Drysuits I have owned include a neoprene Poseidon Jetsuit, a thin fabric shell drysuit, and 2 Viking pro series rubber drysuits.

The thin fabric shell drysuit sucked, as it doesn't stretch at all. The Jetsuit was ok.

The Vikings are really awesome. I personally have tried on a so called "self donning" diagonal zipper arrangement and i still cannot figure out what the draw it. It is hard to get into, reduces vertical stretch, often required a horizontal bellows at the waist to re-impart vertical stretch, is heavier, is longer, and makes the suit a royal pain in the rear to get into.

The rear should zipper is so easy to get into by myself.

As to the compressed neoprene suits, they have good stretch, do insulate a good deal on their own, are heavier, and are a tad more difficult to find a leak.

With a smooth vulcanized rubber over fabric, the Vikings dry REAL quick, are finding the pinhole from that urchin is really quick, and if you're lazy, you can seal it temporarily with a little square of duct tape if you don't have any AquaSeal.

Same goes for neck seals. I've repaired them temporarily with duct tape and PVC glue.

The only value I see for my dive style in rock boots is it is 2 more things to lose. Are they heavy duty? yes, have I ever even come close to wearing out attached boots? Not in a million years. Do rock boots take longer to install and lace up, slowing you down? Yep.I don't think they have ever heard of velcro. I think guys buy them because they think they look macho and have a macho name. If I ever go hiking in full gear over a rocky area I will be sure to get a pair.

As to DUI, they have a great reputation, they certainly are popular in SoCal, and they will do a CF200 suit custom.

As to Viking, nobody knows about it as they really don't advertise much but they have a vulcanized rubber drysuit where the interior lining is like a heavy stretchy Lycra as opposed to their usual heavy cotton canvas lining.

It is the canvas lining that doesn't stretch all that much in comparison at leas to the rubber coating. Viking's new black stretchy Lycra liner drysuit is a much more comfortable suit as it stretches more, but your only color choice is black.

The neck seal only and separate hood is nice in SoCal, as in the summer you dive without a hood, but that might not work in Canada.

Keep all this stuff far away from your refrigerator, as the ozone will kill your rubber fast.

Below caption: "Can somebody help me trim my face seal!?"