Shorts with pocket attachments. Are they worth it?

[coulterboy]

Contemplating on either attaching a pocket to my dry suit, or buy those shorts with pockets on both sides and just don them on top of your suit.

Anybody that has experience on this shortys? I know of a person on the board that recommends these shorts highly. The advantage is-you can switch this short with any of your suits and you have instant pockets on them.

There is a compay in Mukilteo that makes them (Dive Xtras), I believe. The other company is I believe Scubapro.

Your comments?

[scottsax]

I have the Dive Xtras X-shorts. Mainly I use them in the tropics for pockets on my wetsuit, but I have used them over a rental drysuit. It worked OK-it wasn't my favorite setup in the world, but the crotch strap on my back plate harness held the shorts up, so all was good! I think if you lived with that setup and practiced with it, you'd get pretty comfortable with it. They're good pockets.

[ljjames]

X shorts are indeed most awesomeness if you don't have pockets on your various suits.. and do a bit of warm water now and then where you'd like pockets...

but... if you have a primary suit... i'd recommend a couple of nice big bellows pockets (depending on what type of diving you do and what you want to keep in them of course) permanently attached to your suit.... If you are using x-shorts over regular suit it just gives you one more thing to forget

That said, having a set of x-shorts has totally saved the day when i had to dive to a loaner suit when my primary was getting its zipper replaced and my backup was getting pockets installed and uhm... loaning them to a dive buddy or two when their suits were getting repaired

[coulterboy]

Good advices. Keep them coming!

[LCF]

Laura nailed it. X-shorts are great over wetsuits, and you CAN use them over a dry suit, but permanently installed pockets are a much better answer. For one thing, anything you CAN forget, you eventually will -- whether that's packing them at all, or putting them on at the dive site. For another, the X-shorts will sag, if you put very much in the pockets -- replacing the elastic in the waist with something that doesn't stretch helps, but most of us don't have much of a waistline in a dry suit, to help hold the shorts up.

The other issue is that they eventually wear out. Although they improved the quality with the current shorts, the stitching eventually gives out and you have to start sewing up holes -- once this process starts, it can get acutely worse (eg. jumping off a boat and having the whole pocket blow out).

I do like them for wetsuits, where putting pockets on is much more of a pain, but for your regular drysuit -- install pockets.

[Waynne Fowler]

again I'm the odd ball out. I'm so sick of fixing pockets when they tear on drysuits or throwing out perfectly good pockets when a suit wares out. The fix never really seem to comes out all that nicely.. Seems they never ware out at the same time as the suit.... I have a desire to never attach pockets to my suits again, my drysuit x-shorts are about 4 yrs old. I put only what I may need on any particular dive, so most of the time the load is pretty light (not much backup needed for most rec dives = 95% of my dives).... So far I've not had any sagging, tearing or the like. My wetsuit pockets are the old style and while not as nice as the updated version they've held up very nicely. If ya wanna borrow a pair for a while Tom your welcome to take a set of mine for a month to give em' a try, we're about the same size so the should fit ya perfectly.
All that said. The placement of the pockets on the shorts is not perfect, they are a tad more finiky to get into... Takes me an xtra couple seconds to get things in and out.... They sit a bit too high and back plus they move just a bit while doing so... While not perfect... For me the trade offs are worth the hassle of adding them to my checklist and donning them. Good luck Tom.

[coulterboy]

Thanks for the offer Wayne. I'm thinking of going to their factory/display center in Mukilteo sometime this week. Just to check it out. Probably bring my suit with me and don it on, see how it sits. Then again, I know it's gonna be different when its really wet in the water and the drag factor when you're actually swimming.

Bottom line is, I don't really think it's a bad investment. The idea that I can take it and use it on warmer waters with a wet suit, to me, is a win / win situation. Dive Xtras in Mukilteo sell them for just $80.00 Wait a minute. I should even get it cheaper! I'm promoting their product on-line. Where's my COMMISSION? Dang it!

[LCF]

It's not a bad investment -- the cheapest drysuit pockets I know of run $30 apiece, and if you don't get them sewn onto your suit, they will slowly peel off. The X-shorts look cheap in that light, I think.

[doug7377]

one more way you could go is with the DC Thigh Pocket, Velcro Closure http://www.divegearexpress.com/exposure/glueon.shtml

i have it attached to one of the side d ring on my bcd
i have one and love it have to rember to order one more

[diverden]

I'm also an X Shorts owner and dive them on various wetsuit configurations when I'm on vacation. I haven't tried, but I'm nearly certain they wouldn't fit over any of my 3 dry suits, so I'd have to buy at least one more pair to cover different drysuit options. I'm also a technical diver locally and think they pockets are too small for lots of contents with big gloves digging around in them so for me, permanent, big pockets for my dry setup is the way to go. 2 of my drysuits (yeah, I know, 3 is a bit overkill but I have one for Sound (Santi) and one for Cave (no cuffs - DUI)) came with awesome pockets and the 3rd suit is a backup with no pockets so I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get pockets installed on it. I don't think my tropical X Shorts would fit or would be that great of a solution if I bought a bigger pair. They're also a rule 6 violation!

[scottsax]

They're also a rule 6 violation!