Tight neck

[Tooth99]

Hello

Just getting back into diving after about three decades off. Took the refresher courses, and now accumulating gear. Biggest hang up has been wetsuit sizing. I'm short, but athletically built. Aqualung/ Apeks stuff is super tight on the neck and chest. Waterproof is better, but not great. XXL waterproof 5mm is good in the chest, just ok in the neck, but baggy in the gut and butt. XL 7mm waterproof seems to fit very good, but a little tight in the chest, and super tight in the neck. XL-XXL are all 17" neck! WTF. Sort of off topic, but with equipped weightlifting we wear "lifting suits". Interesting enough, they aren't created for athletic builds either, so if the thigh fits, the gut will be loose. One way around this is to stretch the suit by putting basketballs in the thighs, inflating them a bit, and leaving it for a day or two. Would this work with the neck of a wetsuit? If it turns out I do allot of diving, I'll just get a custom suit, but I'm not sure how much I'll dive given I haven't done it in so long.

Anyplace tailor suits?

Thanks for any advice.
Tooth

 

[scubadada]

My wife has a 3 mm Henderson full suit that fit her extremely well except for a tight neck that bothered her. She ended up putting in a couple of small slits in the neck. That was several years ago, no complaints since.

 

[NauticalNick]

I have a proteus wetsuit which is somewhat known for its tight neck given the semi-dry-ish nature of the suit and people have suggested stretching out the neck with buckets if it's too tight. Wouldn't suggest cutting the material as that may let in more water or start to tear further down the road.

 

[gmerick]

Had same problem, Now have 2 wet suits from XSScuba in 4XL. My build: 6'1", 21" neck, 52" chest, 34" waist. Both suits are still a bit snug in neck, OK chest. Waist has a baggy fold, OK thighs.

 

[MidOH]

Us big and strong types, need custom drysuits for anything warmer than 3mm. Just the way it is. Thin wetsuits seem to stretch ok. Or just cut the neck off.

If you're warmer water only, I guess you could track down someone that'll make a custom wetsuit. I havent seen such a thing yet.