Wetsuit Opinions

[CapeUW]

I have a small dive shop and am currently looking for a new line of wetsuits to carry. They all look great on display and in the catalogs, but I am looking for opinions/suggestions from people who are diving the suits as to what would be a good (great?) wetsuit to carry for my customers. Any feedback here is greatly appreciated, pro's, con's, likes, dislikes. I am in New England and our divers generally use 7mm suits.

 

[kanonfodr]

Give these folks a call and see if you can become an ordering point for them: nothing like a custom wetsuit for cold water.

Otterbaysuits.com Homepage

Peace,
Greg

 

[myscubastory.com]

All i can say is if getting dry suits try avoiid neoprene for beginner courses. As a OW student once upon a time in Vancouver i had one and they are relatively less comfy and manoeuvrable than shell dry suits!


Regards, myscubastory.com

check out the new user submitted divng story website! go to myscubastory.com

 

[cloudflint]

I can definitely suggest pinnacle suits, I dive a pinnacle polar and its kept me warm all through the scottish winters and is hard as nails

 

[giles45shop]

Seems like everyone will have a differnt opinion, so good luck on a consesus. Although Pinnacle suits are nice, be aware that they are undergoing some kind of company re-org so I would be a little cautious about that.

I would suggest looking at Bare wetsuits. They have a pretty wide range of available sizes, which is nice to have. Their suits are very well made and long lasting and seem to be at a reasonable price point.

The Bare 7mm Artic is a great suit. I have one of these and a 5/4 Bare Velocity that have a lot of dives on them and still going strong.

John

 

[Jax]

I have Bare, Henderson, and Pinnacle. The Bare stand up better than the others, by a large margin.

 

[NightForce]

As a business owner I would try and figure out if the local divers in my area had a brand name preference. I would want to try to please the buying habits of my most likely clientele. Some people get used to a certain brand for what ever reason maybe they trained in that brand etc... and it is sometimes hard to move them away from that brand. After researching whether or not brand was important for your region I would then see if price point was an issue or not.

 

[dmcutter]

I'm a newb so take this for what it's worth...I have an Aqualung SolaFX 8 mm semidry. I'm pretty muscular and have a hard time with a lot of size L suits, especially getting them on over my legs, but this suit is super stretchy and goes on like a charm. Coldest water i've had it in was last Saturday at 51 F, but I was at least as warm as i was in a 2 mm shorty in 82 F water in Aruba.

 

[fnfalman]

I haven't used an off-the-shelf wetsuit since finishing OW course, but when I was in the course, I used a Bare suit and it was OK. Bare suits tend to be cheaper too, so that's nice for those who are not as fortunate with their fun funds.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

I have two Waterproof brand suits (3mm and 5mm full suits). They are a Swedish company. The suits seem to be very well constructed and to have some nice features (inner cuffs to go inside booties; mini-zipper on front of neck to ease between dives, etc).

The main thing I love about them is that - because they come in a huge range of sizes - I was actually able to find one that fit me. Most other off-the-rack suits don't do that (in fact none that I have tried).

One thing that might be a slight disadvantage is that they have a fuzzy type liner. I think this may contribute to warmth, and it certainly wears well (I have seen some inner coatings on other suits wear through), but I think it takes a bit longer to dry between dives and before heading home from a trip.

They used to have some fairly goofy looking colored panels (Power Ranger anyone?) (yes, I have these...); but I see the new suits they are coming out with are mostly black with just some color accents.

Blue Sparkle