Seaquest wetsuit problems?

[drbill]

Since I dive 250-400 dives a year, it is not unusual for me to wear through a wetsuit in a year. I was given a full 7mm Seaquest last spring and have done about 100-150 dives with it. Rips in the neoprene and backing appeared on the inner elbow area of both arms within a month or two. Then last weekend the entire neck seal ripped apart (fortunately just above the seam) when I tried to take the suit off.

Such problems are surprising to me since wear and tear normally doesn't appear that quickly even with my diving frequency. Some of you know my "signature" M&B custom "half shortie" wetsuit... it took 13 years to "age" that one to the point of retirement.

I was wondering if others have had problems with the integrity of the neoprene and fabric in Sequests wetsuits?

Dr. Bill

 

[drbill]

Going to add a second post here. The wetsuit in question is a Seaquest X-Flex with both light and dark blue cloth on the body, legs and arms. As I mentioned above, the neck seal ripped right out with little pressure when I tried to unzip the suit. In my 43 years of diving, I've never had that happen with any wetsuit.

More recently the tears in the elbows and legs of the wetsuit have become significant. They are limited entirely to the light blue fabric. There are no unexpected signs of wear in the dark blue or black fabric. Strange.

About a month ago one of the wetsuit calves literally tore apart (split across the leg). It now exposes about a 7" "slit" on my calf. This split occurred in the light blue cloth.

I'm really curious about the experiences of others with the X-Flex. I know one instructor here has had similar tears appear after only a few dives, although his have occured in the dark blue fabric. Others I've talked to at the Dive Park have mentioned similar problems with their X-Flexs.

Dr. Bill

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

My wife & I each bought a new Seaquest X-flex suit in March 2005 for our trip to Roatan earlier this month. She has a 3/2 mm full suit, black / black cherry, I have a 2 mm shortie, black / dark blue. Neither of us had any problems over the course of our dive week (17 dives each) with our Seaquest X-flex suits. Her suit was worn every dive, I did about 6 dives in my also-new Scubamax 3mm glideskin & superstrech combo full suit (it rained steadily and air temp was in the 70's during the first few days there - needed more warmth above water than in 81 F below - got sunny and 80's rest of the trip), so about 11 dives on my Seaquest X-flex shorty. Both our suits were shipped in March from Seaquest / AL to our LDS, as he didn't have a suit in my wife's size in stock, and had black / charcoal in my size in stock, but not blue. Ours would presumably be fairly 'fresh' suits, maybe, versus earlier production / warehousing, but no way to be sure.

My X-flex shorty has only black & dark blue, no light blue.

My previous AL / US Divers shorty, an 'Aqua Skin' 3/2 mm I purchased at Academy sporting goods store 5 years ago in Texas, finally needed retirement, so I went X-flex with the same colors last month. I expect to get better life from my X-flex since my diving skills have improved in the last 5 years. Time will tell.