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I elected to purchase a clx450 "signature" drysuit from DUI. Signature means a custom fit, this means they take about 25 measurements to insure that the suit fits the way a shellsuit should that is not to baggy and tight in the legs. As trilaminate does not stretch, a correct fitting is important. Also, I am not an "off the shelf" kind of guy. The suit arrived, I was anticipating having less flexibility than a neoprene but this suit was quite tight. So tight that when I reached with my right hand over to the suit exhaust or wings exhaust it would purge all the air out of the suit. As I bought the suit at the end of the dive season I went over the 30 day grace period DUI offers. I kept rationalizing that I got this suit custom fit so I must be doing something wrong. I finally gave up and went in to the dive shop where they contacted DUI on this issue. At first DUI said I was out of the 30 day and shit out of luck. But after a bunch of back and forth it turned out that DUI looked at my measurements and somebody made the decision that I was an XXL and sent me a "off-the-rack" suit in spite of the extra $500 I spent for a "custom" suit. DUI finally sent me a suit that fits like a charm. I was ready to go back to neoprene, or at least crushed neoprene as diving in a straight-jacket is not a fun experience. But I can attest that if you get a trilam sized correctly it is just as comfortable. On the Thinsulate 400G garmet it was too tight across the sholders just like the drysuit was but it is not offered in custom fit and XXL was the largest size. DUI would not take this back because I had worn it. But they would sell me a polypro custom insulation suit for cost. Lucky for me the person who bought the ill-fitting clx450 also bought the garmet at what the "cost" price of the polypro suit would cost. So, the net result out of this fiasco is missing a few uncomfortable dives and much hassel for both me and the diveshop. The drysuit expert at the diveshop assured me that this stuff happens all the time with all of the drysuit vendors he deals with. It is annoying that they were so grudging about fixing their fuckup. I suppose if DUI had just built the goddamn suit to the measured specs to begin with and told me that the thinsulate garmet was not big enough all this would not have happened. I suppose it could also be argued that if I wasn't such a big MF and out of the 80th percentile in size it would not have happened either. The good news is that one of the VBTech guys got my small suit with better insulation for $1000 less than what I paid for it. I don't mean for this to be a bitchey whiney type post, I'm just relating it as a cautionary tale for those of you in the market for a drysuit. I don't think that DUI is a bad company quality wise, the suit assembly is first-rate. A properly sized trilaminate suit is just as comfortable and flexible as a neoprene. Once you get your suit try it on immediately and dive it immediately and don't hesitate to return the suit if it is not right. Jim ------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/ -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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