You’re done with your last dive of the day. You are soaked and cold and just want to get out of your sopping wet dive gear but privacy options are limited. Either your shore dive entry point has no places to retreat to or your dive boat has a line of equally saturated and frigid divers waiting at the single door to the head. There is an option: The Short Sleeve Towel Dryrobe®.

 

Dryrobe® is more than a traditional dive parka and much more than a beach towel. It is a simple product that gives you complete privacy while you slip out of your soaked gear and into a dry change of clothes while doubling as an absorbent towel to dry off with and a means to warm yourself much like a zippered jacket would.

 

Those of us at ATA/BAR DIVERS were early adopters of the Dryrobe®, the product of a UK-based company of the same name. With its unfitted, roomy sleeves, the Dryrobe® is well suited for women who must deal with apparel  on the top-half of their bodies, and such changes can be done in privacy among divers and others on the boat deck, beach, parking lot, or roadway shoulder. The Dryrobe® proclaims itself as The Outdoor Change Robe™.

 

When we purchased our Dryrobes in 2015, the international shipment was received from the UK. Their US- and UK-based websites appear to have expanded their product line since that time.

 

The robes are made from thick, supple, and absorbent terry material that holds up very well with machine washing and drying. The Short Sleeve Towel Dryrobe® always garner comments on dive boats. And as far as our conventional dive jackets and parkas? They are getting plenty of rest on their respective hangers in our dive gear closet.

 

We do have a couple of observations for potential buyers:

 

(1) If you are taller than the average diver, you may be disappointed with the Dryrobe’s length, which is 3'7" long from shoulder to hem, according to the Dryrobe® website.  On an exemplar 6'2” [188 cm] male diver, the hemline rests several inches short of the kneecaps, and that is with no bending or other contortions normally associated with a clothes change (see Figure 2). With taller users, this hem could easily result in an inadvertent "bum spotting," or worse!

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(2) Make sure to initially wash the Dryrobe® separately in cold water to avoid damaging other clothes in the same wash.

 

In short (no pun intended), we are big fans of the Dryrobe® and we think you will be too.

 

Dryrobe® and The Outdoor Change Robe™ are the respective registered trademark and trademark of Dryrobe.

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This product review is solely the opinion of ATA/BAR DIVERS as a product consumer and is provided without compensation, affiliation or consideration of any kind.

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