suit. I had a bit of trouble on the first day because I tried to wear a BARE 200 extreme undergarmet with my new suit. I had gotten the BARE on sale and it was a men's small (lots of extra material in the upper body). The tightness of the suit combined with all the extra material in the shoulders of the undergarmet made it very difficult to vent air and required alot of weight to become negatively bouyant. The next day I wore three layers of long underware instead and everything worked fine. I stayed stay warm in the 50 degree water and was happy to lose the bulky undergarmet.

They did a great job with the sizing, and I really liked the knife and cargo pockets I picked as options. And of course, their dry gloves are absolute heaven. I went with the shoulder dump exhaust valve. The rented suits I had used all had cuff dumps. Because the cuff dump was so easy to use it is what I would call moron proof I'm second guessing that decision a bit. But I figure with a few more dives the use of the shoulder dump will become more intuitive.

It will take a few years to really know how the suit is going to hold up and to assess their custom service, but so far so good.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

One person I know had a good experience. Two people had bad experiences.

They take many measurements and custom fit both the undergarment and the suit. The trilam I saw appears to be of good quality and its owner is pleased.

However, they measured two of our instructors at DEMA. They totally screwed up the fit. In addition, they took forwever to deliver the stuff.

 

[JeffAustin]

I Have a Diving Concepts Ultraflex trilaminate suit, custom made. (5th D. 1000) The quality of materials and fit are excellent. I use it with a D.C. TPS Extreme undergarment in Puget Sound and have no complaints. However It does take a long time to get the final product, With all the double checking and doing the undergarment first , it take close to three months from start to finish on a custom suit. If you can tolerate the wait( for custom) D.C. has great suits.

 

[kelpmermaid]

and he loves it and the undergarment. When he sent it back for seal replacement, though, he had them add a cuff dump for good measure.

 

[runvus4]

I tried a Diving Concepts Ultraflex suit this past Sunday and it was pretty nice, made it onto my short list pending pricing from my lds. The one I tried was a little large for me unfortunately so can't really comment about fit/reach/stretch. Only thing I didn't like about it was that their warm neck flap didn't have enough room to tuck in my wetsuit hood neatly without bunching it up a little, the DUI had a slightly better arrangement there. The material seems to be sturdy, construction/seams/zipper seemed good. Their wrist dump worked well also but it was positioned where I usually put my compass, never used a cuff dump before so took a little getting used to.

A question for others about the gloves, if you use their ring system and leave the wrist seals intact, are you able to make the gloves self-doning/doffing? I had to get help to lock the glove rings onto the wrist rings and to pop them off after which made the self donning front zip (which I found much easier to start without help than the DUI suits, possibly because the suit was large on me so I could get better positioning) moot if you have to have someone there to help you out with the gloves anyway.

 

[JeffAustin]

You should be able to get the gloves on and off by yourself. For removal, push the ring into your chest, then pull on the side of the ring away from your chest to separate the glove from the suit. It's easy to show, kind of hard to explain. Once you have it figured out, it's easy. I've never had any problem putting the gloves on, just snap the rings together. Make sure you have a little silicone lube on the o rings, that's a little. I don't have the cold water neck flap on my DC suit, and haven't missed it.