Issues/Stories of Lobster Hunting with Drysuit

[ryantanaka]

Hi all,

I have just purchased a new trilam drysuit (yay) and have a question for you all.

I enjoy hunting lobster here in so cal and have been doing so for a few years in a 7mm. But with my cozy new drysuit, I am considering using it for hunting as well.

I read the past posts about potential for puncture due to urchins/spines, but thought I would ask again for opinions (positive or negative) and maybe even a horror story or two about issues lobster hunting in my new drysuit.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[RonFrank]

Trilam drysuits are rather tough, but certainly not impervious to puncture. I'd suggest that you not subject it to spines or sharp objects of any kind!

 

[moregooder]

I hunt them around Catalina island, have a Diving Concepts 2mm compressed neoprene drysuit. have used both my dry gloves or my wrist seals with wet hands and heavy duty leather welding gloves, dry gloves under extra large welding gloves are the way to go, the leather gauntlet of the glove goes back far enough that it covers the wrist ring and protects the suit from abrasions when I go in after them. have 302 dives on this suit

 

[NZConstantdiver]

I dive for lobster here in NZ almost weekly. Wear an old 7mm drysuit I got online used. Has neoprene cuffs (not latex). I never use a tool or hook and don't think twice about going into holes up to my shoulder and working out a cray (crayfish in NZ not lobster). I catch a lot of them each year and wear a pair of leather gloves. Gloves don't hold up for long under this abuse.
Anyway I am pleased to say the suit is super durable and is just starting to show significant wear around the wrists/lower arms. I think new fabrics will be even better and you should just grab those babies and see how it goes. I am told trilam is easy to patch if the experiment fails?

 

[ryantanaka]

Thanks to everyone for your inputs. Happy to say I've been on about 8 dry lobster dives now and so far so good. Bought a Whites Fusion and as everyone's been reporting - the thing is pretty tough. Seals look fine and I've been digging in trying to catch those bugs before the end of the season.

And it's oh so nice getting out of the water and being dry....

 

[Killer&Griller]

If nothing else, make sure you have a temp repair kit with you so your day isn't over if you do get a small puncture. Good luck