Don’t get a latex neck seal
It will drive you nuts deciding whether to trim or stretch it, and then it still won’t feel good.
Get a dry top with a ventilation gusset and a velcroed neoprene closure.
Too Funny!
Quite a visual.
No such thing
A velcro neck enclosure is not watertight and any garment with one would be called a “paddle jacket” and not a dry suit, because, well, it won’t be dry if you go for a swim.
Dan
http://www.westcoastpaddler.com
Yaheeeyh! Ughhha! Aharaf!
Sounds I made until my wife pulled the damn thing off me.I would have been dead by the time is stretched.
SKU’s
It wouldn’t only be an inconvenience for the retailer, it would be a problem for you. How many specialty shops can afford to carry a bunch of $900 drysuits with different sized neck seals so that Pencilneck Baby Huey has a suit that fits his body and his neck, without trimming. That’s right. I said the “T” word. Nobody, dude. No intelligent retailer can make that kind of financial commitment when the answer is so easy (though controversial. They would be carrying suits that almost nobody needed at the expense of the majority of paddlers who are smart enough to trim or patient enough to stretch.
Choose one or the other but don’t dump it on retailers or manufacturers as the bad guys. You have two solutions. Buy a suit employ one of them.
Jon
Under No Circumstances
Will I take a job wearing a coat and tie for any job making any amount of money.
I spent 500.00 on a suit for a black tie affair two years ago and I have already worn my dry suit more times just trying it on. I used the old cost to how many times am I going to wear this thing ratio.
At the point I have used the dry suit 6 times I will match the per use to $ ratio of the snappy suit. I will not have been dragged to a wedding I didn’t want to go to to begin with and be using it for something so much more fun than a wedding or a funeral - like there is a difference.
Cut it.
I made those same sounds when I first tried on my drysuit – and all the colour left from my face – I thought I was going to die for a while there. 
I don’t like stretching my neck gasket – it thins the material and shortens the life of it (I do stretch my wrist gaskets). Cut off a couple of rings, if that’s not enough, cut off another. If you do a good job of cutting (ensuring that your cut starts and finishes at the same spot) you’ll find that it’s not so bad. The gasket will stretch a small bit after cutting it so don’t worry too much if it feels snug at first – it will loosen up a little after a couple of uses.
I know that it’s torturous at first, but it does get better – after a short while, it will become much more comfortable. Hang in there and don’t give up on it.
Dan
http://www.westcoastpaddler.com
Some people are allergic to latex
and since sheep skin isn’t an option for dry suits, I wonder if Polyurethane could work.
I own one
I’ve owned four drysuits since the early 80’s. My newest has the gussetted neoprene neck I described.
The water tightness of the neoprene when cinched tight is only trivially less than latex, plus it is more comfortable because the tightness pressure is spread over a larger area. You might get a couple of spoonfuls if you are upside down under water.
Moreover, if you are an open canoeist or SOT paddler who falls laterally out of a boat, you will only be under water, if at all, for a few seconds before you surface.
If I were a diver, a relentless practitioner of rolling or a frequent swimmer in class 4 rapids, I might return to a latex neck seal. In which case I would DEFINITELY trim it.
Here’s what you need
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page:
http://www.ossystems.com/repair/seals.html#hood
Yeah, but…
…IIRC, you have a pretty skinny neck, Jay.
You mean a place like NOC couldn’t
size you for a suit, size you for a neck gasket, and then attach the gasket right there? I’ve attached gaskets. How is that any harder than outfitting an OC-1 for a customer?
Can you buy a suit off a rack? Do they alter it for you, or do you go home and trim the sleeves or stretch the waist? Drysuits are comparable to dress suits in cost. Sooner or later, people may be willing to pay a little extra for proper fit.
And try not to call people “dude.” It shows your contempt, but it also shows things about you.
full kit comes with
whips and chains.
Sorry to have offended…
…seriously. It’s the way I talk and I try to self-censor before hitting “Send” to avoid this very situation. Please accept my apology.
About having the gasket installed by the retailer…that is an option that I hadn’t considered. I thought that you were proposing that retailers should carry the suits in all possible gasket sizes so that anyone could pick the perfect fit right off the rack. As a retailer, my experience has been that the sort of investment required to accommodate that creates a loss of sales overall, due to the limits it imposes on inventory, and a drop in the overall ability to serve customers. Gosh, the specialty shop guys have it tough enough competing with their resources against big retailers. But, the gasket installed at POP might work. Have you approached them about it? I would be curious what they would say.
If a person is willing to order their drysuit from the manufacturer, say Kokatat and probably others, they can get what they want. Takes longer and there would be no discount of any sort but you could probably get what you wanted.
I believe that, in general, the market has established that trimming or stretching isn’t a big deal (except in these discussions) and that the greatest number of paddlers, divers, etc. are able to be served with gaskets of a semi-generic fit, relying upon the end-user to perfect.
I am tempted to order a custom suit
from Kokatat, just to see whether they can provide a pre-sized neck gasket from a provided measurement.
I wonder…
…They offer only small and large gaskets on the website with the recommendation of trimming to fit but they do offer custom sizing of the suits and maybe they would install a larger gasket if you asked. That link that Bryan provided offers gaskets up to XXL (size 16" - 19"). It says that they are designed to fit an 8" opening.
A friend of mine requested a suit made with a size large upper but legs shortened 4". They did that and it fit him perfectly (except the gasket of course). Women often order the ladies suit w/o the dropseat but with the men’s fly mounted lower.
I don’t believe that there is any warranty on gaskets so if the OS gasket fits the opening seems like they should do that for you.
Most of us have heads much larger
than our necks. You??
Chicken necks
My semi dry suit with the neck closure which is, I think, what you describe leaks like a sieve when I am sideways sculling, let alone rolling. A fellow paddler finds his is dryer.
But he doesn’t have a chicken neck like mine. This can make a diff.
@g2d
Not everyone have to trim. I’m thankful kokatat don’t use any larger gaskets.
I wouldn’t want any larger gaskets than the original on my kokatat drysuit. In fact, when I had to replace the original gaskets I chose even smaller gaskets. It turned out to be the right choice for me.
after a few days stretching
I have graduated up to comfort but the length of the sleeve is long, in fact long enough to follow the curve of my neck toward my chin.
With this in mind, I get the feeling those little concentric lines are there for a reason, for me to follow with a razor. Maybe this isn’t an either or but a both if that is what works for the individual.
The problem could have been solved by ordering from a vendor that offers custom orders, but since this is all done on line… I gave them my neck size but my vendor was a one size fits all. I opted for the freebie item to save the 139.00 polartech long johns. I could have gone custom, waited, and bought the drawers for around 50 somewherez else.
There is just no way to know for certain with nothing local to try on. It all good now and I am happy I went the way I did. I did the stretching, I pushed, I breathed at all the right times, now for a little episiotomy.