Between wetsuit sizes

[Paladin]

My son is 5' 9" and weighs 230 pounds. He tore the zipper of his XL Sea Elite 3/2 wetsuit and I bought him a new 5mm Neo Sport from Leisurepro for his birthday. The Sea Elite fit him in the arms and legs but was too tight in the torso. It was restrictive in movement and breathing. I bought him an XL first and it fit the same as the Sea Elite. The arms and legs fit well but the torso was too tight. I traded it for an XXL and the torso fits snug but not tight and allows free movement and easy breathing. However, the arms and legs are long and a bit baggy at the joints.

Other than the expense of a custom suit, what can he do?

 

[Doubler]

You can get adjustments made to the suit you own. Get in touch with Terrapin Wetsuits they do that sort of work.

 

[spectrum]

A custom will barely cost more than a quality stock suit. Unless there alterations are very minor you will come out ahead of the game just going custom from the start.

Pete

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Four options:

1. Semi dry suits were developed to enable a diver to get acceptable performance from a smaller number of stock sizes (and now some companies now sell fewer stock sizes of wet suits). The seals help make up for the pumping action of a less than ideal fit. But it has it's limits.

2. A few shops will sell you a farmer John in two sizes - one for the john and a larger or smaller size for the Jacket, but that depends on their ability to get the separate pieces as the resulting mis matched pair made from the leftovers won't sell well.

3. Most shops can fit you for and order a custom wet suit. As noted above, cost is not much more than a "quality wet suit", but the cost of that level of "quality" is comparatively high and will induce wet suit sticker shock. And if you already own a wetsuit that does not fit well (which is the case here) altering the suit is a lot cheaper than buying a new suit - custom or otherwise.

4. As someone indicated above, if the alterations are not expansive, the cost of alterations is fairly low. For example, a torso that needs to be let out a few inches involves shortening and re-sewing a couple panels. Making the sleeves smaller may involve shortening the sleeve and sewing on some binding, as well as reducing the size of a panel all the way up the sleeve as well as adding some material to fill the resulting gap in the armpit.

Superior Diving Repair Inc, does good work at a reasonable price and they give you a price for a needed alteration in advance, so you can determine what the cheapest option might be (custom suit, enlarge the torso on a jacket or shorten the arms on a jacket.)

Superior Diving Repair, Inc.

 

[CT Sean]

You might want to look at other manufacturers as well that offer more than the standard small-medium-large-XL-... Bare offers "in-between" sizes as well as Pinnacle, Waterproof and likely others.

Just as an example, Bare offers an XL-short as well as a 2XL short that are in the range of your son's height and weight.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I have had BARE, Pinnacle, and used Superior for drysuit work. All very good options. I am also hard to fit and while BARE and Pinncle suits came the closest in terms of fit neither was perfect. Even in the same size the difference between a Pinnacle 3 mil and 5 mil merino elastiprene was big. They were bought a year apart but along with the size the construction changed and was very noticeable. Both still good suits but not something I will buy again.

In fact when I replaced my 3 mil I went with Wetwear. Welcome to Wetwear - Custom Wet Suits of Rubatex Neoprene for Scuba Diving and All Water Activities

Their Atlantis jumpsuit is a full custom suit with arm and leg zippers. You can get them to put pockets on it for a little more but the base price of a full custom suit is less than a number of the so-called higher end stock suits.

I personally went with the cave and technical diver model using the G231N neoprene. A little more but it fits like a second skin and the neoprene is much more resistant to compression and as such warmer. In fact because of the custom cut and the type of neoprene it is about as warm as my 5 mil merino. And did I mention it is a full custom suit
with pockets and arm and leg zippers? For about the same price as some Henderson and ScubaPro stock suits that for me would not have come close to fitting the way this one does.
Wetwear - Wet Suits for Cave Divers and Technical Divers

I will never buy another type of wetsuit. When it comes time to replace the 5 mil I have now it will either be with a Wetwear of the same type as the 3 I have now or with a lighter weight drysuit than my HOG. I'll go with an Edge Drysuit as this year I did 80% of my dives dry due to not having the heated lake at Mt Storm available any more and I really like having to just towel my face and let the air dry my hair.

 

[Paladin]

Thanks, guys. We'll look into the repair shop option.

 

[Akimbo]

Try Oceanos Wetsuits in Greece. Easy to work with, competitive delivered prices, and good quality. Sent an E-mail describing what you want if you don’t see it on their web site. Make sure you indicate that the suit will be used for either Scuba or freediving, they make both but the material is different.

I have one of their 7mm custom freediving suits and a about to order a 3mm Scuba suit.