Heatwave Custom Wetsuits

I’m sure Heatwave is fine for surf suits, but if you’re looking for a scuba suit, look somewhere else.
Had a custom scuba diving suit made here in August 2014. We also took in a few other suits for alterations. As the staff (owner?) measured me, me mumbled prices and scribbled them on a scrap of paper that I could not decipher. I remember hearing «seven hundred dollars» which I thought was going to be the total since it sounded about right for a custom suit (around $ 400 to $ 500) and the alterations and repairs on the other suits (around $ 50 each.)
I wanted a scuba suit which has very different needs from a surf suit, specifically:
— in a surf suit you get in it once and stay in it for a few hours. In a scuba suit you’re getting in and out of it 3 or 4 times a day. Ease of donning and doffing is critical.
— A surf suit that drys fast is not as important as durability, but in diving suits a faster drying suit means a much more comfortable donning and less stink after two or three weeks of continuous use.
— The surf suit is never intended to see depths more than a few feet. Dive suits must withstand repeated deep compression and not collapse.
— In a surf suit flexibility is paramount in arms and legs. In a dive suit the most important point that needs to be flexible is the neck as you’re always panning your head left, right, up & down.
It was very clear that this shop is intended to make surf suits and not dive suits:
— The person doing the measurements repeatedly said, «I don’t like zippers.» Zippers are extremely helpful on dive suits. We had to beg to get zippers put in and then beg again at the fitting to make the zippers «extra long» (which to me were «normal» zippers while the default ones were «uselessly short».)
— The neoprene in the shop was all low-​end. Dive suits are best when made out of stiff pre-​crushed neoprene or rubatex that resist being crushed to half their thickness by water pressure. There was only one type of fast-​drying skinned neoprene and it didn’t have any sort of friction reduction treatment.
After two weeks I went back for a fitting. The suit fit horribly; barely stretching to get over my shoulders. The staff (owner?) didn’t believe me assuming I had just put it on wrong or was being a whiner, and tried to wrestle me into the suit. Eventually, after some fruitless but painful hair ripping and tug of war, the staff (owner?) admitted the suit was horribly short in the torso with the words, «How did I get it so wrong?» The main reason I wanted to get a suit locally made; even though it was going to be made with inferior materials, was the fitting and this had more-​or-​less just been nullified. It was too late to order an off the shelf suit, so I was committed to this suit.
A little less than a week later I went in to pick up the suit. The suit did fit adequately, but the neck was clearly designed for a surfer, with a tight fit in front (so water doesn’t rush down your front when you duck dive or turtle) and a large gap in back instead of the turtle-​neck like design of a scuba suit. The final price for the suit ALONE was $ 700. I could have bought two top-​of-​the-​line OTC Henderson or Bare suits for that, each of which would have lasted a lot longer and had more features.
After 60 dives in three weeks the suit has crushed down from a warm ⁵⁄₃ to a ³⁄₁ (as expected) and it’s now a tropical-​only suit.

My large sized (6’5″/250) son just had a custom wetsuit made here. The gentleman who owns the shop is the nicest, most talented person I have come across in a long time. A master craftsman is a master craftsman, doesn’t make any difference if it is a wetsuit or a saddle.
He is very soft spoken and knows his craft well. I asked him about using patterns? He said that he was taught to free hand suits and that is the way he makes them. Just for kicks, I went over that suit with a fine tooth comb. There was not one stitch out of place. The suit was not just a wetsuit, it is a work of art.
The fit is impeccable. It was so nice for my son to put something on that actually fit in the shoulders and was long enough. He went with the two piece suit because that was what the shop recommended and it was the right thing.
The price of the suit was so reasonable that we almost felt like we were stealing it! It was worth twice the price. Anything to fit so well that has so many variables to the fit is remarkable to say the least.

I bought a small item at Heat Wave (under 15 $) and after a few uses, it started to rip at the seams. I brought the item back to see what we could do to fix it and they were super friendly, super helpful and solved my issue. Great customer service and definitely will look to them for bigger purchases in the future!

Went here to get some adjustments made on my wetsuit and had to repair a torn seem. The staff here are really friendly, and get the work done quickly, correctly and are pretty inexpensive. What I also like about them is that they can alter some pieces as well, one of my buddies has a long but narrow foot, and his booties started to stretch quite a bit, I told him about this spot and he was surprised how cheap it would be to get the work done. They have told me that they can get the work done by adding material to certain areas, some guy I know have had to add more material to a certain lower torso region because they needed «more room down there.» While I do not particularly care to see exactly what is not fitting where in my buddies wetsuit, frankly it nice to know that heatwave can accommodate anyone’s wishes to customize their wetsuit, even if it mean adding more neoprene to the gentlemen’s area… I heard it does cost more to add material then to take it away…
While I love them, they are surfer’s here at heart, and that on some really really good days, the shop may not be open despite what the website, Unilocal or the phone says. I strongly recommend calling before so you can make sure that they are open. Oh and if you are of a unique size you can have a custom made wetsuit just for you, prices will range depending on the size, thickness, material and even the type of entry system. I’ve never worn one but it does look pretty nice. Here’s a link to the custom measurement order page.
Some of the measurements sounds really weird so here is a page that explains what those measurements actually mean…