Seaskin Nova with Neoprene socks... Altama Maritime Assault users please chime in!

[davecampbell]

Hello all, I have a question for anyone using the Altama maritime assault mids with their Nova neoprene socks. (or really over any drysuit with a compressed neoprene sock...i think?) My wife and I have just received our new Novas (with socks) and are looking to order the Altamas as our footwear option. Since Ontario, Canada is still in the midst of a Draconian lockdown, in person sizing while wearing the suit, with undergarments and socks, is basically impossible. It'll have to be an online order. Can anyone offer some insight into how many sizes up they went when in this configuration? We can order regular or wide, in whole sizes here in Canada, we're leaning wide for sure, and thinking 2 sizes up from our regular size. We dive cold water here in the Great Lakes region, so will be wearing merino socks with the 250gm undersuits. Returns are possible, and so is ordering multiple sizes, but it adds to the expense and aggravation, and isn't efficient. It would be nice to have our "guess" be at the very least, an educated one... thanks

 

[-JD-]

I have Altama MA-Ms for both travel/warm/wet diving and for dry diving with my Fusion suit (which uses a fabric sock not a compressed neo - so you need to take that into account

I am typically a 9ish shoe, running 8.5-9.5 depending on the specific item (most typically a 8.5 or 9 unless I'm getting a winter or hiking boor for use with heavy socks) and have wide-ish feet. Rarely do I have the practical option of a true wide cut and my feet are fairly square at the toes, so the variation is surely driven in part by that.

MA-Ms have a fairly rounded toe box so add that into your considerations.

My Travel/wet MA-Ms are 9W and seem to be accurate in size and comfortably wide. They are new so I can't give an in the field report for these.

With the Fusion, dry I wear 10.5Ws (+1.5) with medium-heavy wool hiking socks. I could probably just cram a 2-3mm neosock in there too but it would probably be a bit tight, at least until the boot stretches a bit. One limiting factor is that the Fusion socks are thin, but huge, so the fabric is bunched or folded, consuming more space than the thickness would imply. Are your drysuit socks snug or floppy over the wool socks?

I got mine through LA Police Gear LAPG.com. They can be a pain to deal with on the Altamas as they drop-ship from the manufacturer and will auto-cancel an item if the exact spec. isn't immediately available. On the other hand they run 20-25% off sales on them every few months and offer standard/wide-.5/full sizing in all of the colors. No idea how that would work out for Canadian destinations, though.

 

[RMcIntosh]

Give Diveworld in Toronto a call. They stock them in a low cut and high top style. They might even let you try them on.

Altama Maritime Assault Mid - Dive World

 

[davecampbell]

just an update in case anyone else needs the info, and because I hate it when people dont report back...
I ended up going with an 11 wide, (2+ sizes from my normal) and the fit is good with heavy merino socks, the 250gm undergarments, and the compressed neoprene socks on the suit. I'm pretty sure there is enough room to reasonably comfortably add the 150 gm over socks if I wanted. Also ended up with XXL jetfins to accommodate the 11 wides.

* my wife, who wears a women's 7 shoe, went with the altamas in a men's 7 wide with the same undergarments/socks as I used. she's in an xl jetfin. The set of large jetfins we have kicking around wouldn't go on the 7s.