Dry suit questions????

[jiveturkey]

Thanks everyone,great article too. Now I look at all that new gear and the fact that I'll probably need a custom suit as well and now I'm thinking $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

You're going to love diving dry. I've only done a handful of wet dives in the past couple years since I bought my suit.

 

[mikerault]

Try www.divetank.com for your drysuit I got a Nex Gen Trilam from Bare for less than 600 bucks last year. Right now they have womens D6 Dry for $449 and mens D6 dry for $749 including gloves, hood and fleece.

I have been very pleased with mine.

Mike

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Overall the cost of a custom suit is really not that much more. We carry OS systems and when I got mine ut was semicustom and was 130 bucks extra. I believe that a full is about 250 more. IMO for something that fits and may last you upwards of 10-15 yrs with proper care and maintenance it's not a big difference. Total cost on mine was 1650 including semi custom fit, relief zipper, bag, light and heavy undergarments, hood, and commercial dry glove system with rings and liners. That also included tax and shipping.

 

[LI Diver]

Ok thats not so bad of an investment as long as I don't end up disliking it and leave it in the closet. Is it harder to master for an overweight person (ok obese)? I carry all of my xtra bioprene in my gut. My legs are lean muscle and tend to sink and yes that is with all the air out of my bc and my bouyancy fine tuned. (I intend to move my tank up a smidge on my next dive) Also what water temp spread can I achieve by varying the under garments? Can I cover lets say from 50 to 70 deg f ?

 

[Jasonmh]

Ok thats not so bad of an investment as long as I don't end up disliking it and leave it in the closet. Is it harder to master for an overweight person (ok obese)? I carry all of my xtra bioprene in my gut. My legs are lean muscle and tend to sink and yes that is with all the air out of my bc and my bouyancy fine tuned. (I intend to move my tank up a smidge on my next dive) Also what water temp spread can I achieve by varying the under garments? Can I cover lets say from 50 to 70 deg f ?

I doubt you will be leaving it in the closet, once you see how much warmer you are.
I LOVE mine since I started diving dry about 7 months ago. It is so comfortable, esp. when you are wearing what almost amounts to PJ's underneath.
You can easily cover 50-70 degrees, and even more, using different undergarments.
I have only used Trilam, so I don't know much about Neoprene suits.
Good Luck

 

[terrasmak]

I hope my drysuit comes in this week , this cold water stuff is for the birds . Froze my azz off this weekend diving Lajolla Cove area.

 

[Mr.X]

Ok thats not so bad of an investment as long as I don't end up disliking it and leave it in the closet. Is it harder to master for an overweight person (ok obese)? I carry all of my xtra bioprene in my gut. My legs are lean muscle and tend to sink and yes that is with all the air out of my bc and my bouyancy fine tuned. (I intend to move my tank up a smidge on my next dive) Also what water temp spread can I achieve by varying the under garments? Can I cover lets say from 50 to 70 deg f ?

The thermocline in NE diving is always tricky. It's 80-90F air temp, 72F surface and when you get to the bottom it's 55-50F. When you do your hang it gets too warm. More than anything I use two sets of underwear and mix and match according to dive profile. Of course, this is during the summer only. Winter is time for thick underwear and argon. I wouldn't worry too much about getting special underwear for warm temps. I use a light polarfleece which costs me under 60.00.

X

 

[cummings66]

The only issue with drysuits IME is that you sweat on the surface, sometimes a lot. A drysuit sometimes is more of a dampsuit, you don't get drenched but you will get damp depending on outside temps.

I dive with a 200 gr thinsulate undergarment most of the time, I have a 400 gr that I can use if it gets really cold, it's strictly Winter use only.

You'll find that once you get over the I hate this thing period which most go through that you'll dive it all the time. It's so nice to get out of the water dry and be able to towel off the drysuit and then put things up nice and dry. A trilam or membrane drysuit is so nice in that regards. Furthermore in the Winter you don't get hit with that cold surface interval that you might in a wetsuit.

Really, you'll love it after the initial hate part of the relationship. You'll probably hate it because your trim will be off, workload higher, not as fun getting geared up, etc. Then after a few dives you'll get it down and love it. Trust me, once you buy it you won't leave it in the closet.

 

[TSandM]

Really, you'll love it after the initial hate part of the relationship. You'll probably hate it because your trim will be off, workload higher, not as fun getting geared up, etc. Then after a few dives you'll get it down and love it. Trust me, once you buy it you won't leave it in the closet.

I'd agree with that. After ten days of three dives a day in a wetsuit, I was seriously thinking about taking my dry suit on my next TROPICAL vacation . . .