Evolution 2 Drysuit

This suit is well made. I got it with socks and use the Pinnacle over boots and I love it. The Cordura material is tough and stands up to constant diving without showing wear. It's close fitting and conforms to my body in the water, making it fairly streamlined for a laminate drysuit.

Purchased this drysuit from DRIS, the condura material is extremely durable almost feels like a heavy duty canvas. Put in a couple of dives with it and had no leaks. Also love the sizing styles that Pinnacle has that gives you a wide range of body types.

I'm a short squatty guy, can't get anything to fit but the King2 size worked out perfectly. The suit quality is high - very thick, durable suit with great boots (i chose the boot option). Just the shell is very warm due to its thickness, I dove it in 53 degree water with the DRIS undergarment and it was almost too warm. I also dive it in 64 degree water and roasted. The suit should last me longer than I'll be able to drive dry!

Pinnacle Evolution 3 Review
I started shopping around and quickly started narrowing my search to the bare brand, and then surprisingly the pinnacle brand. I guess my timing was good, I found a pinnacle freedom 2 deal at DRIS. I found that I could get a F2 +undergarment (of choice)+boots+hose+suspenders for just under $1k delivered. Wow! I contacted Mike at DRIS and started moving forward. After several emails and a phone call I was informed that pinnacle was going to make my F2 out of the same material as the E3, which was fine with me. I was just happy to get a combo package like this for the price I was getting. Oh and I picked up some HOG tech fins for $65. Another deal!
So I ordered the suit at the end of November/beginning of December and it arrived around the 5th of January. I had hoped for a New Years dive etc, but oh well.

The day the suit arrived I rushed home to open the box. I was so stoked to get a new drysuit. I had been advised that the material would be a gray/grey, and not the black shown on the website. I didn’t mind that at all mind you. Well I opened the box and lo and behold, there sat an Evolution 3!!! I’m like Holy crap!!!!!!!! It’s Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I immediately took inventory of the box and all of the items had arrived. First things first. I tried on the undergarment. True to form it was “snug” on my shoulders and chest, and VERY long on the torso/legs. I’m used to this mind you. I think took off the garment and put the suit on w/o the garment. I found there was plenty of room and the legs fit fairly well. I thought they were long, but after sending pictures to Mike he told me that length was normal to allow for movement. Well, he is the expert so I’ll take his word for it. Oh and the neck needed trimming, I have an 18” neck, it’s sort of tight at this point. I then put the garment back on then the drysuit. Everything went on fine with the exception of the legs, they are so long in the garment that the material packs into the legs limiting how much I can pull it up. The evolution fleece undergarment is darn thick and hot when you aren’t in the water. Wow.
Now it’s time to “train”. My buddy and I rented the pool for a couple hours one evening so I could find my buoyancy etc. I had studied and asked as many questions as possible about the skills I needed so I tried every conceivable drill I could do. The suit performed flawlessly with no issues at all related to floaty feet. Did I say the garment was hot? I nearly passed out due to the heat, seriously. It was at this night of training that I decided I had to do something about the legs.
Now to evaluate the materials as I see them.

--Weight of material: this appears and feels to be a very stout material, holes will not be an issue unless I’m really abusive to the suit.
--Quality of stitching: everything looks good so far, nothing crooked etc.
--Quality of sealing: I can see a couple places where the seal tap wants to pull away (I don’t know if that is the correct term). These location appear to be where there are multi layers in the area of where the booty attaches.
I’ll be watching this. I don’t see an issue with the seam, just the tape.
--Quality of the seals: Damn the wrist seals are thick and hard to trim. Neck seal is good and not so hard to trim.
--There is a flap with Velcro covering the main zipper, which is nice. I would have preferred a zippered flap, but again cost.
--The booties are supposed to be sized for a 10, they are just a touch snug making socks a selection issue. On the last dive I used regular socks and lavacore socks, this worked well.
--Thigh pockets, nice to have and plenty big with bungee in them.
--Over all fitment is really good. The thighs are a touch baggy but work great with undergarments like they should. Fit on the shoulders w/o the garment is loose enough that with the garment it is a non-issue.


Diving it:
I have found no issues diving the suit, I can maneuver and go head up or down and go back to horizontal with no problems. I do need to master the shoulder valve, I have it opened too far and will vent air when I inflate to remove squeeze. Causing me to use even more air (waste of air). Once I get the valve set I’m going to be fine. I had one start of a run-a-way and got it stopped after only about 10’. I was really happy with how quickly I recovered. No issues after that as I tracked what had happened and made sure it didn’t happen again.
Overall impressions:
I like the suit, for my first suit this is proving to be quite a bargain. I look forward to many more dives.

ETA: I thought I would add something about flexibility. When comparing my DS to my 7mm I feel I actually have more mobility. My SI is much more comfortable, I must say that when I am shrink wrapped I do feel rather constricted, but I consider that not a normal condition. The undergarment really causes the restricted mobility for me. Hopefully Rondel's undergarment will be less restrictive.

I love this suit! I've taken it on about a dozen OW dives and 20 cave dives and not had any problems with it (other than a few user error). The suit is really rugged - not so much as a scratch despite crawling through some tight rock restrictions that scratched up my regs and tanks but just dirt on the suit. The pockets are great - roomy enough for a spare mask, spool, slate, clips, etc, and the lanyards inside are make clipping everything off easy. The Velco pockets are easy to open and close and keep everything secure. The wrist seals are also durable and I never feel worried about them ripped when donning. Speaking of donning - the suit is easy to don and doff by yourself. It's never leaked or flooded at all except for one of the "user error" moments where I forgot to fully close the zipper....doh!

As always, working with DRIS was great! I stopped by and Mike had me try on several suits including this one. Once I donned this one, we could just tell that this was the one that fit the best and I was most comfortable in. Overall, I'm very satisfied with this purchase and my experience with DRIS!

Value for money, you cannot beat this suit.

It is on par with the DUI CLX450 and the BARE TechHD.

Unlike the BARE and the DUI, it comes standard with suspenders, pockets, drysuit hood, inflator hose, and vaulcanized boots.

The cordura makes it super strong.

There are a couple quips though. The vaulcanized boots make it impossible to invert completely making it rather difficult to dry the neoprene in the boots. The boots are comfortable though, because they hold shape so it keeps your feet warm, however they are pliable so they compress under water and if you don't have spring straps your fins may fall off in the middle of a dive.

It's a toss up on whether or not you want boots.

This suit is great! It is comfortable, does not leak, and is built like a tank. The cordura material defiantly feels like it can take a beating. The downside is that the suit is heavier than some alternatives. I cannot say if it really restricts movement more than other suits though. It is defiantly thinner than neoprene suits though.

This is a very high quality suit for the price. I did research between this suit, and many others including the Bare Trilam HD, and am glad I choose the value packed Pinnacle instead. The construction and material are heavy duty, the seals fit good, the valves work great, and it looks great also. It comes with two nice pockets that are added options on many other suits, I would recommend this suit to any diver who is in need of a rugged suit that will withstand abuse, if you take it easy on your equipment you may also look at the Pinnacle freedom for something a little lighter. My experience with Dive Right in Scuba has been great, any time I have a question they are quick to respond. Thanks.

I own this suite and I've been diving with it for near to 30 dives.
The most remarkable property of this suite is that it's indestructible, you can dive in wrecks with confident that the suit will sustain the abuse.
It's well constructed, the internal seals have a good quality.
Cons: As with any trilaminate your movements are a little restrained with the suite.