Your preferred women's drysuit

[Nikki Anderson]

Sorry for the delayed response! Thank you all very much for your advice and links. To answer Marie's question, I am planning to go tech in the near future. I recently got side-mount certified and will be continuing into further courses.

For very cold waters, what hoods do you wear? I'm seeing from a quick search that lots of "drysuit" hoods seem to actually be just thick neoprene hoods?

Similar question for dry gloves. Thanks again!

 

[Xta]

Nikki!

I feel you on not being appropriately sized for fitting into most things. But I have the opposite problem, I am very tall and curvy. I started with a white's drysuit - Now owned by aqualung, so basically the same as the fusion fit. It dove great, and was good to start with. But I had a few issues with it. It was very uncomfortable for me to walk around in. I am a very long legged person, and the crotch for the suit ended up around my knees. Also, I couldn't touch my shoulders because of the neck ring. So I needed a lot of help getting my BC on and off, and also I couldn't reach my shoulder dump to adjust it.

When it came time to upgrade, after looking a a few options a few things became clear... I was too tall for a women's drysuit, and my hips were way to big and my shoulders to small for a mens. So, I decided to go with the Bare Guardian custom fit. I have to say it's life changing! It's so comfortable I'll even keep it on for a bit after a dive instead of rushing to take it off. I think the crushed neoprene also adds a bit of much welcomed warmth. Unfortunately, my shoulders are just to narrow to accommodate the quick neck, and I had to go with a latex neck seal... But, being able to reach my dump valve is a pretty good trade off!

As far as gloves and hood, I have a waterproof 10ml hood, and waterproof ultima dry glove system. Which as far as I'm concerned is the best dry glove system I've ever used. And we've tried a few of them.

 

[Marie13]

Drysuit hoods sometimes don’t have the bib. I prefer mine without it. I wear Waterproof brand hoods. 7mm is what I use.

For dry gloves, the Waterproof Ultima (what I have) or the Kubi are very popular.

 

[divingx]

Try K01 hoods. They’re the most comfortable ones I’ve used so far.

 

[Bald Wookie]

Hoods - Honestly any type. Pick your thickness, (7mm, 10mm, etc) and find one that fits well: covers forehead, fits well around neck. My only real recommendation is one that had the sealing neoprene around the face to prevent water ingress. Otherwise, they're all neoprene, they're all basically the same.

Dry gloves - Pull overs. You'll *likely* have si-tech wrist systems. Don't mess around with any of the glove systems - they all eventually leak around the sealing o-ring or are a pain in the butt to swap the gloves when you need to (5 mins before a dive). Pull overs are cheap, reliable, and if I'm being quite honest, leak as often as the fancy systems (often less). Plus, a spare pair cost next to nothing, you pull them out of your bag and you're ready. With the pull overs you keep your wrist seal and get dry gloves that are easy to put on and pull off without any issues.

 

[beepbird]

I'm 5'2" and 104 lbs and ended up with a SeaSoft neoprene drysuit. I love it. You must be meticulous with the seals and zipper but by and large it works great. It was custom fit. I wear it almost year round.