Drysuit advice

[rombre]

I am looking to take up some cold water diving (UK and later also overseas, e.g. BC / Malta ...), have recently done a drysuit certification and am now thinking about buying my first drysuit.

The parameters are the following:

Diving
- Diving mainly in the UK, but also some overseas diving planned
- Would expect temperatures mostly between 5C/40F and 18C/65F (but that's more a topic for the undergarment I guess)
- Diving is currently pure rec but the suit should be ready to go tec with me (twins, some wrecks)

Material
- I've only dived a trilam suit for my two certification dives and quite liked it but have no comparison to crushed neoprene, so no strong preference
- I am on the heavier side but hoping to lose some weight. Which material would be more forgiving (if any)? It would be somewhat annoying to buy a suit for £2k and after a year I can't use it anymore due to bad fit

- Price is not a primary consideration, however staying below £2k would be preferable unless there are strong arguments to exceed that

Otter, O'Three and Waterproof look interesting to me, but again - am open to all suggestions there.

 

[Marie13]

Isn't Otter a UK company? For undergarment, I love Fourth Element, and they are a UK company, as well.

 

[Captain Swoop]

Otter are a UK company. I am just about to replsce my suit and I have been doing some research. Otter would be my first choice at the moment.
I have been looking at another UK company called Seaskin, they do bespoke suits, their work looks good and they are very reasonably priced.

 

[Gareth J]

You are correct

Otter are a UK company, very well regarded. In addition other British drysuit companies are
OThree
Hammond
Seaskin
Northern Diver
Typhon
Predator

I have had three DUI suits, (Very good but more recent suits suffered quality issues), and a Whites.
My girlfriend has had Otter, and Northern Diver and Hammond. Would strongly recommend the Otter and Hammond.
I have friends who have OThree suits, which have been excellent.
I don't have personal knowledge of the Seaskin, or Predator.

I have posted some information in another thread which may be of use, see here

Moving on to Drysuit

Gareth

 

[rhwestfall]

I know @Doppler has been touting O-Three....

 

[Captain Swoop]

O-Three are very good if you want neoprene.

 

[Gareth J]

A friend of mine has an Otter Trilaminate, she really rates the suit.
My girlfriend traditionally had Neoprene, the Hammond was a deviation from this (i.e. a trilaminate) for a specific holiday. She has been very impressed, both with the suit and the service.

Gareth

 

[Aqua-Andy]

You sound like a candidate for a Fusion. It will fit you now and after you lose weight.

 

[tbone1004]

O'3, hands down. no reason in the UK for local diving to go bag suit imho, and the O3 suits are awesome and inexpensive

 

[rombre]

Thanks for the replies.

Uncompressed neoprene looks to have more disadvantages than advantages over crushed neoprene / trilam to me - I would rather get some warmer undergarment to make up for the lower insulation and don't have the significant neoprene compression at depth, I think (Just my thoughts without any experience).

O'Three Ri 2-100 Flex and Ri 1-100 CCN look interesting as crushed neo (or crushed neo equivalent in the Ri 2 case). Otter / Fusion seem to be good options on the trilam side.

@tbone1004 why would you go for a crushed neo over a trilam suit? My thinking was that a trilam suit would be better for travel (admittedly not the primary use in my case) and wear less (does the neoprene not wear quicker?) and the lower inherent warmth could be easily solved with warmer undergarment?