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New drysuit choices

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:40 pm
by Nwcid
Bought GF a BARE D6 in great condition and has been working ok for her but is a bit big on her so she has trouble venting. This leads o her having to add more weight and having minor troubles with her buoyancy. I found this suit after a couple months of looking and is as close as we are going to come in "stock" sizes for her. She is tall and slender so for it to fit right in height it has to be Large but then the arms are way to long and the torso/shoulders have tons of extra room. She has been doing OK with this suit and is way better then diving wet.

We have got most of the other gear we need now and working on improving the things that we got due to price/timing. Right now the suit she has is obviously a neo suit but think I would like to get her a tri-lam like mine for when we decide to travel places we need them. My guess is we are going to have to have her "fitted" for a suit. I know they last a long time but I am hoping to stay in the $1500 range with undergarment. That figure comes from having to come up with $1000 "out of pocket" and being able to sell the D6 for $500.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:24 pm
by renoun
I understand that they are an acquired taste but she may be well served by the White's Fusion suits which are less size sensitive. They just came out with a back zip model that hits the $1000 price point.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:14 pm
by fmerkel
The maker of Seasoft dry suits told me once that he could get a decent fit for 80% of men with off the shelf stock suits, but only about 20% of the women. After that the fit may be operational but becomes less and less acceptable. Neither my wife or I have what I would consider unusual body types but when we finally got our current suits we went custom and sucked up the cost. Glad we did. I had no idea how poorly our previous suits had been until we did and we had been using those for 5 years.

Think about it, you got to deal with that suit every minute of every dive....all the time. I consider a good fitting and decent drysuit way more important than a $600+ regulator and a similarly priced computer.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:45 pm
by LCF
Major vote here for the Fusions. I can dive my husband's L/XL as a backup suit and be PERFECTLY comfortable. As long as the seals fit, the suit fits -- and the back zip version, as stated, is $999, which is an almost unbelievable deal.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:28 am
by Waynne Fowler
+3 for the fusion
and do yourself a favor... listen to fmerkel... it'll save you from 'again' having to go through what your going through now.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 12:24 pm
by guitarmaker
I too dive the fusion w/tech skin and love it - especially with the new thermal UG. Also, I know of a fusion with the bullet skin that's for sale. A friends wife owns it - she too is tall and slender. No clue as to what they want for it but if your interested PM me and I can put you in touch with them.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:18 pm
by Jeff Pack
I have 2 Whites Fusions, one Bullet,the other sport (for travel).

With user replaceable wrist and neck seals, no real bubble to manage, they are awesome and so easy to dive.

Love mine!

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:25 pm
by jerryehrlich
renoun wrote:I understand that they are an acquired taste but she may be well served by the White's Fusion suits which are less size sensitive. They just came out with a back zip model that hits the $1000 price point.
I saw a Fusion One right after they came out. It is a great looking suit. The orange piping and graphics really make the suit pop.
Kinda wish they would do something to jazz up the sport skin :)

The Fusion really does solve from fit issues.

Best,

Jerry

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:38 pm
by Jeff Pack
According to the website, I should be in a LG/XL, yet I wear a 2xl/3xl. (Its what Wally and Whites suggested) But my Thermal Fusion undergarment is a Lg/XL.

No baggyness at all.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:10 am
by DFessler
NWCID,

I can easily get her into a couple of options within your budget, perhaps even cheaper that you thought. PM me if you'd like more info.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 2:52 pm
by KneeDeep
Jeff Pack wrote:According to the website, I should be in a LG/XL, yet I wear a 2xl/3xl. (Its what Wally and Whites suggested) But my Thermal Fusion undergarment is a Lg/XL.

No baggyness at all.
I did my Drysuit cert during my OW with a brand new Whites Sport LG/XL and it fit great. I'm 6' and 185lbs and had great movement in the suit.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 1:31 pm
by Nwcid
Thanks for the replies. It has been a couple busy days. PM's and emails being sent and responded too.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 2:58 am
by BlowBubbles
High Tide makes crushed neoprene drysuits in the Puget Sound area and they can custom trailer one to fit.

I like mine for colder water, like Puget Sound. I can be a bit too warm for milder waters.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:01 am
by Waynne Fowler
BlowBubbles wrote:High Tide makes crushed neoprene drysuits in the Puget Sound area and they can custom trailer one to fit.

I like mine for colder water, like Puget Sound. I can be a bit too warm for milder waters.
I've been spoiled with the High Tide Suits... The warmest, most comfortable and long lasting suit I've owned. I've owned, DUI's, Bares, Apollo's, Harvey's, Diving Concepts and Moby's... I swiched to High Tide about 10 yrs ago... game over! :)
While I spent a bit more than I'd have liked to on it at the time, I realized shortly thereafter that it was probably some of the best scuba money I've ever spent....

Next I will be buying a Fusion, I've heard/seen too many good things about them to not give it a go.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 7:06 pm
by BlowBubbles
I really like my High Tide too, I might get dry glove cuffs installed. For my next drysuit I was thinking of maybe getting a shell style for Hawaii and the like, not to replace the High Tide, just for different conditions.

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 8:34 pm
by Nwcid
Thanks for all the replies. Since we are in town we went looking while we were getting our air fills. We went to Tacoma Scuba to try suits on so she could make a choice. She looked so much better and happier with the Fusion One, so we got her one.

We are going to finish our AOW dives tomorrow in the D6 since is it the deep dive and the mid-water skills and she is use to it. I am sure there will be time for us to get one more dive in so she can try the new one.

Soon for sale one lightly used D6 :)

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 7:39 am
by LCF
I'm sure she'll like the Fusion -- congratulations on the new suit!

Re: New drysuit choices

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 7:55 pm
by Nwcid
After the end of AOW we got in about a 20 min dive and stayed above 30'. First thing we did is drop 6lb of weight and she was still able to sink easy. Did her "drills" in the new suit which she made look super easy. Then we just took a 10 min contour trip at about 25' so she could get the feel for it.

Came back up to about 10' and dropped the psi to 500. She could still sink. Pulled off 2 more lbs of weight and she was still able to sink and do great "pivots" by breathing at about 10'. Decided to stick with that for weighting for now.

This time instead of rushing to to get her gear off so she could get her suit of she stayed in it the whole time we cleaned and stored our gear.

All I can say is she is really happy which makes me happy.