Dry suit survey?

[mixelpix]

Dive Rite 905
Diving Concepts Dry Glove system
Rear shoulder Entry - Can don and doff by myself
Shoulder dump
Built in boots (fit perfectly)
no pee-valve yet, but will have one before I do another 2 hr dive.

[Freedive WI]

I've owned a lot of suits over the years incuding:

Bubble suit
Jetsuit
OS shell suit
Viking sport 90
Viking Classic
DUI TLS 350
DUI CF 200
DUI CLX450

I have had viking dry gloves on most of them, except the neoprene suits where I wore 3-finger mitts- which weren't all that bad IF you get the right kind.

I also had dry hoods on at least 4 of them- which works out well if your using a full-face mask to do salvage jobs in the Milwaukee River. :-X

I've owned two p-valves, a Dive Rite and a Halcyon. I like the Halcyon better, but you have to make sure that the screw is open when you go below 100'- long story, but very painful and will never be repeated. :'( Relief zippers are a pain and I would certainly put another p-vlave in my next suit.

I have also had thigh pockets on at least one of the suits and any suit that I might get in the future will have these on- just make sure they are mounted on the sides and not the front, I had an issue with the drysuit guy who put mine on and he was not happy when I made him move them- but I did right it on the repair ticket and even UNDERLINED my request, but he still got it wrong.

I hate Rock boots, but that could just be me. The last two DUI suits that I owned I ordered from the company with the Turbo soles instead- it took a couple of extra weeks, but it didn't cost my anything extra.

My first couple of suits used aBC oral inflator hoses on the chest- that's how they used to make them. My OS suit had manual dump valves, but everything after that had adjustable shoulder dump vlaves and they always worked fine for me.

I just keep them wide open and lift my arm when I want to dump- make sure you keep your elbow bent while you do this to concentrate the air by the valve- otherwise it all goes to your wrist and your arm balloons up. I have never used a cuff dump, but some freinds of mine have and seem to like them. I prefer the shoulder valve because I can close it up and fill my suit with extra gas for long surface swims.

Next suit I would get is a DIVING CONCEPTS TLS custom cut suit. They make a custom suit for the same price as a stock DUI. IF I got another DUI it would be the TLS-350, as I liked that one the best out of the three that I owned.

I have seen, and like the looks of the Dive Rite 905, but have never used one. Andy's suits look fine if you get the chest zipper. I like the chest zipper smuch better than the back zippers. Either way, you need to baby them a little bit. Just because they look tough doesn't mean you can't break them. If/ when you do break one it is not cheap to fix- I have had to replace at least 4 zippers on different suits.

Hope that helps you out,

Jon

[willadams67]

Dive Rite 905
dry gloves (the viking ring system)
yes I have a pee valve.
I like it a lot I only wish the zipper was in front. You can get it open yourself but it is much easier with a partner.

[DiveCaptDean]

DUI TLS 350 SE
Wet Gloves...thought about dry, but dont get cold hands..ever..
Front Zipper ie.SE (Shoulder Entry)
Apex Low profile dump valve
Stardard DUI boots
no pee valve.

I did purchase knee pads and installed them with aquaseal


Good Luck

[tcjtn0]

DUI TLS 350
(Front zip)
DUI Thinsulate 300 count thermals...
Side pockets to be installed.
VIking Dry Gloves
Low profile shoulder dump.
Use plain sweat pants with wamer water.
Use Totes instead of Rock Boots to fit in non-Turtle fins. (My thanks to DanL)

Use a Depends P-valve

Jean

[Freedive WI]

I use to use depends before I started using P-valves, but found them to leak whenI kicked my fins. :-[

A friend of mine used to wear his depends backwards because he said it absorbed better. One thing you need to do with depends is only let a little go at a time- otherwise you overflow the leg seals on the things.

YMMV


Jon

[Omicron]

Bare Trilam ATR HD

SiTech Drygloves (Ring System...)

Front Zipper (I like to be independent...)

Shoulder Dump (Easier to dump in confined spaces...)

7mm vulcanized neoprene Bare boots (they are attached, but are very thick/warm and have good treads on them - not the cheap thin rubber boots I've seen on other drysuits...)

No P-Valve yet, but will probably add one before my next cave classes.