Drysuit Question for the Ladies

[suthnbelle]

I've started looking at drysuits and hope to purchase one in the next couple of months. So far I've only checked out DUI's website. Mostly because my dive buddies (guys) wear DUI and that is what I'm familiar with. So I want to know what you ladies are wearing and what you like and dislike about your suits? Also give me feedback on undergarments. Seriously, I'm totally clueless on drysuits so tell me everything that helped you when buying one. I'm also wondering whether to get a front entry or back entry. I don't want to be dependent on having a buddy around to get out of it if I need to get out in a real hurry if you know what I mean - bathroom break! Also, do you have rock boots or drysuit booties? I like the rock boots but wondering how big a fin I might need. I remember when I bought my Jets (size M) that the larges were huge! I guess I won't know until I start trying them on.

Also, I want the drysuit so I can dive all year. My feet tend to get cold very fast and toes become bluish/numb after a dive and are a cause for concern. I'm also becoming a weenie and not wanting to dive wet this time of the year.

So fire away!

Thanks!
Mel

 

[Gidds]

I have a Bare suit. Bare seems to have more sizes than DUI without having to go custom. I have the "budget" Bare suit so it is back zip and I can be held hostage if I misbehave but the higher end Bare suits have front entry. My suit has neoprene feet and I wear rock boots in 40F water with just a pair of Smartwool socks and I have yet to freeze my feet.

 

[Ayisha]

As for the frozen feet, I wear neoprene socks, and they keep my feet toasty warm - even in our cold Great Lakes.

 

[Mo2vation]

I've started looking at drysuits and hope to purchase one in the next couple of months. So far I've only checked out DUI's website. Mostly because my dive buddies (guys) wear DUI and that is what I'm familiar with. So I want to know what you ladies are wearing and what you like and dislike about your suits? Also give me feedback on undergarments. Seriously, I'm totally clueless on drysuits so tell me everything that helped you when buying one. I'm also wondering whether to get a front entry or back entry. I don't want to be dependent on having a buddy around to get out of it if I need to get out in a real hurry if you know what I mean - bathroom break! Also, do you have rock boots or drysuit booties? I like the rock boots but wondering how big a fin I might need. I remember when I bought my Jets (size M) that the larges were huge! I guess I won't know until I start trying them on.

Also, I want the drysuit so I can dive all year. My feet tend to get cold very fast and toes become bluish/numb after a dive and are a cause for concern. I'm also becoming a weenie and not wanting to dive wet this time of the year.

So fire away!

Thanks!
Mel

Seeing as I've been there throughout the whole ordeal.

We got DUI suits - what sealed it was simply this: DUI is in LowCal. They're about 3 hours from us (next day UPS.) You will be sending your DS in for repairs someday, and for us, having them local made a big difference. DUI customer service has been amazing. Whenever we had a problem (foot leak, punctured knee, etc.) they've been right there.

She has the Trilam 350 - loves it. Front zip (old style) and loves that, too. Its totally extended her season, and she can dive it all year. She's 5-7, 140 - 150-ish so she's a stock ladies large. She dives 300 gr polartech (from Softwear) 300 gr polartec socks (also from Softwear) in water that's 54 - 64 degrees. When it gets colder (like when we're diving Monterey, or doing multiple dives) she also wears a 300 gr vest (from, you guessed it - Softwear.) She's never cold.

Material depends on the type of diving you do. We do guppy diving - no wreck penetration or abrasive caves, bouncing off of rocks, etc. So a trilam is perfect.

DUI hood (they make a very good hood.) 3mm gloves locally, 5mm gloves for Monterey, etc. No worries.

She's been diving the wack Atomic Splits for years. Just went to Jets. She has Rock Boots (size 6 - they only size them for men) and wears my large Jets (I wear Turtles, and the jets when I'm diving wet with booties.) Her medium jets she wears when she dives wet (tropics, vacation diving, etc.)

She loves the rock boots. They're solid on a pitching swim step, and for the very limited shore diving she does, she likes them. Trim the laces.

The best feature of the trilam is its ability to pack small and dry fast. I have the zip seals (BTW - I just went to the trilam after diving the 50/50 and the 450 for years) and will likely send hers in to get zip wrists put on. She's not a fan of the Zip neck. Latex seals all around for sure.

Like you, she has long hair (not as long as yours) and the latex neck seal was very uncomfortable to pull on - so she took a slice of pantyhose and tied a knot in the top (bank robber style) and pulls it down over her hair and her grill when donning the neck seal - PERFECT. No more handfulls of hair!

Here's the real deal: I donned a drysuit and started diving like it was nothing. I just got it, and never had any issues. Jaye not so much. She struggled with it for quite a while. Had a feet first ascent within the first 10 dives and it really scared her. As I've spoken with others (men and women) I've found that the drysuit "learning curve" varies considerably by diver. One female dive buddy said the light went on for her at 49 dives. In speaking with Jaye, it was around 30 or 40 dives when she got 100% comfortable and confident. What I'm saying here is this: Don't expect to just waltz into it. If you do, consider yourself fortunate (I sure do), and be sure your buddies are aware that you're learning and working your way through it.

Jaye horribly overweighted herself in the beginning. She's now down to what I would consider a managable weight. She also considers it managable. She dived ankle weights for the first dozen dives or so then finally tossed them.

Take a DS class, and go slow. Once you dive dry, you're going to love it.

Last thing: Go to DUI, to Bare, to Andys and download their size charts. Get a soft, fabric tape measure, put on jeans and a shirt and have someone else measure you. Determine your size. If you're a stock size, there is no reason not to go shopping on eBay. There are TONS of drysuits on eBay. And seeing a DS is a bag with a zipper and seals, you can save tons of cash, or buy a nicer suit for the same price. I've purchased no less than 12 drysuits off of eBay (all DUI - 4 for me, 2 for buddies, the rest to flip) and all have been perfect.

Hope this isn't too rambling. There's a lot to consider. This will be the largest investment in your diving, and it will last you a decade or more. Speak to a lot of people, consider the type of diving your going to be doing, the temperatire, etc. and make your choice.

---
Ken


PS: As to the blueish numb frozen feet - I highly recommend blue nail polish... nobody will notice.

 

[Hoosier]

Well addressed, Ken.........

I bought TLS350 for my GF, too. It comesn with a sprot package and zip seal...
For the undergarment, I picked Weezle instead of DUI because Weezle makes two pieces undi and very light. So, she loves those points a lot.

We, both, have a rock boot for the shore diving anywhere in the world. She doesn't like a jet fin (It is a spring strap one) because of its stiffness and weight, so she is wearing Twin Jet, medium size. (So, I plan to sell her jet fin).

 

[suthnbelle]

Thanks for the advice everyone! Ken a big thanks for the very informative post. I'm going to read it again later, absorb it and start looking some more. The diving I'll be doing in the future is some diving off the NC coast and down in North Florida. I've got my cavern class scheduled for February and wanting to take intro this summer. My biggest issue to get the suit was just to extend my season and to take care of the cold feet. Ayisha, I did get a couple pairs of neoprene socks for Christmas and have tried those. They have helped but my feet still get cold. I think it is actually a circulatory problem. Going to run it by the doctor as well.

Also, the advice regarding things like neck seals and long hair not mixing well is what I'm looking for. The kind of things my guy diving buddies can't tell me about. I was thinking the other day that maybe for cavern class since I'll be doing a lot of dives for two days I'll get my hair braided, a la Bo Derek style! How funny would that be? I actually did it in 5th grade so who knows. I'll post a picture if I do it.

I'm sure I'll have more questions later after looking around some more.

Oh and if you girls want to pipe in about what reels you use that would be great. I have small hands and the DR primary is a little cumbersome at times. Someone just told me that the newer ones have an adjustable handle so I'm checking that out as well.

Thanks again!
Mel

 

[DA Aquamaster]

My wife is a confirmed neoprene dry suit user. Her first neoprene suit was a 7mm Atlan and she was instantly more comfortable in it than she ever had been in previous trilams. She now dives in an O'Neil and likes the slightly trimmer cut of that suit compared to the Atlan.

Hair wise, she prefers the neoprene seals as they are nylon covered on the inside and then roll the skin side under for a seal. This means her hair gets to slide on nylon rather than on rubber. She likes it a lot more with her long hair than she ever did a latex seal. She does a very quick pony tail or french braid and dives that way as well.

My wife uses her dry suit year round, although in the summer here, water temps are at best 70 at the surface and mid 40's below 100'. She has found that a 7mm neoprene suit was much warmner for her even at depth (she goes to 130 on a regular basis) despite what DUI has preached virtually forever. Undergarments consist of a swim suit in August to a pair of sweats earlier ad later and with a polyprolene sweat shirt of about the same thickness added very early and late in the season.

She had to step up a size in fins with the 7mm boots on her dry suits and she ended up using a pair of Jets that I use for wet suit diving. She immediately found she greatly preferred the power and accelleration of the Jet fins compared to anything else she has ever used.

She does have an across the shoulders entry zipper and prefers the shorter trunk and generally better fit allowd by a rear entry zip compared to the longer trunk needed to get your head inside a front zip suit.

Getting out unassited however is not a problem. It requires a 3 ft cord with a boat snap, carabiner or bolt snap on the end to connect the cord to the zipper pull. Just connect the cord move the end to the other side and pull the zipper in the required direction. It lets her get out a couple minutes early and do her business before anyone else is back on board.

Getting in unassisted is also do-able. I have a carabiner lashed to a ladder on the boat at zipper level. You connect the pull to the carabiner, then gently turn in the desired direction to close the zipper then unhook the pull. It requires some care to ensure there are no baggy winkles in the under wear at that point and you have to adjut your position fore or aft slightly to keep the correct angle on the zipper pull, but with minimal practice it zips as easily that way as if your buddy does it.

Personally, I was a dyed in the wool trilam fanatic having been well introctrinated by DUI literature on the superiority of their suits over traditional neoprene drysuits. But after tearing a seal and borrowing my wife's old Atlan, suit I suddenly understood why she switched and I had an O'neil of my own in a week. Down to 150' in water as low as 33 degrees, I have found the neoprene suit is indeed warmer and swims infinitelty better than a trilam in the water, being much snugger, the material having some stretch of it's own and the whole suit generally being much more streamlined than a trilam.

If you have the opportunity, dive both types of suit and make your own decision based on what works best for you.

 

[SubMariner]

Being from TGWN I've used other drysuits (most notably 5mm neoprene) but since we moved to the SE US I've been using a DUI 350TLS trilam. It's front entry, with some custom touches such as kevlar kneepads & a thigh pocket. The seals are neoprene simply because they put up with more abuse & that's the type I'm used to.

The Rock Boots... well... rock! What size fins you wear with them depends entirely on how large the footpocket of your fins are. When I dove Plana Avantis I needed to get a larger set of fins just for my drysuit; however with my Volos I was able to get fins that fit both my wetsuit booties & the rock boots.

What you wear under the drysuit depends entirely on your personal thermometer & how cold the water is where you'll be diving. In the Springs I generally wear bicycle tights, a long sleeved poly shirt under a sweatshirt as well as thick hiking sox. That usually is good for me down to about 60F. After that I need to layer more on.

I have a dedicated drysuit hood (5mm neoprene from one of my old drysuits) that I can wear with the DUI if the water is cold, or a 3mm beanie that is my usual choice. Gloves... again, depends on how cold the water is.

Feel free to PM or email me if you have any questions.

Take care, eh!?

 

[mania]

Mel
I decided to post also my answer which was originaly PM to you so that it may be of help to all other ladies....


I use this dry suit (but of course female version:
http://www.hunter-diving.com/divingsuit_sport1100.html

But in your case I would get DUI simply as it's probably the best - very expensive here so Gates/Hunter is more or less the same quality but cheaper.


Go for the front entry. It's much easier (I have the back one and this part I hate). Plus - mine didn't have a pocket which I had to buy and install. So - get yourself a dry suit with at least one pocket. Another minus of mine is that Gates tried to make a female cut. So they made it wider in the hips and smaller in the waist. Without any rubber or anything. So now I have to get the waist through the hips - it's a nightmare!!!! Northern Diver does the same but they simply installed a rubber gum in the waist - so it's very easy to get through hips and still when you put it all on you don't look like in a huge bag. So this is another thing you should look at - how easy you put dry suit on and off.


Yeah I have rock boots and this is why I had to buy another pair of jet fins - large fit very well (my European shoe size is 38)



I have Halcyon reel and spool. the first one is 400 ft, the other 100 ft.

Now what's the most important thing is that the suit is of a proper size. The most important are the length from waist to arms - so that you will be able to do v-drill. When trying the dry suit you have to have to put on everything - as if you were going to dive. If it's too short there is no way to do it. I know because at my first attempt to pass advance nitrox I had a borrowed dry suit which was slightly too short there and there was no way to reach the valves. Also have a look when the dump valve is lokated - it should be on the outside of your arm (in some dry suits it's too close to your body, and them dumbing the air is very difficult - you need to change your position to almost verical one to do so) - then dumbing the air requires only raising of your arm.
For feet comfort I use my snowboarding socks - they are a wonder.
I went through sort of a nightmare when getting the dry suit which ended upo in now having two of them (the other one is too small).

As for neopren dry suit I don't think it's a good idea if yoou want to penetrate recks or caves - it's too easy to make a hole in it.

As for diving dry suit - I have a saying. Every morning I say "hi darling" to my dry suit and it still replies only a dry "good morning"

Mania

 

[Mark Vlahos]

I've started looking at drysuits and hope to purchase one in the next couple of months. So far I've only checked out DUI's website. Mostly because my dive buddies (guys) wear DUI and that is what I'm familiar with. So I want to know what you ladies are wearing and what you like and dislike about your suits? Also give me feedback on undergarments. Seriously, I'm totally clueless on drysuits so tell me everything that helped you when buying one. I'm also wondering whether to get a front entry or back entry. I don't want to be dependent on having a buddy around to get out of it if I need to get out in a real hurry if you know what I mean - bathroom break! Also, do you have rock boots or drysuit booties? I like the rock boots but wondering how big a fin I might need. I remember when I bought my Jets (size M) that the larges were huge! I guess I won't know until I start trying them on.

Also, I want the drysuit so I can dive all year. My feet tend to get cold very fast and toes become bluish/numb after a dive and are a cause for concern. I'm also becoming a weenie and not wanting to dive wet this time of the year.

So fire away!

Thanks!
Mel

Hi Mel,

I don't know if you remember me from lake Rawlings but I am currently switching to a dry suit. I have long hair, although I am most certainly male.

First and foremost, get a suit that fits. If you are a stock size or really close to a stock size then like Ken said eBay!

The approach I am taking is that eventually I will have two dry suits... My primary one, which I will purchase some time in the future as a new suit or a really lucky eBay find, and what will eventually be my backup suit, which I am looking to purchase now. This "backup" suit will almost certainly be an experiment and as such I want to keep costs down, so eBay is almost certainly where the suit will come from.

As a new cavern diver and eventually a cave diver you will try to not make contact with the cave, but you will probably make more contact than you want to. For this reason I want a durable fabric like that found on the DUI CLx 450, the Zeagle GatorSkin, or the DiveRite 905. There are other suits that use a similar "thicker" material for abrasion resistance.

I have noticed that the DUI suits tend to be more expensive both new and used so consider specific reasons to choose a DUI suit rather than any of the competition, for me the only reason is ZipSeals. If Zips are a must then DUI is the only manufacturer that offers that choice. If you do not need ZipSeals then you should consider other brands of suits.

As I said, I have long hair and I have used latex seals without problems.

The diving off of North Carolina in the cold water areas (not out in the gulf stream) will be comfortable in either a Trilaminate suit with thick underwear or Neoprene , diving in cave country will more likely be better in a Trilaminate with thin underwear. Many people have differing opinions on this one so take my advice in this area with not just a grain of salt but rather with the entire salt shaker.

By thick underwear I mean 300 weight and for thin I mean 100 weight. In both cases there are advantages to underwear that is "stretchy" over underwear that will have folds against your skin. The addition of some wicking long underwear that you might use camping is a nice way to make things more comfortable and warmer. Get good thick insulating socks or booties to wear inside your drysuit a 300 weight or 400 weight might be a good choice here. Since you suffer from cold feet just plan on wearing the thick booties on all dives and size your fins accordingly. Polartec can be washed easily and holds up reasonably well over time. Thinsulite is generally accepted to be warmer for its relative thickness but can be a problem to launder. Thinsulite is also considered to be warmer than Polartec in the event of a flood, although Polartec does not loose its insulating value when wet the way cotton does. Cotton is generally percieved as a poor choice for dry suit underwear.

No one has mentioned it yet but it is a reality of diving dry, especially for women. Get some adult incontinence diapers and get used to using them. I use pads designed for men and will probably just keep using them even when I am using my own suit and not renting. You don't need diapers that are for taking a bowel movement, but you should be comfortable enough that you can urinate with confidence that the rest of the inside of the suit will stay dry.

Probably the most realistic advice that I can give, is advice I am taking for myself on this... Like many SCUBA purchases, the first suit you buy may turn out to be unwise so plan on a replacement in a year or two that is better or more suited to the diving you are doing then. It is this line of thinking that has me looking for my first suit to eventually be my backup, so I want to keep costs down. Having said that, while I am looking I continue to rent, yes, you can rent drysuits.

Good Luck!

Mark Vlahos