First Drysuit; advice?

[_Ishmael_]

Hi everybody! I'm picking out my first drysuit and, like many, I'm trying to find that sweet spot where quality and price meet to produce something dependable that is not unreasonably expensive.

I think I'm going to pick up a Mobby's NeoDry. From what I've read, it looks like this will be a less bulky/more manageable suit (than a trilam) and that it should have pretty straightforward maintenance. It won't give me the range of a trilam suit but it should work for me to dive along the whole US Pacific coast and anything warmer than that I'll be using a wetsuit anyways. The suit is "high-density" neoprene and I'm not sure where that falls on the spectrum of "normal," "compressed," "hyper-compressed," and "crushed."

I've read the drying time is longer for neoprene drysuits but that's really not even a secondary concern to me, my current wetsuit just dries out in the back of the truck on my drive home.

I just figured I'd throw this out there and see if anyone has any good advice, strong opinions, or first-hand experience that they would like to share before I take the plunge and write the check.

Thanks

 

[Bubblesong]

I bought the PADI book for the DRYSUIT course, although I have not signed up for course yet. That book is great for technical information on different types of suits.

 

[_Ishmael_]

thanks, I'll see if I can't round up a copy of that someplace. until now I had no idea there were so many categories of drysuits. I knew there were different styles and what-have-you but I didn't realize there were several types of neoprene etc.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

We are the leader in drysuit sales and repairs in the country. If you want, give me a call and we can go over all the suits out there, and get you to the best one to fit your needs. As you said, there are a LOT, I'm more than happy to help you sort thru what's out there, and figure out what fits your needs the best.

Mike
815-267-8400

 

[Marie13]

Mike at DRIS won't steer you wrong.

 

[KevinNM]

Get personally measured by someone who measures a lot of people for that brand of drysuits and has a bunch of satisfied customers. If it doesn't fit life will suck, no matter what kind of spectacular price you got. It's worth spending some time and money on getting properly measured rather then find out you didn't really understand the directions for how to measure when you get you multi-thousand dollar drysuit that doesn't quite fit.

 

[runsongas]

wait till black friday and see if there are deals to be had on a USIA suit. last year DRIS was running USIA techniflex suits for a grand.

 

[Marie13]

I got a that same USIA suit mentioned above about three weeks ago and love it. I did a thread with a review.

 

[stuartv]

I have a crushed neoprene suit (my first drysuit - a Bare XCS2 Tech) and a (breathable) quad-lam suit (Waterproof D9X) which I have now done 7 dives in.

I will not be going back to any type of neoprene unless I just have to. I especially would not use any neo except crushed neo. Why deal with buoyancy loss from neoprene compression when diving dry?

I would definitely NOT say that neoprene is less bulky/more manageable than a tri-lam. I would say the opposite, in fact.

When I got my crushed neo suit, one of the things I thought, after much reading on here, was that it would be better for managing the bubble inside the suit. Because it fits more snugly than a telescoping torso tri-lam. After diving my D9X a few times now, I think just the opposite. It seems like the "bag suit" actually fits me more snugly once I get in the water, because the water compresses it more to be more form-fitting. So far, I feel like the D9X is easier to manage the air inside versus my crushed neoprene suit.

And the bag suit gives me much easier ranger of motion and flexibility. The crushed neo suit let me reach my tank valves just fine when only wearing a t-shirt and shorts underneath. But, in full cold water undies, the neo binds up around my shoulders and makes it hard to reach. If it were bigger to make it easy with full cold water undies, then I think it would be too loose, which would mean that it would have even more air running around the inside making it hard to manage.

When I only had the neo suit, I only wore it when it was too cold to be comfortable in my 7mm suit. Now, with the D9X, I will only be diving wet when I'm using a single tank and it's warm enough to dive in a 3mm. I dove NC a couple of weeks ago. The water was 79 on the bottom and I was totally comfortable in the D9X with just shorts and a t-shirt underneath. This past weekend, I was in the quarry where it was 37 on the bottom. I was in the same suit with Fourth Element Arctic undies on and also totally comfy.

Since you are in the U.S., I would TOTALLY recommend calling Dive Right In Scuba and looking at a USIA Techniflex. You can get a fully-optioned, made-to-your-measurements Techniflex (stretch tri-lam, I believe) suit for something like $1500, I think. A suit that is made in the USA. And ordering it from DRiS means you will get customer service that will not be beaten by anyone.

For the record, the reason I got my D9X instead of a Techniflex is that I found it used, with one dive on it, for half what a new Techniflex would cost. And it happens to fit me perfectly.

Last thought: I would get neoprene socks, instead of attached boots. There are lots of opinions in both directions on that. But, both my suits have attached boots and I'm planning to send the D9X off to DRiS for some enhancements, including replacing the boots with neo socks. Neo socks means you can wear thin socks when the water is not so cold and really thick socks when the water is really cold, and the socks will still fit well. With my suits, I can wear a single, thin sock in warmer water and the boots are bit loose, or I can wear a double layer of thick socks for really long, cold dives, and the boots are a bit too tight. For me, I think Neo socks and a couple of pairs of Chuck Taylors in different sizes will let me be "Juuuust RIght" all the time.

 

[Marie13]

OP, I see you're in Oregon. USIA is based in your state.