Drysuit: Shell or Neoprene?

[NSDiver]

I dive a Harvey's trilam (no longer sold) that I got on ebay. It keeps me dry and warm, and the seals are brand new. It is a little baggy, but probably the only way I could avoid that with a shell suit is to get a custom cut because I'm tall and skinny.

Haven't dove wet since diving dry.

 

[Bob3]

As one may suspect, the "shell vs neoprene" has been a frequent topic & one of the better threads has had almost 12,500 visits.
This thread from a couple years ago stands out as being pretty comprehensive.
See: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=7462

 

[CGG6]

Get use to getting wet. Long term drysuit users are in denial about the leaks. A good day is when undergarments are only a little damp. I've been having those good days for years.

Summer dives using sweat pants with shorts underneath is the best. I put my wallet in a baggie and keep my keys in my pocket on the dive. Come up, off the sweat pants and change my shirt for a confortable surface intervial.

The DUI TLS 350 has been a great suit for me. I use to use a DUI CF 200 when I did more aggressive diving. That suit was bullet proof.

 

[tstormdiver]

I just got a White's Catalyst last Oct. I have been very pleased with it, so far. It came with 2 sets of undergarments (light & heavy), a jacket & hiking style boots. I primarily dive in quarries & the temperature below 50' is 42 degrees year round. I stayed away from the neoprene because personally, to me, it is uncomortable. Before I got the dry suit, for deep diving, I had to wear a 2pc. 7mm wet suit. I felt like I couldn't move at all in it (you know like the kid wearing so many winter clothes that his arms are stuck straight out). I do not like the resticting feeling of the thicker neoprene. My lighter wet suits are tolerable, because they are thinner & easier to move in. Each type of dry suit has its advantages & disadvantages. For you, you need to decide what features you want n a dry suit, research that style & make a choice. I spent about 4 mos. researching & don't regret it.

 

[*Floater*]

From what I can tell I think most active posters on this board seem to prefer trilam (or other membrane) drysuits to regular or compressed neoprenes. But I also saw the same question on a UK based scuba diving forum, and over there it was much closer.

Membrane (usually trilam) was preferred to Neoprene by about 60-40 with 86 votes in.

Membrane and Compressed Neoprene were equally well-liked in another poll with about 52 votes.

I suspect it's largely about fit and personal preference.

 

[ClayJar]

When it's cold out, I love my shell suit because it's dry in a flash. It also packs well and doesn't weigh much. A neoprene suit takes much longer to dry, and it provides some thermal insulation in and of itself, which is usually good but may be undesirable at times for some.

An instructor friend of mine who also does commercial stuff (bottom of the boat, thing lost in the canal, etc.) around here loves his neoprene suit because *when* it gets cut or torn, he can just glue it back together like a wetsuit.

 

[3-Ring Octopus]

I dive an O'Neill 7000x neoprene drysuit. (with the neoprene socks removed and a pair of boots attached) It's a 7mm rear-zip suit. I prefer neoprene because of the inherent insulating abilities. I dive with a female buddy most often (my SO and live-in instuctor.. ) and she wears a USIA bag suit. She is nearly always cold in her suit, even wearing full heavy undergarments and some extra lead. (This is a complete reversal from the usual, as I'm far colder than she is on the surface on any given day...) I also prefer my neoprene because I'm far more streamlined underwater.

That being said...my suit weighs roughly one metric tonne! Especially with the boots tacked on as compared to the dry socks. This isn't usually a problem (at 6'5", 215 I should be able to haul around a bit of weight/gear...lol), but if you're a bit shy of packing in heavy gear to a dive site, be forewarned. As far as the drying time goes...my suit (the exterior) is dry in about a day. The interior is always dry (unless I wash it...and I don't wash it unless I know I'm not going to be diving it for a few days..). I'm not sure what people mean when they say it takes longer to dry...I'm assuming they mean when they wash the interior of the suit. And since I don't bother to wash the interior of mine until after logging plenty of bottom time, I don't really see the difference. The exterior being damp has no bearing on the interior of the suit.

Cheers,
Austin

 

[ClayJar]

As far as the drying time goes...my suit (the exterior) is dry in about a day. [...] I'm not sure what people mean when they say it takes longer to dry... [...] The exterior being damp has no bearing on the interior of the suit.

Actually, it's the exterior that we're talking about. For me, the idea is basically that I can get out of a lake, quarry, or spring, and before I'm even back to the table (tarp, tailgate, whatever), the outside of my drysuit is dry. When you're outside with the cold wind whipping at you (with approximately the same relative humidity of the Atacama desert), having the outside of the suit be dry in mere moments prevents you from playing the part of a swamp cooler.

Of course, you could throw on a big boat coat or whatever, but it's far more convenient (and much lighter weight) to use the nice light shell suit instead of the heavy neoprene drysuit and a coat on top.

Additionally, when you're stowing the suit for the trip home, the fact that it's already dry (except the socks) is ***WONDERFUL***... and perhaps of far greater importance than the windy day warmth.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I recently purchased a Bare Trilam HD Tech. The speed of drying was one of the key factors in my decision making, along with no compression at depth and the ability to dive a very broad temperature range. I plan on diving my drysuit down to upper 30's and up into the 70's. I also liked the fact that it is more light weight than either neoprene or compressed neoprene.

 

[CompuDude]

Wait, are we comparing COMPRESSED NEOPRENE (or hyper compressed, ultra compressed or whatever the heck manufacturer a b and c choose to call it) to shell suits, or actual neoprene (uncompressed) to shell suits AND compressed neoprene? Because those are two very different polls.

I would never buy a regular neoprene drysuit, in spite of the warmth and price advantage, because they don't last very long, weigh a ton, require a ton of weight to sink, have highly variable buoyancy as depth changes, and take forever to dry. No thanks.

I'd consider a compressed neoprene suit, like the DUI cf200 or Bare's, but they do still have the disadvantage of weight and drying time. I'd rather just wear some thicker undies with a shell suit and have more options.