Saw a 10 year old salvage diver's drysuit and mine side by side, huge difference

I work with this older diver Jim on some inland jobs, he's been at it since the 90s. He let me check his old DUI drysuit from 2014 the other day and compare it to his new one from last year. The old suit had these rubber wrist seals that were all cracked and stiff, you could see where glue patches had been slapped on like 4 times. The new one uses silicone seals that feel completely different, way more flexible and not cracking at all so far. He said the old one used to leak at the neck every third dive toward the end, but this new setup has been bone dry for 18 months now. I'm thinking about upgrading my own suit after seeing that, but the price tag is around $4000 for a decent new one. Has anyone else noticed how much the seal technology changed in just the last 5 years?

2 comments

2 Comments

harris.uma3d ago

Gotta disagree a little here. Those old crushed neoprene suits might've been stiff but they were bombproof, I still see guys running them with zero leaks. The new trilam stuff is lighter sure but one snag on a sharp edge and you're patching it up, that old material could take a beating.

roses693d ago

Those silicone seals Jim got are a game changer for sure but nobody talks about how the FABRIC technology improved too. My old suit from 2010 had this stiff crushed neoprene that chafed my neck something awful, my new one uses a lighter trilaminate that bends way easier and dries in half the time. The seal upgrades matter but the shell improvements are what really made me stop dreading long days underwater.