ATB

John

The short answer is very well! These would be my notes:
1. The colour has faded quite a lot – simply through to the Sun when out paddling in cold but sunny conditions as well as being dried out on the line during sunny weather.
2. The neck seal split last year – no faults here, simply wear and tear. Replacement cost around £30 from a local repair shop.
3. The zips are slightly corroded but care washing it off has kept them working fine.
4. The actual T-Zip still works perfectly – I lubricate it regularly so all good.
5. No signs of delamination.

Overall, I have been very pleased with the suit! Hope this information helps out.

This review is now almost 2 years old. How as the suit performed over this period?

Thanks

John

I also managed to find several videos on You Tube addressing the self-donning rear entry drysuit topic. These may prove helpful to others reading this post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tk436Dcnus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FiI7kNapRQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNfECXLEaT8

Best regards,
Craig

I’ve only observed people use the hook on the roof rack technique and they used it to unzip.

I can contort my body. I’m a big built 5’9 so not a waifer thin paddler. Here’s my method.

I hold the left cuff of the suit in my left hand with my arm out straight out to my left hand side at shoulder level and grip tight.

I then reach my right arm behind my head as if scratching my back and grip the zipper pull. From here I pull the zipper as far shut as I can – this requires me to jiggle my left arm a little to keep the direction of the pull correct.

Once its as far across as I can I switch so my left hand goes over my right shoulder, grabs the zipper pull and finishes the job.

I must stress that until I seriously lubricated the zip I struggled but with a very well lubricated zipper this works a treat every time.

I hope my wordy description makes sense – this could be a good little video tutorial! I may have a crack at that tomorrow but it’s night time here in the UK and I’m off out for a night paddle shortly.

Hope this helps, any other questions please ask.

Thanks again,
Craig

You are right, there is an art form to this but I paddle solo 99.9% of the time and always suit up solo.

First off, I wash the drysuit very regularly and lubricate the T-Zip. I used the silicone lubricant that came with the drysuit but this was such a small tube that is was used up very swiftly. I am currently using a similar lubricant that I found in a larger tube at my local hardware store. Other people use beeswax to perform the same function.

Whether you use beeswax or silicon regular lubrication makes a huge difference to how smoothly the T-Zip runs – an amazing amount of difference.

Secondly, the angle of pull is very important. I found it difficult to master at first but realised I was pulling the zip at the wrong angle so it was meeting too much resistance.

Thirdly, once I get the T-Zip part way across, I find pinching the two sides of the zip together ahead of the zip helps it runn smoothly when it is a bit sticky.

Undoing the zip? The aleutian has a short toggle on it already with a loop. It is possible to attache a longer leash to this using a simple larks foot or a small karabiner. I know some people who then hook this over the roofrack or similar and use a turning motion away from the roofrack to undo the zip.

My main advice is to lubricate well and practice. This is all I have done and have no problems now, whereas when I first used the suit I often struggled.

Hope this was helpful and maybe some other readers can offer their own tips.

Cheers, Duncan

I just purchased a Palm Sidewinder Torrent drysuit with the identical TIZIP rear entry system, and am thus far unable to figure out how to successfully close/open the rear entry zip when suiting up solo. I assume that attaching some sort of tether to the zipper toggle will be necessary, but I haven’t attempted that yet.
Would love to get some tips from the review author and/or any readers who have mastered the “art” to this task.
All replies are appreciated.

Thanks,
Craig Davison
cwdavison@gmail.com
Dalton, Georgia
USA