Recomendations for a DRY suit

[Ulfhedinn]

I currently dive a 7mm in So Cal waters. Thats fine tell I get down to around 65' and hit the thermocline. Im looking for a trilaminate that can take a little bit of a beating as I would like to be able to use for wreck pen. Reasonable price with the ability to add a pee valve would be nice. Perfer all black no need for flashy colors

Also I hear that some companys will do a custom measurement or is that all companys? Seems like a better deal considering it should fit like a glove.

Do most brands utilize the gators concept that dive rite has? Seems pretty nifty.

Will be wearing all or combination of this:
Fourth Element Xerotherm Arctic Socks
Fourth Element Xerotherm Arctic Leggings
Fourth Element Xerotherm Arctic Top
Fourth Element Arctic Mens 3-Piece Set

 

[Dsix36]

From personal experience:

Dive Rite 905 was nothing but semi-dry with constant leaks and seam failures.

Pinnacle was so stiff that it was like wearing a cardboard suit.

DUI are fine and you pay extra for the name. Receiving some complaints on quality recently.

Santi is my favorite. I have not found anything bad about it yet except that it is not cheap.

 

[mdb]

http://www.scubagearreports.com/
has a recent test, just another option to consider.

 

[ajduplessis]

Santi's are very good. I have a SP Fjord HD (heavy duty), very durable and works great. DUI also get great reviews, but as mentioned costly and some guys are complaining about quality. Hopefully someone will give some feedback on Whites, I don't know the brand and not sure if they make a heavy duty suit?

 

[Ulfhedinn]

I know they are not trilaminate but I have to admit Im really like the look of the Whites Fusion Bullet Drysuit.

 

[ScubaSam]

I've dived the Whites, Bares and Santi. I own a DUI which I love and it does not leak. I had a chance to demo a Santi E-Lite several weeks ago, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd buy a Santi.

 

[TSandM]

I love my Whites Fusion. I'm on my second suit (only because I got a screaming deal on the second one, which made doing the zipper replacement and upgrades on the old one not make much sense) and both have been reliably dry. I got about 450 dives on the first one, including a fair amount of cave diving that involved crawling around on limestone, as well as a fair number of SoCal dives involving floundering on my knees on dive decks. The suit just didn't leak.

Another contender, if you really intend to do a lot of wreck pen, would be the Bare compressed neo suit. They're pretty bulletproof. The Bare NexGen gets good reviews as well, but we don't own one. My husband has the compressed neo and loves it.

 

[ppo2_diver]

I love my DUI TLS350. I've owned two of the them with no issues. I have dove Whites, Bare and Diving Concepts. None of them compare to DUI in my opinion.

 

[jenth]

I've been diving a Fusion here in SoCal for over 2 years now. Roughly 200 dives on it, shore entries, rocky beach entries, kneeling on swim steps...lots of abuse and the suit doesn't leak. The only thing that really has caused it to leak is the exhaust valve (I seem to get sand in it when I go through rough surf)...which could potentially leak on any drysuit. Another dive buddy of mine also has a Fusion and his doesn't seem to leak either. His wife has a leaky DUI TLS and is considering a Fusion.

I haven't dived any other drysuit, so I can't compare...but I'm very happy with my Fusion.

 

[Tigerman]

Ill go against the ones loving DUI here..
I used a DUI suit myself while waiting for my BARE suit. The DUI was very comfortable both above and under water, but it did not keep me dry, unlike my less comfortable on the surface BARE suit.