Fancy helping me spend some Cash on a drybag?

[Conor]

Hi all

I am considering taking some of the risk out of trying UK Dry Suit diving so had a quick look at Ebay and found a few options available.

Unforunately I don't know enough about Drysuits to tell if this is a wise move or what to look for in a suit....let alone what sensible questions to ask before buying.

So, if any of you have time, could you have a brief look at the following links and pass on any comments ?

Cheers

Conor

P.S. I'm 5' 10'', 32/33 waist, 8/9 shoe, slim build (these are for normal clothes....I don't know if the measurements in these adds are including undersuit or not)
TYPHOON PRO DRYSUIT N/R
BARE TRILAMINATE DRYSUIT (MENS)  
DUI CF200 drysuit size lge - unused condition  
DUI TLS350 Dry Suit - Size Large
GUL DRY SUIT & UNDERSUIT
Scuba diving. Otter dry suit

[Snash]

Conor

Probbaly not the answer you are looking for but, whilst I have bought some diving stuff from e-bay, I don't think I would buy a dry suit down this route.

Why? well I would not buy a suit without having the opportunity "to kick the tyres" ie give it a good look over (and perhaps dive with it if possible) before parting with my hard earned Rogan.

You would need to check the seals to see if they were perishing and/or the boots were worn; if so and they need replacing that would add to your costs.

Drysuits are great, but when they leak they are annoying, especially at this time of year. I guess you would also need to find out the reason for sale and how many dives has it done and over what time.

I guess you could enter into correspondence with the seller (prior to the auction end) to see if you could get a money back if not satisfied deal, but e-bay is very much caveat emptor.

Personally I would look at local dive club boards and also shops for second hand dry suits. Also look out on interent baords etc and make arrangements to look before you buy

HTH

Simon

PS - apologies to those selling dry suits by e-bay but I guess I am pretty cautious when spending money (check my profile)

[Dave Crampton]

<font color='#000080'>I would suggest trying some on before you buy, even if this means driving round a few shops and posing as a buyer wanting to try on a few suits. I bought a DS without trying it on and had to exchange for a smaller size. I was lucky as I bought direct from the supplier who is quite amicable, but you might have problems if you buy one of these suits and find its not what you wanted/wrong size. Try and try on the ones you think you'll be most likey to buy on Ebay, in a shop to get a feel of sizes/suit feels. I plumbed for Latex Seals but you might like Neophrene. Try both to see what you think.

If you've never done any drysuit dives before ask your local shop if they have any demo suits you could try out in a local indoor dive pool.

Don't worry if you loose these suits to other bidders, there will be more. Make sure you know what you want before you buy anything.

A tip for bidding on Ebay, I found it best to wait until the last minute to place any bids. If someone bidding knows your bidding against them, they may be tempted to push up the bids in order to get the item. The less bidders there are the lower the final bid will be. Then 30 seconds before the bid closes, (depending on the speed of your internet connection) place a bid. If bidders want something they keep refreshing until the last second to make sure they have it. If you do the same, refreshing and only bidding 30 seconds before close, by the time they see the final bid they may be too late to put in the winning bid.

Good luck

Dave C

[daz]

Conor,

Just a couple of things to consider. &nbsp;If anything is leaking the costs to repair can soon increase the price to what you would spend on a new suit.

Neck seal £25 - £30 fitted
Wrist seals £20 to £25 fitted
Boots £80 (possibly more)
New zip £160 +

Not sure that I would risk buying without seeing, &nbsp;Is there a local free ads type paper, at least you could go and look and try on.

Given the choice if money were a consideration I would buy second hand with a money back guarentee if not satisfied (ie. local dive store) or a cheap new suit. &nbsp; Chances are that you would not lose much money on a new cheap suit if you did sell it on and it had been looked after.

Have a good hunt around, &nbsp;I will see if I can find any bargains and post if I do,

Here is one to start, drysuits from £339 (yippee), &nbsp;It's a typhoon (bugger) Dive machine

[Kate R]

<font color='#000080'>had a quick look and it seemed like most of the suits were fairly new - i definitely wouldn't buy one that was well-used (i.e. more than about 30 dives)

as above, you'll almost certainly be in trouble if you buy it without trying it on, unless you really make sure beforehand that all the measurements are right - i.e. chest, waist, hips, collar-to-crotch etc etc - not just height and shoe size!

think about what sort of features you want - what pockets, dumps etc. remember that you'll also have to buy an undersuit, hood, etc, which you normally get cheap if you buy a suit new.

if you're planning on getting a good drysuit later on anyway (which you will sooner or later) then it's false economy to buy a cheap one now. if you're lucky it'll be ok and you'll get a few dives out of it, if you're unlucky you won't be able to dive with it and you might spend more money on it getting it ready to dive!

[daz]

Here's a few.

Robin Hood
More from Roho
Northern diver

HTH
Daz

[MATTBIN]

Conor
I bought my son a second hand suit from a shop, it fitted well, had new seals etc so I was well pleased. Wrong!
Turned out to be a turkey, neck seal leaked when in Stoney but was fine in the pool, cuff dump leaked and now the zip is iffy - upshot is that it was a pile of crap. Sold as seen on behalf of a customer, so no warranty. £180 wasted plus extra for parts, could have bought a new one for what I spent.

Buy new unless you know what you are buying is good stuff i.e. from a mate who you can smack if it turns out to be dodgy.

Matt

[Digger]

<font color='#000080'>Got to agree. Whenever I have a dodgy suit it either goes on ebay or i sold reasonably elsewhere. Any ebay ad with a hint of &quot;might need looking at&quot; or &quot;hasn't been used in a while&quot; leave well alone.

You're much better buying one locally, or have a look at discount options - NDiver have always got some clearance stock for example. You want to be able to try suits on, and get a feel for what you like, and what you don't.

I'd avoid. The Scubpro seive was an ebay purchase. I should have known better. That said, I bought the ex a good but older suit for £60 that I had to chase because the seller had listed it without photos etc. and I took a chance based on dress sizes and height etc. and it paid off. Very nice suit, Apeks valves worth more than that and needed no work at all to do the job very nicely. Looked a bit shabby, but was a very good suit. More the exception than the rule for my money though.

[Conor]

Thanks guys, all good tips.

I guess I should explain why I was considering ebay. I want to dive the UK and my deadline for it is the feb Stoney day. So by then I need to get a suit and hopefully a chance to dive it.

The catches are I know nothing about drysuits, don't know anyone locally to advise me and as I don't have any transport at the mo getting somewhere that would let me try one doesn't seem to be that easy. If I knew for a fact that I would still be diving dry in 6 months time I would be buying an Otter or ND mtm, cos I think I can afford it. But I wanted to get a feeling for whether I should go membrane or neo. Unfortunately both of these are miles away and I can't get there to try them easily.

So I considered doing the PADI spec through the local shop, so I could try it out but at £100+ to use a potentially dodgy rental suit I realised I could possibly take a gamble and buy for &lt; £100 on ebay....try it in Stoney and if it works it works, if not but I like the idea of a dry suit then I can chuck/sell it and buy a new one, If I get the impression dry suits are not for me I can call it quits for only £100 lost.

Having looked at the suits again, the only one worth considering for me in the Bare Trilam.

If anyone can reccommend somewhere I could try out a couple of suits then that would be perfect. Keep the advice coming, thanks again

Cheers

Conor

[Fiona]

<font color='#0000FF'>Conor

As everyone has said don't rush into one on Ebay, especially since transport is a problem and there will be something about it that isn't right, neck seal wrist seals etc. &nbsp;I once took a guy from our club to meet someone at the Snake Pass Inn, he tried it on and the next seal was a bit bit, so you end up having to buy a new seal.

Could you not hire one from Stoney for the day? &nbsp;what area do you live in ?

Fiona