all black wet suit

[TGreene]

Tim can fill you in about how the suits fit (and therefore look) on women. I've got a similar opinion.

To say that seeing Kym in that incredible form fitting suit gave me impure thoughts, would be an understatement to say the least!

 

[Deep South Divers]

Me too, buddy, me too.

Got photos?

 

[Blue Sparkle]

Hey, that's great - thanks for correcting me. When I followed the link give in an earlier post, I could only find Men or Boys listed.

Edited to add: Okay, found it. I have to say, the site is so full of graphic features, and effects, that I missed it the first time. When you click to choose America/Canada, you have to be sure you *first* went to the women's side of the page. If you click select your region (America/Canada) from the men's side (which is what I had done initially), you get only the men's suits. In all the website "action," I missed that.

Thanks for the correction!

B.

PS: On their size chart I see it lists height, weight, chest, and waist measurements. That would make it hard for me to select a fit online, because there's no hip measurement, no inseam, no torso, etc. I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on them, because the suits look really nice (and I've just gone through the whole wetsuit buying process). But at the risk of sounding cynical, I would have preferred they leave off quite so much fancy flash from the website, and add a bit more information (such as sizing details). I'm sure one could call, but... it would be so easy to list it. Anyway, they do look like great suits.

 

[fstbttms]

The real question is; how do you make a living cleaning 30 boats a month? Hell, that's 3 busy days here in California. Regardless, I didn't chime in here to get into a pissing match. Clearly, the hull cleaning biz, and the way you do it, is different in your neck of the woods. Just don't assume that you know how it works everywhere else. You don't.

 

[TGreene]

Got photos?

Pics of Kym in the suit..? Nothing worth posting, because she was generally too far away, working on the other side of the tank.

BTW: Did you get my voicemail on Saturday about CW7..?

 

[Deep South Divers]

The real question is; how do you make a living cleaning 30 boats a month? Hell, that's 3 busy days here in California. Regardless, I didn't chime in here to get into a pissing match. Clearly, the hull cleaning biz, and the way you do it, is different in your neck of the woods. Just don't assume that you know how it works everywhere else. You don't.

*sigh* I thought we were over this.

A diver working for me does, as I've already mentioned, between 30 and 60 boats a month. Given that our average invoice is a tick under $150 for each client, every diver is bringing in a monthly revenue of between $4500 and $9000 per month.

Divers earn between 50% and 75% of their monthly revenues. The rest is kept by the company to pay for gas fills, liability insurance, business costs, invoicing, scheduling, and whatever gear each individual diver does not own.

As one diver, bustin' my tail, my annual income topped out around $80k/year. A diver working for me today usually makes between $30k (part time) and $60k (full time), with the company making substantially more than that.

...Then, every once in a while we get a "big" job, like with the utility companies or at the GA Aquarium that's an "on top" kind of thing. For this, we usually pay divers a flat rate of about $1000/week and cover all of their expenses, including travel, hotel, and food.

We're also the U.S.'s exclusive importer of a variety of marine-based products, including a type of boat lift ( http://www.AirBerth.com )... Which annually adds to our sales volume a few hundred thousand dollars... Again, with appropriate incomes to be paid to those who are willing to work hard either logistically or laboriously.

I can't imagine what sort of income someone (one person!) doing 1800 boats a year must make. Bet you can't either.

I never said that I understood this industry "in all parts of the world." I simply asked what the name of your company was, to which you never responded.

Pics of Kym in the suit..? Nothing worth posting, because she was generally too far away, working on the other side of the tank.

Bummer. Looks like we're going to have to get some more photos.

BTW: Did you get my voicemail on Saturday about CW7..?

Yeah, and I called Patrick about it. According to him, there have been some health issues with the whales and they have not been shipped back yet from San Antonio. That's all that he said.

In thinking back about it, though, Steve had mentioned something about them "changing their minds" while we were there, and was very vague about it. I wonder if they're changing the display and simply don't want anyone to know about it yet. Anything's possible.

...But according to Patrick, we're off the hook. He hit me up for hats and T-shirts (I'll send you a couple, too), and that was that.

We'll see what happens at CW7 soon, I'm sure.

 

[Thalassamania]

Otterbay makes a great suit. I got a suit from them about ten years back (when they were Monterey Bay Wetsuits) that was GN-231N, skin in and black lycra out. It was one of the best suits I ever had and the lycra really stands up to abrasion much better than nylon.

 

[Deep South Divers]

Edited to add: Okay, found it. I have to say, the site is so full of graphic features, and effects, that I missed it the first time. When you click to choose America/Canada, you have to be sure you *first* went to the women's side of the page. If you click select your region (America/Canada) from the men's side (which is what I had done initially), you get only the men's suits. In all the website "action," I missed that.

(snip)

PS: On their size chart I see it lists height, weight, chest, and waist measurements. That would make it hard for me to select a fit online, because there's no hip measurement, no inseam, no torso, etc. I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on them, because the suits look really nice (and I've just gone through the whole wetsuit buying process). But at the risk of sounding cynical, I would have preferred they leave off quite so much fancy flash from the website, and add a bit more information (such as sizing details). I'm sure one could call, but... it would be so easy to list it. Anyway, they do look like great suits.

I completely agree with everything you've said above. Their distribution channels aren't very good, either, which is why I think that nobody really knows about them. Finding a good review on the suits is impossible, and even if you find a dive shop that carries them, they're rarely in stock to try on. Plainly, O'Neill lacks marketing skills.

...But as far as the suits go, they're fantastic. They can't sell, but boy, can they make a suit!

...Which is why I recommended Austin's Diving in Miami - IMHO, they really pick up where O'Neill leaves off. They apparently have quite the stock in-store, which is a tremendous opportunity.

I also found some online sizing charts that look to be better than those found on the O'Neill website. See O'Neill Wetsuit Size Charts or call O'Neill directly.

One thing I can tell you - the sizing charts are remarkably accurate. Many wetsuit manufacturers publish sizing charts that, once you get the suit, seem to be completely unrelated. The O'Neill sizing chart is VERY accurate.

Call Austins and ask them to send you a suit to try. My bet is that they'd take it back in a heartbeat if it didn't fit. Talk to Dennis.

 

[TGreene]

Send me a PM about the conversation w/ Patrick, and what you mean by "We're off the hook"...

Bizarre as it is, my phone rang this morning at 5:30 waking me up, and when I grabbed it I saw it was Patricks number. It was probably a "butt dialing" mistake, but I thought it was strange anyway.

BTW: Our work there looked amazing, and you honestly couldn't see anything other than the textured front right corner.