Best Dry Suit

[Biodiversity_guy]

USIA, they make great dry suits. Excellent QA/QC in their manufactoring operation.

My wife and I each got a suit of theirs this past weekend at the Underwater Sports Dive Fair in Seattle. We got them, including nice fleece undergarment, for under your target price. They came well recommended by folks I dive with and trust, and we had a good opportunity to talk to the USIA folks. Good people. Great products.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I have the Viking 200 gr thinsulate undergarments and it's fine in 37 degree water for me, I have the heaviest which I think is the Arctic Extreme, it's a 400 gr thinsulate with fleece on top and under it, extremely warm. Too warm in fact for me unless I dove water colder than 32 degrees IMO.

I must get colder than you do because I wear the 400g Arctic Extreme undies in water as warm as 60 degrees I put polypro expedition weight undies under them and am able to stay comfortable enough for hour long dives.

One thing I didn't add, I dive with my mask over the Latex and it always leaks water into the mask, can't quite get it sealed. I've been tempted to put it under and see if it stops the leaking. It fits fine as long as I don't place it over the hood. That may be an issue for others as well, I wonder how Ber does on the mask seal. I'm always clearing the mask, more with the X Vision than my other Akona mask but they all leak. Now my FFM has never ever leaked over the hood and it's the ultimate in dry diving.

I always dove with mine under the latex and my head was soaked when I got out. The shape of my face leaves a couple of places where the latex doesn't touch and water gets in. Last year I dove with some people who put their mask over the latex so I tried it. The first few times it leaked; to be honest the very first time I tried that "constantly flooded" is a better word than "leaked" for describing what it did. It took a few dives but I discovered the beanie was pushing down towards my eyes and interfering with my mask seal. Now I make sure the beanie edge is situated farther back on my head away from the edge of the latex, this gives the mask seal plenty of room to sit flush with the latex. My biggest problem is getting air in the hood so I have a neoprene hood with no skirt (OK it's a hood with rabbit ears) that I put over the latex to compress the inner beanie a bit. It helps keep most of the air out and I usually only need to burp my hood once during a dive. I'm learning to do the burping by dropping my chin to my chest and rolling my head to the side. It's not quite as traumatic for buddies to watch as grabbing my head with both hands/forearms and starting to curl into a ball while squeezing my head (that little move is covered in the pre-dive briefing now).
Ber :lilbunny: