Dear DUI (Susan, Faith, Deaone, and the rest of the DUI team).
Many of the folks at DUI know who I am. I am not just the fun guy who enjoys coming to all the DUI Demo Days (Stage Fort Park, Dutch Springs, Brownstone) but also for being the “3rd times a charm” drysuit guy.
This is a letter of one guy's experience with his DUI drysuit. In autumn of 2007 I had the pleasure of attending a DUI Demo Day for the first time down at Brownstone Park in CT. I attended the Public Safety Day because, as the training coordinator for my local fire department, I wanted to see what was being offered. But more honestly, I wanted to find out what the big deal was with DUI.
As someone that is relatively new to the sport of scuba diving (been diving for two years now but, at the time, it was 
only 3 months), I needed to find out what was the big deal about drysuit diving. In my opinion, I thought drysuit divers were simply spoiled people that couldn't handle the challenges of true New England diving (listen to me - the so pompous diver that I was, diving wet in a 7mm in low 40* waters). Why would anyone spend 4-6 times the money for diving dry? It was just too much as far as I was concerned.
At the Demo Day, there was this nice young man (later to learn was Dave) and this buxom, blond named Susan (did not know who she was other than promoting DUI). Susan was diligent and got me into a TLS Signature drysuit. It basically fit and off I went for my first drysuit dive EVER. While I knew nothing about proper management of the suit, all I knew was that I felt in trim, dry, and to my surprise, really comfortable in the water.
After that, I enjoyed the rest of the weekend diving that same drysuit over and over and over. Sunday rolled around, I got my measurement for my own drysuit and off to Inland Divers in Leicester, MA I went. Almost immediately I purchased a TLS350 Signature Series drysuit.
Several weeks later my drysuit arrived, and while there was a little challenge in the forearms, I was not about to give up my new drysuit. So began my marathon and conversion to drysuit diving. Remember my previous comments of "pompous and spoiled divers," well, now I was a believer and I had “seen the light” and the way of drysuit diving. All that winter and through 2008 I used my drysuit, putting on nearly 300 dives in one season. I loved that suit. The only issue I ever had was the tightness around the forearms.
In the winter of 2008/2009 I was heading to Atlanta to do some work and figured since I was going to be in a warmer part of the country, I could afford to give up my drysuit and dive wet once again (return #1). That dive season turned out to be the coldest winter in over a decade and the average water temp for the season was in the low 40s. I will be honest, I was cursing the name DUI, first for haven given up my drysuit, but also because I wanted you to be the Grinch and take everyone at DUI holiday's away just to get me my drysuit back.
When I got my drysuit back, for some reason the forearms felt even worse than before. I was guessing that after having been diving wet for the last month and a half, nothing was going to feel right. My dealer, Ed Hays from Scuba Shack, suggested I go to the Beneath the Sea Show and try on the drysuit in front of Faith.
I almost forgot to mention that on my first dive after getting the drysuit back, I broke the zipper. So off to DUI it went again. That was return #2.
At DUI Demo Days in Gloucester, MA (May1-3) I figured I would go try my drysuit and help out with the event. Low and behold, I came out of the water after the first dive and I had a multiple of leaks. With Faith and Deaone from DUI both being there and promising to take care of it, I begrudgingly gave up my drysuit again (return #3).
Now I’m at the Dutch Springs Demo Day 2009 (May 15-17). Dave hands me my drysuit back. I inspect it top to bottom, various adjustments, leaks seemed fixed. Now it was time to go back in the water. After suiting up, the moment had come. I started to walk down the ramp into the water. As I begin to feel the squeeze around my legs, I feared the worse, a leak, but wait, there wasn't any. Then I lay down face first in the water to distribute air around the drysuit, and there still was no leak. Now off for the maiden voyage. 30 minutes later, depths in excess of 90', I was completely dry. More importantly, and why I love my drysuit so much, is because while I was cruising around, in trim, dry, and comfortable, something else started to happen. I felt the joy of diving over-whelming and filling me again.
So when Faith asked me if everything was good, I don't know who was happier, me or Faith or Deaone.
I write this letter, to not only say thank you for taking care of the problems that occurred, but for re-installing my confidence in DUI, and most importantly for bringing the pleasure of diving back to me.
In the end, I simply wanted to say "thank you."
Forest W.S. Rothchild
Charlton, MA
