Wolfie2012
Contributor
Well, my suit finally got here yesterday! I have been quite excited about it so haven't gotten any pictures yet. Overall I love the suit. The material is sturdy and the suit seems to be very well put together. Ultimately the fit seems very good, and the package came with everything you'd expect in a custom drysuit package (suit, thermals, bag, talc, wax, hoses, cath, etc). Over the past few weeks USIA (or, more specifically Jerry here on the boards) has been extremely helpful in alleviating some of my impatience in receiving the suit. Since I have no local USIA dealer, it made things much smoother to have somebody to contact with questions, concerns, or whatever. I applaude their customer service.
Anyway, the lowdown. I was concerned about the fit initially because the legs seemed to be really poofy with the exo 2 thermals underneath (think rennaissance guy with really poofy knickers). Was sweating perfusely in my house so took off the thermals and put the suit back on, dumped all the air and it looked and felt much better. I expect I may have just been uncomfortable in all the fleece, had only the suspenders up and not the whole torso, and hadn't dumped the air when I got that initial impression... so, not a suit problem but a stupid user issue
Other than that, hmm. The socks are a little longer on my foot than I expected, but not all too uncomfortable. Oh, and while not relevant to the quality of the suit, my boots are friggin huge. Why-o-why did I have to have such monster feet?? Size 12 normal shoes equated to size 14 all-terrain boots. I think I could fit my 8 yr old daughter inside one of them.
There was one small spot in the seam under the lower part of the zipper that has some glue pulling at one of the seam corners. It seems to be in a higher stress area of the suit (at least when getting into the suit) so I don't know if that is normal or not, but it doesn't seem to be any concern right now. I'll have to take a picture to give a clearer indication of what I mean.
As part of the package I got 2 of the removable zippered pockets. There were no instructions on how to install them on the suit, but other than the orientation of the straps, they are pretty intuitive. I placed the connection points of the 4 straps on the inside rather than outside of the pocket area(look carefully at the pockets on the pictures in this thread and you'll see a thicker plastic piece sticking up - that's where the strap locks back into itself). There are 4 connecting straps per pocket. It made it a little more difficult to get the pocket attached with the connectors on the inside, but I think it hides it better.
Self don/doff is extremely easy. Getting my arms out by myself was minimally tricky the first time, but just took a bit of finesse that got easier the second time I did it.
Not much else I can comment on since I haven't gotten it wet yet. Assuming the new fins I have coming fit my frankenstein feet, I should be doing just that on Sunday and will take some pictures.
Until then...
Anyway, the lowdown. I was concerned about the fit initially because the legs seemed to be really poofy with the exo 2 thermals underneath (think rennaissance guy with really poofy knickers). Was sweating perfusely in my house so took off the thermals and put the suit back on, dumped all the air and it looked and felt much better. I expect I may have just been uncomfortable in all the fleece, had only the suspenders up and not the whole torso, and hadn't dumped the air when I got that initial impression... so, not a suit problem but a stupid user issue
Other than that, hmm. The socks are a little longer on my foot than I expected, but not all too uncomfortable. Oh, and while not relevant to the quality of the suit, my boots are friggin huge. Why-o-why did I have to have such monster feet?? Size 12 normal shoes equated to size 14 all-terrain boots. I think I could fit my 8 yr old daughter inside one of them.
There was one small spot in the seam under the lower part of the zipper that has some glue pulling at one of the seam corners. It seems to be in a higher stress area of the suit (at least when getting into the suit) so I don't know if that is normal or not, but it doesn't seem to be any concern right now. I'll have to take a picture to give a clearer indication of what I mean.
As part of the package I got 2 of the removable zippered pockets. There were no instructions on how to install them on the suit, but other than the orientation of the straps, they are pretty intuitive. I placed the connection points of the 4 straps on the inside rather than outside of the pocket area(look carefully at the pockets on the pictures in this thread and you'll see a thicker plastic piece sticking up - that's where the strap locks back into itself). There are 4 connecting straps per pocket. It made it a little more difficult to get the pocket attached with the connectors on the inside, but I think it hides it better.
Self don/doff is extremely easy. Getting my arms out by myself was minimally tricky the first time, but just took a bit of finesse that got easier the second time I did it.
Not much else I can comment on since I haven't gotten it wet yet. Assuming the new fins I have coming fit my frankenstein feet, I should be doing just that on Sunday and will take some pictures.
Until then...
