BlueDolphin:
I was set on a DUI, but now am seriously looking at the Diving Concepts line. I was also pretty set on the tri lam suits, until I went into my LDS today. The owner really is pretty opinionated and feels that trilam is not the way to go. He really is pushing me to consider the Pinnacle 200 Diving Concepts. He feels that the trilams just don't fit as well as the compressed neoprene. He showed me his suit on and I was impressed with the fit. The Pinnacle 200 is very streamlined. It has amazing stretch qualities. He compared the differing materials and laughed that trilam is touted as having stretch.
I would say defenitely look into the Diving Concepts. They will come in about a grand less than the DUI. Also my LDS owner says that Diving Concepts for $100 will custom make the suit to fit me. Diving Concepts will actually send the drysuit "shell" (the suit before it is completed), to my local shop before it is finished. The suit can then be chalked and changes made. The suit is then sent BACK to my LDS AGAIN to try on to make sure the fit is exactly what I want. My local shop owner says that he can chalk in where I would like the inflater, the dump and hip pockets as well. The suit is not completed until we are sure of its fit and location of all items. I was pretty impressed.
My LDS owner also shared his opinions with me regarding NOT using a rock boot, and making sure that I get the suit with the cuff RING system for easy replacement of wrist seals, and also to be able to easily switch to dry gloves if I wish.
For around $1700 I think this is going to be a very good investment.
JMO.
Wow.... DC must provide much better service to customers/shops in their local area than to those of us that live farther away....
I've had to send my "custom" trilam suit back 3 times for resizing. Once, I was told something along the lines of "Obviously, what you consider a good fit is not the same as what we consider a good fit."
After a big stink that involved alienating the LDS dealer, it's as good as it's going to get. Each time it took the promised full 30 days to get it back.
As for neoprene vs trilam - there are advantages and disadvantages to both. If I were you, I would do more research (there are a few threads on ScubaBoard covering this) before blindly going with what the LDS salesperson is trying to sell you on.
As for the rings... I like the glove ring system. One thing I would change (too bad I didn't know better when I ordered the suit), is to have the rings installed while leaving the inner wrist seals intact. DC installed the rings directly to the sleeves. In the event of a glove failure/tear, there is nothing to keep the suit from flooding. Brrrrrr!!!! If you opt for the dry gloves from DC, don't go with their neoprene ones - they are notorious for failures. Go with the blue PVC smurf gloves instead.
The neoprene & rubber boots on mine have lasted about 250+ dives. I do a lot of shore diving, so the soles wore out first. The boots themselves are in the process of self-destructing and are in dire need of replacement (they are leaking badly
). The latex DC uses for their neck seals is pretty wimpy compared to some other brands. My first and second neck seals lasted ~ 60 dives apiece. The last seal I bought from a different manufacturer has lasted over 100 dives so far......
The exhaust valve has been replaced twice. Once because it would not vent automatically - I had to press it manually to get it to dump. The other was 'cause it leaked. Another exhaust valve issue is that I have a rear-entry suit. Because the zipper won't allow for better placement, the shoulder dump is more like a bicep dump... I need to roll sideways to vent the suit. Definitely NOT ideal for a diver who ascends horizontally rather than vertically!
Would I buy another DC suit? Well... that depends..... if I was living in SoCal and could try it on before they made it and if I could get stuff fixed in a reasonable amount of time, maybe.
Just giving you another perspective based on my experience....
