Review Seaskin Nova drysuit review - ladies' POV

[vickasaurusrex]

Excellent and useful review. I'm in the SF Bay area and just started looking for a new drysuit. I'm not thrilled w/my options. As someone who's a similar size to Vickasaurusrex, I do believe custom is the way to go and the Seaskin is looking more and more appealing.

There is one thing holding me back and Vickasaurusrex touched on it briefly. How do people get their Seaskins serviced w/o running down to Monterey? My preferred LDS will not even do a leak test on it.

I highly recommend working with Peninsula Dive Services in Marina. They provide above-and-beyond service, and pro-actively communicate with their customers. PDS is also one of the few places in NorCal that services Seaskins. If you want to avoid the long drive, they take drysuits by mail.

Peninsula Dive Services

Quality to dive for!

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PDS is where I went when I was troubleshooting a leak. They helped to diagnose my faulty valve by providing pictures and videos of the investigation in real-time, and even offered to back me up if Seaskin pushed back on honoring the warranty (which, thankfully, never happened).

Overall, I'm very happy with my experiences with Peninsula Dive Services and Seaskin.

 

[admikar]

PDS is where I went when I was troubleshooting a leak. They helped to diagnose my faulty valve by providing pictures and videos of the investigation in real-time, and even offered to back me up if Seaskin pushed back on honoring the warranty (which, thankfully, never happened).

AFAIK, they never pushed back if you can show on some really basic level that the fault is not a user error.
IIRC, they will authorise whichever LDS you sent your suit to to do repair and bill them afterwards.

 

[twistypencil]

Go to a tailor and ask them to measure you. Print out the instructions on seaskins website and bring with you.

I'm wanting to do this - but how does that work? Tailors get paid for the alterations, not for the measurements. Should I call one up and ask them to measure me and offer them money to do it?

 

[lexvil]

I'm wanting to do this - but how does that work? Tailors get paid for the alterations, not for the measurements. Should I call one up and ask them to measure me and offer them money to do it?

Ask what they will charge but it’s not difficult to have anyone do it following the guide they provide with the form, follow the form and give honest answers and the suit will fit.

 

[Boarderguy]

I'm wanting to do this - but how does that work? Tailors get paid for the alterations, not for the measurements. Should I call one up and ask them to measure me and offer them money to do it?

Seaskin uses specific measurement criteria. Unless the tailor is willing to spend 20 minutes watching the videos and measuring you, it isn't worth it. Have your SO or a friend do it. I managed to measure myself pretty accurately when compared to having my wife do it.

 

[twistypencil]

Seaskin uses specific measurement criteria. Unless the tailor is willing to spend 20 minutes watching the videos and measuring you, it isn't worth it. Have your SO or a friend do it. I managed to measure myself pretty accurately when compared to having my wife do it.

So when you said have your SO do it, you ended up throwing out your SO's measurements for your own?

 

[Boarderguy]

So when you said have your SO do it, you ended up throwing out your SO's measurements for your own?

No, I used hers. They were consistent across two attempts. Mine were questionable, but close.

 

[admikar]

I already said it in another thread: take multiple measurements, best spread over a week.
Depending on your results and your own lifestyle, you can take the average, or biggest number. I would avoid taking the smallest number, it's easier to deal with slightly baggier suit (difference won't be big anyway) than with suit that might possibly restrict your movement. Whole idea of MTM is to have suit that is tailored for you, not to have second skin.

 

[Grace.Dive]

thanks for sharing the review

 

[vickasaurusrex]

Thanks for the review! I have a very similarly specced Seaskin (minus the elbow, shoulder, and bottom reinforcement), and it has served me very well. I also got mine with the extra fabric allotment for very thick undergarments (e.g., Weezle extreme plus) and the expedition pockets which are wonderfully large. I run on the very cold side, and am regularly using my Seaskin 250 with a heated vest or a Weezle Extreme Plus undersuit without the heated vest in San Diego, CA waters (recent temperatures ~48-52 degrees). Just adding another data point for the cold-blooded petite divers out there. Happy diving!

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Which heated vest do you use and/or recommend with your SeaSkin? I'm considering one.