Stohlquist
bPod-T Dry Suit - Rated
9 out of 10. As drysuits go, this suit is terrific. Having
using competitor’s suits, as well as two part
dry systems in the past I was looking forward to trying
this suit out when I first read about it.
For the budget minded individual tired of two-piece
dry systems, or of no dry systems, this is a
good item to take a serious look at. The
price is below the mainstream K…… suits
with comparable benefits, and a step up in comfort.
This drysuit is made of a waterproof, breathable fabric:
TTL Eclipse. It includes fabric booties
for complete waterproofing and comfort (the booties
look to be able to take a size 12 or better, at least
bigger than mine). A nice cross
body waterproof Ti-Zip starts above the right shoulder
and ends at waist height. According to
all of the information about this suit, and subsequent
series, any relief zipper is not necessary for males
wearing it. I know that I will be
in the suit for long periods of time so I asked for
this suit to have a relief zipper added just in case. Addition
of the zipper was up to the usual level of Stohlquist’s
modification work: excellent. This legs
of this suit were also modified for me, they removed
~2” from the legs to so that there was no uncomfortable
bunching of material while paddling; excellent work
there as well, all the way to the phone calls to me
to make certain of measurements and how the legs of
the suit were to be re-sewn and sealed. The
protective foam kneepads were raised so that they actually
covered my knees. The finished product
was sent to me and it fits perfectly. Unfortunately,
Stohlquist is no longer doing their own repair and
modification work, they now have Rainy Pass of Seattle
to do such things. I had previously talked
to K…… about the same modification; they
were unable to do such a thing, only offering to move
the cuffs 2” (but they were willing to add a
relief zipper to any of their suits).
When I first read about the neoprene collar it appealed
to me. After all of my drytops and the
dry suits I had used, tried to garrote me I was annoyed
with a latex gasket. The first try-on I
was pleasantly surprised with the comfort, but still
dubious of its seal. After wearing the
suit around the house for about ½ an hour
I was assured of its breathable factor since I was
building up a sweat. When I removed the
suit my neck was still dry. This gasket
works by making contact with your neck, instead of
in a 1/16” area like latex, but over a 1” tall
area covered by a flat neoprene collar coated with
a Titanium coating for a super smooth finish. In
doing so there is no longer any sawing of the tender
flesh of the neck (and it also does not cause any ingrown
hairs in my beard like the latex did!). You
can turn your neck and the collar turns with you. The
Ti-coated collar is attached to a shoulder width collar
of normal neoprene so that there is a large amount
of mobility available. In talking with
their rep before my purchase he admitted to me that
the neck gasket of this suit works well with a bigger
person-no twiggy thin people here. Ya know
when you turn your neck sometimes some tendons pop
out of the side of your neck? Well, on
a thinner person, without extra meat to protect their
throat, those tendons could potentially cause a chute
to form that water could pour down in the case of a
flip or big wave. I do not have the problem
of having a little neck, so I had no worries about
that factor. During a handful of
rolls, as well as horsing around in the surf to test
the suit out there were no leaks.
Another thing I like about the design of the suit is
that the latex wrist gaskets are made of thicker gauge
latex. It feels much more secure than the
thinner competitors gaskets. I had less
worry of a blowout or a tear in these.
This suit is the bPod-T. That T stands
for tunnel, as it has an over tunnel for a spray skirt. When
getting geared up this suit made it much easier than
the 2 part dry systems, trying to keep all the parts
in place while pulling on a skirt, and much more secure
than not having no over tunnel. The skirt
lay in place comfortably, and the zipper ended below
where the skirt rode, nicely out of the way (I can
definitely see how they can push the no-need for a
relief zipper).
During all of my first uses of this suit it is very
comfortable, just by not having a gasket sawing away
at the neck while looking back over your shoulder for
a wave it is making paddling in colder weather much
nicer. The zipper is up off of my shoulder
and chest enough so that there is no tugging of the
material making it uncomfortable while paddling. I
have no worries or qualms about taking out in mid-December
for a nice surf, or for in and out of the cockpit practice
while instructing. Overall, this is a
great drysuit that I will be using for years to come.
The complaints that I have about this suit are:
On the over tunnel there are two side flaps that Velcro
to the belly area on the suit. The Velcro
covers the entire flap, so when you try to remove the
flap when you are getting undressed (or need a little
more space) it is hard to grab any part of the flap
to pull on. That flap is about 3”x
4” square so there is a 12” squared area
of Velcro to fight against. If there was ½” non-Velcro-d
space at the end of the flap it could be used as a
grip.
A personal move on my part is that I did apply Seam
Seal to the seam that is present on the back of the
neck where the neoprene was sewn together to make a
circle. I am not certain if it was direly
needed or not but I did apply it anyway-no harm.
My use of this suit will be including, but not limited
to: surf kayaking, sea kayaking, kayak instruction,
sailing, rafting, and I imagine that if someone stuffs
me into a whitewater boat in colder weather I would
wear it as well, also it will be worn if I have to
go into one of our big aquariums at work.
~ Rob,
RI, USA
Submit a Review
