Newbie researching wet suits

[LowDrag]

I have a couple of questions about wet suits. I stopped in at my LDS today where I am going to certify in January and asked about wet suits. Costs, type to get, how long they last and so on. The shop owner said that I should replace my wet suit every 2-3 years. My wife about had a coronary seeing as she is getting her cert also.
So here is my question. Do you, fellow divers find that as recreational divers have to replace your suits every 2-3 years or do they last much longer? I will probably not being doing 100+ or even 50+ dives per yer but I still can't get my head wrapped around a new wet suit every couple of years. The suits I have looked at so far seem like they would last much longer if well taken care of.
Another question I have is about buying a wet suit on line. I was reading the thread -

New Wet Suit... Any Recommendations?​

- about the WaterProof Mens W1 wet suit. I looked at the companies website and I like the look and build of the suit but all I could find was the W2 in 7mm. I will be diving cold water mostly. So, back on track. How does someone like me who has never bought a wet suit before go about buying one online? The W2 came in at a bout $316 and the suits at the LDS are 400+. The W2 looks to me to be very similar to the SCubaPro SemiDry suit that runs about 700+ but built quite a bit more sturdy.
Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone.

 

[farsidefan1]

2 questions come to mind. 1- Where and when are you going to be diving? 2- Does your physique lend itself to of the rack wetsuits or do you need a custom job? I dive in warm tropical waters and have gotten by just wearing a wet shirt (which is still doing fine after 4 years with minimal maintenance). That has worked ok for me as the only time I've been cold water diving was in the red sea and most here will laugh at my describing 77 degrees as cold but whatever. Since sometimes I find myself shivering after a few days of multiple dives I have been looking at a wetsuit. My physique lends itself to a custom job so I have looked at a custom fit shorty wetsuit (liquid fit just over $300). If you are going to be diving in the northwest I'd suggest a drysuit. If in the warm tropics... depends on your vulnerability. I see some folks wearing no wetsuit protection at all. I didn't get my top till after the red sea dive trip. Prior to that, just a t shirt. I think the only place that suggests replacing a wetsuit every couple of yrs is a shop that sells them.

 

[LowDrag]

I wouldn't know how to answer the question about off the rack or custom suit fit on my physique. I am 6' 1 1/2" tall, I weigh it at about 245ish a little more on the ish side. If I was to drop about 20-25 lbs I would be a little tighter in the mid section everything else is in pretty decent shape. I would not mind a dry suit but if the replacing every few years thing is accurate then I am not going to go into the dry suit realm. That would be insane IMO. As for the diving I will be doing. I will be diving here in Oregon on the coast or rivers/lakes and in Washington it will depend on what I can get setup. My open water dive requirements will be taken care of at Hoodsport.

 

[Nwcid]

Me and the GF are new PNW divers too. We are using 7mm full suites with 7mm outers (step in vests). I found a Bare on CL that still had the tags on it for $300. The GF after some online shopping found hers for about $300 as well. I have not heard of any specific life span on wet suites but after a certain amount of compression cycles it will lose thickness meaning it will lose some of its "warming" properties.

Your build sounds about like mine and I wear and XLT in the Bare.

I am sure other sites do to but I know http://www.leisurepro.com/ has a great buy/try/exchange program.

Here in the PNW you will be lucky to find water temps above 60* F from what I have found. From what I have heard the sound tends to average around 50* F all year.

We did our dive classes in the Spokane area this fall. We made 2 days of diving in the Columbia River since it is just a few minutes from the house right before the snow hit. Our next planned dives are going to be a Hoodsport in Jan with a LDS group.

 

[Deep South Divers]

Your LDS is right... Wetsuits need to be replaced more often than you think.

It's not a "time," thing, though... It's a "number of dives" thing. The constant pressure of being submerged crushes the neoprene down over time, and they lose their ability to insulate properly. I find that I need to replace mine every 50 to 100 dives.

For me, that's every 3 months or so. For the average diver, it makes sense that that would be every couple of years.

Get over it. Spending a couple hundred bucks every few years will be the least expense in diving.

The best way I know to make a suit last is to rinse it well after every dive and hang it on a WETSUIT hangar. Allow to dry, then store it in a closet in your house, not outside or in a shed. Keep wetsuits away from electric motors like what you find in washers, dryers, refrigerators, etc. Electric motors produce ozone, which can break down neoprene over time.

Super-stretchy neoprene is more comfortable, but doesn't last as long as the stuff that's not as stretchy. The stretchy stuff tends to compress more at depth, too, meaning it's not as warm. Your call for the best compromise.

My favorite compromise and fit combination is O'Neill's line of "Sector" dive suits. O'Neill is the most anatomically correct suit I know of, and on a hangar, it's clear why... They are simply cut better and promise a better fit, with almost no straight seams. Like the curved seams on a basketball or baseball, this fits the diver's curves better and so they can get a fantastic fit without having to use as much of the "stretchy" neoprene. The result is the longest-lasting, most comfortable suit I know of.

Your LDS will probably tell you that he, too, loves O'Neills, but they're hard to get and rarely offered at dive shops. I buy mine from the largest O'Neill dealer on the East Coast, Austin's Dive Center in Miami, FL. Your LDS will not be happy about losing your business to them based on an internet post.

 

[LowDrag]

Hey NWcid...thanks for the reply. The bare has been recommended to me as well. I had never heard that about suit replacement frequency before yesterday and the though had never even crossed my mind about the neoprene compressing. Good luck on your dives in Hoodsport in January, maybe we will see you there. Our dive class will be going up the weekend of the 20th - 22nd.



Deep South Divers...also thanks for the reply and the info. There is definitely some good info there to keep in mind.

 

[gmanstan]

I'm 6'2" 215-220 lb.s and I've found the 9/7/6 Excel keeps me pretty warm.Its a semi-dry I find that my upper body is still dry after diving. I've got over 100 dives on it and it still keeps me warm down to 46º I do tend to feel the cold when its below that. When shopping for suits its important to find one that fits your physique.I ordered 3 suits(different brands) at a time from scuba.com as well as going to several LDS's until I found a manufacture that cut their suit to fit my particular build. A lot of suits are very large in the waist when you need a large chest size. But every companies cut different.
I would suggest having your wife around while trying on suits, being trapped in some very tight neoprene in a warm house could be hazardous I know when I was trying them on at home I had a few anxious moments....

 

[SeaCobra]

I am looking for a wetsuit myself and am leaning towards the new Hollis semidry. Looks well made, has the hood attached as well as pockets. Has anyone else looked at this one?

 

[oly5050user]

You should be able to get a decent quality 7mm wet suit for les than $300. For your size though I would suggest a suit with alot of stretch such as a henderson aqualock.More expensive but just try one at your lds and you will see the difference. Buy it at the LDS where you try it on.
As for replacing suits,its how many dives its been on,not necessarily just age.Better made suits generally last longer.I get 200/300 dives out of a suit before it starts to become inefficient in keeping me warm.May still look at but thermal characteristics are reduced.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I received a PM from the OP to address this question. As I also mostly dive in cooler to cold water here in the Northeast I'm going to go in the direction I went when deciding on exposure protection. I first started off with a 3 mil from ebay since the training lake we were using at the time of my certification was heated. Temps in August were 85-90 and that was in the water from top to bottom at 120 feet. For 2 months I never was in water cooler than that. But we had a trip planned to the florida springs and before that some cooler water locally to do. So I ordered a BARE velocity 5/4 on line. That was in 2004. I still have that suit and it's in good shape with a good number of dives on it and I also use it for some students as a rental. It was a closeout and I paid 150 bucks for it. In the meantime knowing the springs trip was coming and that I tended to get cold I ordered a drysuit. Semi - custom OS Systems HD Pro package with undergarments. 1600 bucks at the time. Once it came in I decided to use it on more dives than the wetsuits because it was warmer, allowed me to stay in the water longer, and when I was done all I needed to do was towel dry my hair and take off the suit and drive home in the undergarments! Sweet.

The OP is in the PNW. Cold water, Cold air temps. I personally would not even consider diving wet. But that's just me. As an instructor I'm usually the first one in and the last one out and may have to do an extra dive to retrieve the flag. That requires agreat deal of in water time and I need to be sharp and standing there shivering does not loan itself to that.

In the long run for me a dry suit was more cost effective and made more sense. WHile the BARE 5 mil fit me well going for a 7mil would have meant custom there just to guarantee a good fit. I had the option of Harvey's at the time and once we were done with the measurements I was looking at 600+ for a wet suit that "should" last me a few years. Depending on how many dives, care, etc. A good drysuit with proper care can last 10 -15 years or more. Seal replacement every couple years (100 bucks maybe), small patches, etc were a small inconvenience compared to the benefits of diving dry in cold water. My first suit lasted me 5 years with total maint cost of 140 bucks before I gained weight (the suit did not shrink even though I sometimes claim that) and needed/wanted something new. A 5 year old wet suit will maybe bring around 20 bucks to the person you want to take it off your hands if you can find someone to take it.

My 5 year old drysuit was sold for $625 and I kept the undergarments (say 300 there)!

Had I not needed/wanted a new suit it could have easily lasted me another 10 years. My OW instructor has been diving his same one for 12 (same model).

Some wetsuits may need replaced every couple years if you do lots of dives, have rough entries that tale a toll on knees, butts, elbows if you dive surf. Drysuits are generally made tougher and will take more use. And due to their cost we tend to pay more attention to their care. If I broke it down that way the 7mm custom suit I'd need to replace every 3 years over 15 years would cost me $3000 or $200 a year. The $1600 drysuit over 15 years even with say 400 in seals etc(cheaper than that if I did them myself) is $133 a year but after the initial purchase I'm not spending 600 every 3. That's 600 I can put to other uses. And I'm warmer, dry, and therefore more comfortable and in the long run safer with a drysuit if I;m going to be diving cold water.

Drysuit fit is critical but not as critical as a wetsuit. You can take measurements and be a little fudgy with them to account for weight gain/loss, different undergarments (I took measurements for my new one with my thickest undies on since you shrink wrap yourself anyway), and how much give you want in it.

I now dive a HOG Predator suit and thanks to the telescoping torso was able to get a stock size. Less than my OS Suit (and in the interest of honesty I did get keyman pricing on it) but for me a better suit. It fits better, the pockets are better, and it's easier to get in an out of. The size chart was accurate and made ordering a snap. I now sell them and have one coming in for a customer this week. But even with that I would never go wet if the conditions called for more than a 5 mil. For me it would not make sense. If someone were to tell me that they planned to dive locally here on rare occaisions when the water was at it's warmest and the rest in the Caribbean I'd not advise they go dry. But if like me, and it sounds also like the OP, they really like local diving and don't have the time or money to head south often I'd say skip that first trip and buy a drysuit. By doing that they can get 100 + dives a year vs 25-30 and their season effectively never ends with a drysuit then go for it. Drysuits for coldwater divers in my opinion are not just a convenience they are a piece of safety equipment I would rather have than not. Hypothermia in these regions is very possible and a serious threat. Heat loss is cumulative and over the course of a weekend can make for some pretty miserable experiences as well as dangerous one.

With proper instruction drysuits are not hard for new divers to make effective and safe use of. If I sell a drysuit locally I include the SEI drysuit class for $35. That is what processing of the cert costs me. For my customers not local I offer free shipping and will try to locate an instructor or mentor if they ask me to. The one I have coming in now is for an experienced drysuit diver so that is not an issue. The OP is in the PNW and if he were to buy a suit from me I'd refer him to Bob Bailey, NW Grateful Diver here, or Peter Guy to get training from. I know he'd get quality training at a reasonable cost from people who teach real world use of the suit like I do.

And he would not need to spend 1600 bucks for a HOG suit ($1325) or if he's not doing caves and serious wreck penetration the Edge suit would be fine and that I can sell for around 850. A that price it's not much more than a custom 7 mil and far more versatile and WARMER as well as DRY.