Drysuit sizing? (With pictures)

[KD8NPB]

I have the option of picking up a Viking Sport 90x for almost free. Long story short, it needs quite a few repairs, but, the base material is in extremely good condition. It shows no signs of rotting or damage. I have a decent amount of experience repairing EPDM vulcanized drysuits as well as having access to parts, but no actual time within one... I'm not sure what constitutes a proper fit and what is excessively baggy to the point of being a safety concern.

My statistics are as follows:
Height : 5'8"
Weight : 154 lbs
Shoe : US 8
Waist : 30"
Inseam : 30"
Chest : 37"

This puts me into viking size 01.

This drysuit is a size 02. I do not have drysuit underwear, so, I am wearing a carhart one-piece jumpsuit underneath it to make up for the bulk of insulating material. The boots fit like galoshes with no socks on. I could probably wear my 7mm boots within these boots, and that would make it a snug fit.

Pictures:

 

[3D diver]

The arms and legs are a bit long. At best this just means more wrinkles in the suit as it compresses, at worst the arm length may give you trouble with your wrist seals. I'm more concerned with the shoe size, though, as this may affect how your fins fit.

Can you get some pool time in the suit, or does it need repairs first?

 

[KD8NPB]

The arms and legs are a bit long. At best this just means more wrinkles in the suit as it compresses, at worst the arm length may give you trouble with your wrist seals. I'm more concerned with the shoe size, though, as this may affect how your fins fit.

Can you get some pool time in the suit, or does it need repairs first?

My fins are the Hollis F1s, which have a more than generous boot pocket.

The suit would require repairs first before I could dive it. The bare minimum for repairs would be a replacement inflator valve, neck seal, and the two blown seams at the armpits fixed.

For the Sport 90X series of drysuit, vulcanized cloth (EPDM over a loose woven nylon I believe?) is sewn together, making about 1/2" of overlap. The Sport 90X is a cheaper series of vulcanized suits, thus, only used a single row of stitching. To prevent the holes from becoming leaks, they laid a special rubber tape over the freshly created seams. You can see the tape at belly level and going around the crotch.

Due to the constant flexing motion of the arms, caused both by use and storage (gravity), the thread at the seam broke, which eventually caused the rubber tape to tear as well.

I will be redoing it with a zigzag of a high tensile strength thread, then going over it with OEM red rubber tape with Viking adhesive.

The inflator valve will be the newer, better style, so I will have to enlarge the hole slightly to accept it.

The neck seal will be the traditional neck seal for now, I might add a latex hood later.

 

[3D diver]

If you're confident of your ability to repair the seams you might consider shortening the arms and legs. I'd be leary of a suit that needs that much work, but it sounds like you know what you're doing.

Good luck

 

[dbulmer]

From looking at the pics I think the suit would be good for someone else - not you. Sorry to be so blunt but having made a mistake in the past with a poor fitting drysuit I can tell you that diving in a badly fitted drysuit is no fun at all and walking away is a good idea.

 

[ajduplessis]

The suit is very large and I would not even consider diving it if I was you.

 

[TSandM]

Well, the shoulders, arms, and torso look a little roomy, but not horrible. The primary problem I see is the legs and the boots. The legs are quite a bit too long. If you are experienced with repairs, why not replace the boots and take a couple of inches out of the legs in the process? I am very afraid of oversized boots, because kicking out of your boots essentially disables you as a diver, and is a very good way to end up in a feet-up uncontrolled ascent (unfortunately, I know this).

Personally, I would not pay anything for a rubber suit (heavy and relatively unfriendly) that needed as much work as this one does.

 

[KD8NPB]

If you're confident of your ability to repair the seams you might consider shortening the arms and legs. I'd be leary of a suit that needs that much work, but it sounds like you know what you're doing.

Good luck

The tears were quite short and wouldn't take that long to repair... However, as a whole, I was looking at maybe 4-8 hours in repairs. Resizing the suit would add another 6-12 hours on to that... It's a royal pain in the ass to release the rubber tape's adhesive without damaging the vulcanization. It's very easy to pull the rubber tape off, and end up pulling the vulcanization up with it, especially near the edges.

From looking at the pics I think the suit would be good for someone else - not you. Sorry to be so blunt but having made a mistake in the past with a poor fitting drysuit I can tell you that diving in a badly fitted drysuit is no fun at all and walking away is a good idea.

Yeah, I'm thinking it would work out quite a bit better if I were about 3" taller! Haha.

The suit is very large and I would not even consider diving it if I was you.

That's precisely why I asked for everyone elses' opinion. Thank you.

Well, the shoulders, arms, and torso look a little roomy, but not horrible. The primary problem I see is the legs and the boots. The legs are quite a bit too long. If you are experienced with repairs, why not replace the boots and take a couple of inches out of the legs in the process? I am very afraid of oversized boots, because kicking out of your boots essentially disables you as a diver, and is a very good way to end up in a feet-up uncontrolled ascent (unfortunately, I know this).

Personally, I would not pay anything for a rubber suit (heavy and relatively unfriendly) that needed as much work as this one does.

I enjoy the aspect of an EPDM suit. They're popular in commercial work because they're extremely rugged, have long service lifespans (I did neck & ankle seals on a 20+ year old Pro HD series Viking), and when they do require repairs, the material is easy to work with.

However, I guess I'm back to looking at a new drysuit again... if that's the case, I will probably not get an rubber suit, due to the monster price increase. I will probably go with the Viking Extreme, which is a bilam.

In the mean time, I guess I'll continue diving wet in a 7mm!

Thanks for the help.