Review Seaskin Nova drysuit

[HeXx]

Those Decathlon 20€ boots are perfect

 

[rob.mwpropane]

Those Decathlon 20€ boots are perfect
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I got really lucky as a dive buddy gave me a set of Altamas. I don't think I could stomach the price if I had to buy, but they are really nice. I don't think they used to be that expensive?

 

[bpodbielski]

Damn! It's finally shipping. Only slight hiccup is the rockboots are out of stock (I had put down techboots and socks instead of rockboots and socks so it's my bad really).

Question: They were going to ship me a Size 12 rockboot, but I'm really a size 10.5 shoe. 12 seems like a lot, in the past Ive used size 10 rockboots without issues. Should I be looking to buy size 10 or 12 rockboots?

What was your original dispatch date? Trying to gauge how much longer I've got to wait since it was supposed to be May 10th

 

[Boarderguy]

What was your original dispatch date? Trying to gauge how much longer I've got to wait since it was supposed to be May 10th

Check your spam folder, the dispatch email may have gone there. You may get the email Monday morning if it hadn't gone out Friday.

 

[bpodbielski]

Check your spam folder, the dispatch email may have gone there. You may get the email Monday morning if it hadn't gone out Friday.

No go in there, but I'll keep an eye out for it on Monday. Thanks!

 

[SteelBeard]

Grateful for all the information in this thread. Put in my order for a Nova. Haven't heard anything at all from Seaskin for 4 days. I know it was over a weekend, waiting is killing me. Got what seemed like all the popular options (all the sitechs, kubis, sox, plastic zip, dir dump, simple neck, PU, 40mm braces, 250 suit, cpu straps) and a few extra seals. Will be diving temps down to below 4 C.

Like reading about how much people have loved theirs. Now for the waiting... waiting... waiting....

 

[FabletheRaven]

What was your original dispatch date? Trying to gauge how much longer I've got to wait since it was supposed to be May 10th

It was May 3. Once they shipped it, it came like the next day.

 

[SteelBeard]

Got my confirmation today with a proposed dispatch of august 2nd! Looks like they are still less than 3 months.

 

[SeaIRL]

I tried 22-24 initially and couldn't hold my stop without being squeezed and it sucked towards the end of my dive. I'd rather carry a bit more weight and be warm/comfy. With an HP 100 and my 150 I use 28 lbs. With the 250 I use 30. Life is good when you're warm.

I am spot on with this amount of weight vs thermals as well. Wearing the Seaskin 250gm thermal requires ~3-4 lbs more weight than with the 150gm thermal.

After I've had many more dives in cold salt water and currents with crazy up/down surges, I've added a fair bit more weight to my setup in order to have more control over my range of buoyancy stability - especially toward the end of dive.

As Boardergeuse mentioned, be sure to add enough weight to have good control over your depth at end of dive safety stop - which is especially difficult if there are currents and upwellings. I was "fine" with less weight in calm waters, but man, trying to hold 15-20ft with a 1000 psi or less (even though using a 117cuft steel tank) in washing machine currents can be scary when configured with marginal neg weight and you've already dumped every bubble from your gear and only breathing 1/4 lung capacity while getting worked over.

 

[SeaIRL]

So my Seaskin saga somewhat related to 80's rockstar latex fit... during a recent trip to northern Vancouver Island, a helping hand from a dive buddy pulled hard on my partially plastic zipper before I had a chance to get the zipper sides/teeth close together - and pulled the car clean through the teeth on one side. Zipper is apparently not serviceable and will need replacement. This while stuffed in the suit wearing the Seaskin 250gm thinsulate layer.

I'll be sending my suit back to Seaskin for repair ( 126BP, 80BP x 2 shipping next day = 386BP total). I'm also going to discuss what can be done to make alterations to the suit for more crotch and shoulder room.

On a side note, I was lucky enough to have booked the God's Pocket trip through Ocean Pro Divers who (Shawn) had brought 1 spare XL Bare drysuit from their rental fleet. Saved by the loaner suit... this on dive day #2 of 5! Then down in Campbell River at Ocean Fix, rented a Bare "NextGen" for one day of diving with them.

I've had a lot of compliments about how well the Seaskin suit looks, but man, it's not like "I told you so" and had dreaded this might be an issue just waiting to happen at some point. Sum total, 9 dives before user/helper error trashed zipper.

This was my first owned plastic zipper, but have used many loaner/rentals with plastic and no issues because those suits were quite baggy in comparison. Should I have Seaskin switch to metal?