Okay, so it took me about 1.5 minutes to decide I like the idea of the new SOUL drysuit.
I can even see myself using it skiing/snowboarding/snowmachining or winter snow-kiting on sloppy days. I’m coastal here, and we get great snow followed by rain on some storm-cycles. HHHMMMMM??!
Anyone have a thought on this product??
Please, can we wait til some of you have actually touched Ocean Rodeo’s newest drysuit, the SOUL!?! before we compare it to NPX’s offering? It would be so obvious to do so, but let’s wait until we’ve tested it!
How does it zip up? Can’t tell from the pictures. We need more picture of entry and neck seal. Looks great from what I can see! Love the pee zip, it’s about time!!
As you can see in the product gallery the suit zip is around the shoulders, from breast to breast. This is new patented technology from Ocean Rodeo called Captive Zip Technology. Once the jacket is zipped up (with a non dry zipper) the zip is full hidden.
Note, in the image below the zipper is open and the neck seal is pulled off and hanging down in front of the suit.
Hi John,
Very interesting! So you pull the zipper car from one breast up and around your shoulders behind your neck and then down to the other breast? Is it very difficult to pull it behind your neck? I assume you have a long pull cord on it, I don’t have very good flexibility reaching behind my neck. How is the comfort compared to the Pyro Pro? I WOULD LOVE TO TRY ONE ON!
I got to check out the Soul yesterday! Very nice design, feels softer and more pliable than the Pyro. The flat zippers are a huge improvement. I tried on the extra large and had a tough time getting my arms into the opening. John says there’s a XLK ( king) available in the fall. It’s zipper will be 2 inches longer, that’s about what I needed to comfortly get into the suit. Otherwise the suit fit well. It is more like wearing ordinary clothes in comfort, very free moving. The hood is nice and fits over a Helmut. And of course I had to try out the pee zip, no issues there, another flat non- metal zipper. The suit has a nice, easy to use upper pocket for your keys, nice feature when trying to get your key out in cold weather. I think they have a winner, my only suggestion would be to put the longer zipper on the large and extra large suits. I don’t know if the XLK is going to be too big for me and I would get the XL if it had the longer zipper. Good job guys!
As Pete mentions, the suits ship with a flat style TiZip zipper and in most suit sizes it is a 34” zipper. On the MK, LK and XLK as well as on the 2XL and 3XL models we upped the zip length to 36” to help get the shoulders through the opening. For those of you who find the 34” zip a bit tough to get past the shoulders there is a small trick which is to tuck your 2nd arm behind your back as you pop the zipper over that side’s shoulder. I’ll post a video here shortly to show you what I mean.
I might be retiring my OR Pyro Pro from 2006 in the near future. It is a Large Tall (LT). The suit fits me perfect. Do you know what the equivalent size is in the Soul?
Very nice design but you know why I won’t buy it? Like the Pyro, you make them in dark colors only. Colors that can’t be seen on the water should someone need air rescue. Why the hell 99% of kiteboarding equipment is black (wet and dry suits, impact vest, PFD’s)? It makes absolutely no sense. Kayaking dry suits are almost all yellow and red. That stuff should be red, orange and yellow, not gray, dark blue and black. So for me, although not as well designed as the Soul (but better fabric with Gore-Tex), my first choice remains the Kokatat GFER because it comes in yellow, otherwise i would have liked the Soul.
