Recommendations for a drysuit

[Satrekker]

My goal is to purchase a dry suit and obtain GUE dry suit training before the end of the year. I'm planning on diving the Galapagos, but I'm not sure if it'll be this fall or next. Still, with that goal in mind, I'm now actively looking for something and will pull the trigger if the price is right. Budget: I'd like to keep it under $3,500 or so, but that's not a hard cap.

I'm 5'10", 170lb, fit, and live in the Tampa, FL area. I dive DSS bpw. currently kydex with my hp 100s, but will be ordering a ss plate shortly along with an appropriate wing. As far as dry suit type, I'm leaning more towards trilam, but I'm open to education. The GUE store in High Springs, Extreme Exposure, had some very nice Santi suits, but I'm not at all familiar with the various offerings out there. I did run across a recent promotion by Hollis for their BTR-500 that is ending soon, and that is what prompted this thread. Any thoughts on the BTR-500? It seemed to be about half the price of a Santi with the current sale running thru the end of the month.

Thanks in advance for the feedback, and let me know if you need any more info from me.

 

[divad]

Pull the trigger.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Having only taken GUE fundies, I was not aware of a GUE dry suit class. But anyway.

With that budget, you will surely have a great dry suit that will serve you for years. I had a Santi dry suit loaned to me for one day of my fundies class. It is a very nicely made suit and the collaboration with GUE I think paid off. I really like on the suspenders that it is a sort of overall front that allows keys to be stored, so you can access them easily after a dive. To me, that is a nice touch. The fit on the suit was amazing.

A friend of mine has the BTR-500. I won't say he's incredibly happy with it, but I don't have specifics.

What temperatures do you dive in? What glove system do you want? Dry? Semi-dry? I think that is an important thing to figure out before you make your purchase. I'm very happy with my DUI CLX450 with zipped seals (dry gloves permanently attached). It makes getting in and out a bit harder, they are not cheap, and I recommend getting your hands out first before removing the neck seal (as that is spendy to replace). You may want to look into OMS suits as well (owned by DUI). I personally prefer attached boots as well, but that is another personal preference (you can get air in the feet with attached boots as one downside, but I am used to it, your personal preference may be different).

Pretty much everyone I know how has detachable dry glove systems has to deal with leaking seals once in a while. That isn't fun. Of course, if my zipped seals fail, it would be more catastrophic, but that's why you have a good undergarment.

Speaking of which, the undergarment is also a very important purchase. I find my 4th Element Halo 3D to be warmer than my Santi BZ-400 when dry and when flooded.

Hope this helps.

 

[C Dub]

90% of the GUE crew out here in SoCal dive either a Santi Elite or a DUI FLX Extreme. The other 10% are in random dry suits and saving for a Santi or DUI.

Halcyon in Florida (their shop is Extreme Exposure) distributes and supports/repairs Santi in the USA. That makes a Santi a no brainer since you live there.

I own both a Santi EMotion (in my profile picture), and a Santi Elite. I wish I had gotten the Elite the first time around, and the EMotion is now my backup suit.

 

[Satrekker]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. My primary diving is warm(er) water - Gulf, W. Palm, Keys, Cozumel, Carribean due to where I live. I haven't really caught the spring/cave bug. My preference is large marine life, reefs, occasional wrecks, and hunting. I was thinking dry suit due to Galapagos trip and diving in my wife's native country of Peru. The local PADI shop in LIma, Peru is set up with Scubapro, and they recommend a dry suit for diving, so that's what put me on this path, but I prefer not to go the Scubapro route.

It's been very recently suggested that I could very realistically stick with wet and don't necessarily need to go dry due to where I live and the type of diving that I predominantly do at the moment. I think I'm going to look into the O'Three 6x5 semi-dry. Now if I could find a place to buy one! LOL Please feel free to continue with the suggestions/information. Nothing is written in stone as of this moment, and I don't doubt that sometime in my diving future that I'll want to give more colder climes a try, but I will probably train and then rent dry before buying - at least that's the way I'm leaning now.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

This may be TMI, but I suggest going for a dry suit (sounds like you don't need dry gloves, I'd highly recommend semi-dry ones) for the sake of a P-valve.

 

[Satrekker]

This may be TMI, but I suggest going for a dry suit (sounds like you don't need dry gloves, I'd highly recommend semi-dry ones) for the sake of a P-valve.

Not TMI. It's a valid consideration, and something that I find in favor of a dry suit.

 

[Tbar]

I live in sub-tropical Southern Queensland. So I generally dive a wetsuit.

Last September I snorkeled and dived Galapagos. I was told the water would be average of 17/18 degrees C. That may be true, but it ranged from 21 to 14. For the snorkelling I used a Mares 3,4,5 suit with a larvacore hooded vest. For the initial dives we had 21C with 17C thermos clines and the wetsuit was 'okay' for a couple of dives but to do 4 back-to-back dives I moved to the dry suit. Most on the boat were in 7 and 8 mm suits, hoods and gloves. Only my partner and the DMs were dry, were the only ones to do all the dives. We did get to 14degrees C only 6 out of 16 divers did two dives.

I got the dry suit particularly for the Galapagos trip. I got a good price on a Hollis FX100 Biodry Drysuit, and used Hollis AUG 450 undergarments and I was very comfortable. I swapped the glued in seal (wrist and neck) for Sitech seal systems so if I damaged a seal it could be easily replaced on the boat.

My partner dives a Whites Fusion, worked fine in Galapagos.

I have dive buddies with Santi and DUI, they look good. But you really want a suit that fits well. You need to get a lot of experience with the dry suit before the Galapagos, as you have to do 'negative' entries, and hence need to dump air out of the dry suit very efficiently.

Also, the Galapagos is a bit saltier than other water (I was surprised) and we all carried 'extra' weight, with a dry suit this amounts to a lot of weight. I think I had 7x2Kg weight.

 

[kwinter]

Check out Seaskin in the UK. You can get a custom made-to-fit suit with p-valve and all the bells and whistles including import duty for probably about half of your budget. Definitely less than anything from DUI.

 

[Tbar]

Check out Seaskin in the UK. You can get a custom made-to-fit suit with p-valve and all the bells and whistles including import duty for probably about half of your budget. Definitely less than anything from DUI.

I have a dive buddy with one of their suits and it is great.
I get all may dry-suit bits, Sitech seals, tape, boots from them. Great service and prices.