Well, now I've gone and done it.

You may have seen this posted in the Q-USA forum or on my website, but I finally finished the home built drysuit project that I had been talking about for a while. The pics of the build are on the bbs for Black Dog Kayaks, but this isn't a commercial post, as we're not offering these for sale. It was a personal project. I know others here have been considering doing the same thing so I thought I would post pics for them.

Note that the fact that I did it does not, in any way, imply that I think that you should make your own drysuit. It's a commitment, not only of sewing, but of leak-chasing. I used over 100 feet of Gore-Seam seam tape and I'm still chasing down a leak in the left sock.

This is an important piece of safety gear, and failure of said equipment has deadly implicatins, so don't undertake this project unless you're willing to pay the price.

That said, it was a great project. I really enjoyed all of the work, the modifying of the pattern, the sewing of the suit, etc., with the exception of sealing the seams. That is a major PITA and took as much time as the sewing.

I'll be putting this up on its own page soon, but, for now, it's on the Black Dog Kayaks bbs.

Joel F.
Marquette, Michigan