what drysuit would you choose

[j.doe]

Hey Guys

My wife is looking at doing some more cold water diving with me this winter. what drysuit does everyone like best?

I am looking for something that is easy to slip on and off - probably the kind with internal suspenders but hey I am open.

let me know.

Thanks

 

[Ed L.]

Loaded question with a ton of answers!

My view? Women have to a pee a lot. Something that she can get into and out of real easy!

 

[Cap335]

Whites Fusion

 

[Dr Wu]

what drysuit does everyone like best?

Simple. All and none of them.

I am looking for something that is easy to slip on and off

Oh...

In that case you want none of them.

 

[sfdiver140]

White fusion for sure

 

[Thalassamania]

First, let me warn you, there are few issues in diving that have more opinions backed by less data that dry suit selection. I doubt if there are more than a few divers on the board here who have, long term, dove more than one or at most two different designs of suit. Dry suits are very expensive items and folks get real ego involved when they make multi thousand dollar decisions, if you know what I mean. Most folks dive what their instructor or LDS tells them to, and unfortunately most Instructors have limited dry suit experience and most LDS only have one or two brands of suit to sell you and don’t really understand the advantages and drawbacks of even those suits. Let me give you an example, drawn from the question of wetsuit selection, but it addresses this problem and should help you to understand what you’re up against:

I issue a very detailed equipment list before each class that students who are accepted into the class need to purchase and show up with at the first meeting.

The suits we were using at the time were, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, 5mm, skin two side, Rubatex GN-231N, attached hood, farmer johns, no zippers. I send my list to all the LDSs in the area and freely distribute whatever they send back to the students (this is a big deal to the shops, in the dead of winter, twenty full sets of gear with no selling or inventory required: take the order, take the money, and deliver in two weeks).

One student did not go to an LDS, but rather to a shop near her home, about a hundred miles away. I got a call from the Instructor in the shop informing me, in a fairly emphatic tone, that, “No diver could possibly wear this suit. They could not put it on without a zipper.” Now, please understand that I’ve been diving this suit design since the mid sixties, and the only people who need an inverted half zipper in the jacket are incredibly curvaceous women of petite statue. This woman was just shy of six foot, very athletic and quite thin.

Having nothing better to do (and considering that the woman in question was one of the brighter marine geologist grad students), I drove up to the shop later in the day. I brought my suit with me. I showed the Instructor how easy it was to put on and take off, etc. We solved the problem, but the bottom line was that this Instructor, well meaning as she was, had not yet worn out her first suit and was repeating what her Instructor’s had told her. It wasn’t a marketing issue, the LDS could and did supply the gear (and nicely matched the prices of the LDSs that had sent fliers).

The bottom line is that for dive gear, real information is hard to come by. Most of the opinions that you see on the net are biased either by being the only piece of that class of gear that a new diver has ever used or being a loaner that the expert tried out on one or two dives.

The thing that you need to do is find an expert who is doing the kind of diving that you plan on doing and ask him or her about the gear. That may well not be an Instructor. Don’t be afraid to bore on in, why … why … why. If you do not get answers that you understand, find another expert. Make sure that the advice makes sense in terms that you understand. When it does, buy the gear and never look back.

With all that said, I really can’t advise you until you define the diving you want to use your new suit for, but here are some thoughts:

Crushed, laminate and vulcanized suits have no inherent insulative properties so they are totally depended upon underwear and gas trapped in the suit for insulation. As you descend you add gas to the suit and that keeps both buoyancy and thermal characterizes constant.

Uncrushed neoprene (and please understand that there is a HUGE difference between the neoprene many suit manufacturers use and quality Rubatex in terms of compression) will crush with depth, but not 1/2 at 33 foot, 1/4 at 99 ft, etc. As is does, you must introduce gas into the suit to maintain neutral buoyancy, just as with a membrane suit, and that keeps the insulation about the same.

Which is best? I don't really know. I've had Unisuits, Jetsuits, Vikings, DUIs, and a Polaris (Rubatex suit from a small Santa Cruz custom house) over the years. I currently have the Polaris which I prefer for shore diving, a Viking for polluted water (nothing else can really be disinfected) and a DUI that is a joy for boat diving. I use an old set of Unisuit woolies under the Polaris and a ripstop/holowfill/synthetic pile (the blue and gray stuff) set of Viking underwear under the Viking and DUI.

For protection from the rocks the Polaris is the best, for minimum drag while swimming the Viking wins hands down, for ease of in and out, the DUI gets the nod. For ease of repair, it's the Viking. There is one thing that I have in common on all three suits: SiTec wrist rings (which I use with wrist seals) and SiTec neckseal/dogcollar/dryhood system. I can easily introduce air into the glove by raising my hand and wiggling my fingers (this lets some air past the latex wrist seal) and I can get air out by careful “burping.” The neckseal system allows me to throw away a torn neckseal and have a new one in place in seconds, and the dry hood adds a lot of warmth.

 

[Lenaxia]

Not a fan of the fusion. I wouldn't trust it to be durable enough, especially with a skin basically designed to be disposable.

I ordered the Pinnacle Evo2. They are a company with great service, the Evo2 is on par with the DUI CLX450 so its extremely durable (full cordura) and it comes loaded with features for $1500.

These are all features that come standard on an evo2 that normally cost extra:
front entry
suspenders
extra thick seals
2 thigh pockets
hood
inflator hose
knee pads
rubber boots built in


The fusion is probably a bit easier to get in an out of, but again, not a fan of the skin system. Pretty much any front entry suit is going to be equally easy/difficult to get in and out of.

Though trilam is probably the easiest and cordura/crushed neo being the hardest. Pinnacle also makes an all tri-lam suit that is much cheaper call the freedom 2. It's more an entry level suit.

Drysuits - Zeagle Dive Systems

So in light of Thal's and DRIS's posts above and below, here was my thought process that ended me u pwith Pinnacle.

In terms of materials, trilam is fairly durable and for all intensive purposes sufficient, however I felt that it may not hold up in the long run, like 7-10 years down the line. In addition I had the chance to try out a full cordura (CLX450) and a crushed neo suit (CF200). The CF200 nearly killed me. I lost significant flexibility and it was really heavy. The full cordura was awesome, it felt tough and was easy to move in (for me atleast).

DUI made great suits, however they had a huge mark up, more than any other drysuit company. Their zipseals were a huge draw but after trying them, I was turned off by them. You HAVE to attach the gloves beforehand so you can't pop them off and remain in your suit for an SI. It's a great idea with too many limitations. I loved their CLX450, but for the price, I couldn't justify it.

BARE was even more tempting. Not as big a mark up as DUI, and their lifetime seam warranty was all the more inticing. I was looking at their TechHD which, while being a trilam, had some kind of extra reinforcement on the outside which made it nearly indestructable.

I tried the Whites and even had a chance to sit with a Whites' rep. It felt streamline and even better yet! I looked like a power ranger! Who doesn't want that look? Red ranger go! In the end though, I felt that I wouldn't enjoy it. The thought of dropping $1800 on a suit and having to replace the $400 skin (bullet) every time AND having to remove my pockets and remount them on the new skin if it ever took damage was a huge turn off. Yeah, the bullet is a 1mm neo skin so it is pretty resilient, but I can see it wearing down over time, moreso than cordura. Also, with the skin being a 1mm skin, it compresses at depth which is part of the reason why I want a drysuit, so I dont have to deal with that.

I came upon Pinnacle because I had purchased from Zeagle before and had a good experience. After doing some research, I basically found nothing but praise about the Evo2. Spec wise it is nearly on par with the CLX450. It is more durable than the Fusion, and about as durable as the TechHD. The seams are sticked which from what I've read are more resilient than welds and it was cheaper. ScubaToys gave me a deal which included a peevalve, thermals AND dry gloves installed for less than the base price of JUST the suit for any other brand; yet the Evo2 itself could easily match the performance of any other suit.

Cost was a huge factor, BARE, DUI and Fusion would all run me easily $1800-$2200, JUST for the suit. But I couldn't justify that cost when I could get something of greater value for significantly less.

The Evo2 was the natural choice for me. I have had a chance to try it on, and it feels almost identical to the CLX450 and much better than the drycore of the fusion.

In terms of where I dive, its in Monterey cali, where the water is 45-50F year round, and there are rough shore entries and lots of kelp and fishing line. I need my suit to be durable.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

I have dove a lot of the suits out there, I have really settled in on the Fusion as well. I can get it on in less than a minute without trying, lightweight, extremely streamlined in the water, easy bubble management, and most of all....it doesn't even feel like you are wearing a drysuit!!

Another Vote for the Fusion

Where do you guys live? Water temps? Pretty much all suits out there have suspenders. Is there anything else you think you want in a suit to help pick yours?

 

[Belce]

I use a dry suit all the time and they are way easier to put on than a wetsuit. If you had asked what suit should I get that is easy to put on, I would say dry suit. With a dry suit, I can be ready for diving faster than I can in the tropics with a wet suit.

 

[Lenaxia]

What Thal said is truth. I'm hoping you were already planning to, but everything here should be taken with a grain of salt. A rather large one.

With that being said though, I'll elaborate above on why I selected to go with a pinnacle.