Question Which brands make the best made to measure drysuit?

Which premium brands make the best quality MTM drysuits?


  • Total voters
    30

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Two points.

First, who's paid by DUI to bump it up to SF Tech level in the poll? You guys are nuts. The question is about the best dry suit, not the ability to stitch two trash bags together.

Second, @Erik H - you want SF Tech Pro, not TNT. Same price, at least in the US, but the Pro uses Yamomoto neoprene that is soft and quite warm. If you rub on rocks often, go with a full kevlar upgrade.
 
@Erik H - Next time you are diving have a look at everyones drysuits. What you may notice is that they are all nearly identical in design, panels, stitching and valves. Usually the main difference is the label.

Drysuits are just waterproof bags. I doubt many divers can tell the difference between drysuits from different brands when underwater.

Sporting manufactures however need to convince you, the sophisticated diver who demands the best, that their simple product is somehow vastly different from near identical products from other companies. Hence their focus on marketing and inventing dubious 'technology' (a rocket or computer is 'technology'. A valve, fabric or common stitching method is not: even if they do give it a three letter acronym with at least one 'X').

My current suit is a Scubaforce (German premium brand - worth adding to your list), but my next one is likely to be a Seaskin at half the price, as I really don't see a worthwhile difference. You will likely get a broad spread in your poll as folks vote for the one to two suit brands they've owned: reflecting how common a suit is, not how good they are relative to each other.

As @Simpel mentions having a local drysuit maker can be more important than brand as you can ensure correct measurement, a good fit and can get adjustments and repairs done locally. Do remember all drysuits become wetsuits eventually. If I was you would look at some Swedish companies first such as Waterproof (or maybe Viking..).

The next most important feature is what additions do each company allow: will they fit dry gloves of your preferred brand? do they allow choice between Sitec or Apek valves? do they allow user-replaceable silica neck and wrist seals? can they make the suit in banana yellow? etc... Knowing what you want to add to your suit can help narrow down a supplier.

Cheers
Rohan.
Here in California, DUI rules. Though, I see quite a bit of Seaskin and Santi here. Just the fact you can ship your suit to San Diego for repairs instead of the UK or Connecticut(Waterproof’s US distributor is there, even though Tusa in Long Beach is their warehouse) skews things.
 
There’s plenty of independent “mechanics” doing good work so there’s not much reason to need to send suits to the factory.
 

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