socks & rock boots vs wellies

[lynnr54]

Hi all,

Just about to purchase my first dry suit (membrane MTM) and looking for advice on whether to get rock boots or wellies. Going to be doing a few shore dives with some pebbly entrances so wondering if rock boots would be more likely to last. Guess I have a few questions:

1) is it best to get neoprene socks fitted to dry suit if planning to use rock boots or are there better combinations?

2) Do i still need undersocks with neoprene socks?

3) Do rock boots tend to be more sturdy than the wellies?

Thanks

[PapaBear]

Not the fullest answer that you are going to get but I tried rock boots for the first time on a dui demo suit yesterday. I was really taken with them and will be ordering them on my new suit at the end of the month. I found that they were much more comfortable out of the water and I wasnt concerned about what I may be walking over as there was atleast something between any nasty sharp things and the suit itself.
I will say though I was wearing fourth element arctic socks under the suit and I found that my feet were not as warm as they are when I wear my suit with neo lined boots on. Apparently the flushing affect between the sock and the rock boot is the cause of this. Still an extra pair of socks will probably sort this and I well specify rock boots with neo socks when I order my suit.

Hope that helps some,
J

[lynnr54]

Great - thanks for that. Excuse my ignorance, but I suppose a more basic question should be are the rock boots integrated into the drysuit or is it the neo socks which are integrated with the rock boots being more like a trainer to put on separately over the top?

[Mark Chase]

Rock boots are another item to forget that will spoil your day

Putting them on on a rocking and roling boat will make you puke (or it does me)

Getting the suit off with socks instead of boots is a PITA / two man job

Damaging the socks when the boots arnt on is too easy my brand new suit now leaks on the left foot.

My ones gave me blisters on the cave course??????

I cant beleive shoo laces coming undone are now an isue with my frigging DIVING

I f-ing hate them if thats not obvious.

Good fitting, good quality welly boots every time for me from now on.

ATB

Mark

[PapaBear]

The rock boots themselves are completely seperate, you put them on afterwards. The socks are at the end of the legs and are the bottom of the drysuit. Admittedly I only used them the once yesterday but I didn't find them anymore dificult to take off then the regular wellies. They just seemed to turn nicely inside out.

But then I only used them the one day

[pieater]

My problem is that I have mahooooosive feet. If I get neowellies then I also get a leaky suit as I've got to get my feet round the "corner" of the ankle. This means a lot of tugging on the wellie / ankle seems. In turn this means leaks over time - say 50 dives or so. I'm trying the sock option as I reckon they should be a bit easier to get on. I'm picking them up on Wednesday and will post my initial comments.

I've had to go for the size 13 neosock which means that only Dui do a rockboot even vaguely close enough. I've gone for size 14's.

A tip I saw was to use the neo socks with wetsuit boots. I'd dearly love to try this but size 14 wetboots seem to be unavailable.

[Darren555]

I faffed around for ages trying to find the best option to wear over the membrane socks on my Polar Bears Explorer.
In the end I went for some bog standard Scubapro Delta 5 wetsuit boots.
They are dead comfy, have no laces, are easy to get on and off, cheap and provide great range of movement. They also don't give me floaty feety with Mares Avanti Quattros. This might also be down to the fact that over the membrane socks I put on a pair of Boots' sports ankle supports with allow my toes plenty of movement whilst keeping the sock in position.