Bare velocity 8/7. Xcel polor. Oniel j type

[Travis Bourbeau]

Aside from fitting, looking for opinions.

I've been told to avoid oniel for diving?

Xcel seems to have good quality and flex.

 

[randini]

A buddy of mine has a J-type and it looked fantastic. He had been using it frequently in Santa Cruz and he claimed that it kept him warm enough but he would get a chill after a long day of repetitive dives. I was really close to getting one, but I decided on a jumpsuit w/ a couple of hoods & vests instead.

Don't rule out O'Neill, they know wetsuits! Just steer away from their surf suits as they will compress like all surf suits do. Their dive suits are good stuff.

Bare also has a very good rep here on SB, but I've never seen their suits in person and can't fairly comment on them. I will say that I was impressed enough by what I read that I was close to ordering one online. I only decided against it because I'm 6'3" and 190lbs, not an easy size, and after the hassle of getting it down to Chile I needed to be sure it'd fit. I just ended up getting a lesser suit locally because it fit.

I cannot comment at all on the Xcel. I have no experience with them.

 

[djanni]

All 3 are top brands. Probably couldn't go wrong with any of them. Personally I think O'Neill is the best. Someone advising against O'Neill is probably thinking of a surf suit for cold water diving and that probably would not be good. Modern dive wetsuits are more flexible in general and that's with every brand yet the neoprene is different for a dive suit vs a surf suit. For diving all this flexibility is far less important than it is for surfing and if you get a dive wetsuit the neoprene will compress less at depth and you'll stay warmer.

Check out the O'Neill Sector dive suit.

Aside from fitting, looking for opinions.

I've been told to avoid oniel for diving?

Xcel seems to have good quality and flex.