Per Hanta-Yo-Yo:
I corresponded with various Dry suit designers, and ended up with a two
piece Palm for the exact reasons you are discussing. The wide waist
seal compartmentalizes the suit like a bulkhead. Also the suit can be
cut to a closer fit to minimalize the amount of volume inside the suit,
ie less water volume. You can vent water out of the suit if necessary,
and with ankle seals and booties. Cold wet feet can be a problem, not
being able to breathe a bigger problem!

With the two piece design, there are also no zippers to leak and need
replacing. And most important, You can go # 1 and # 2 without being
Houdini!

Before buying my Kokatat bag suit, I had a couple of Bare "Polar" dry suits.
These were basically a neoprene farmer john bonded to a nylon bag top. They
gave all the upper-body mobility I could ever want while providing floatation,
bruise-resistance, and streamlining (for swimming) on the bottom.

Only reasons I moved to the Kokatat we
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- The second Bare finally wore out,
- They'd changed the cut of the john in such a way that I didn't care for it,
- The whole suit was so heavy/warm that I needed a "spring suit" to supplement
it during the times when it was too warm for the Polar but too cold for just
shorts and a t-shirt.
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The Kokatat is nice, but I'm getting closer and closer to indulging a recurrent
fantasy of getting a glued-and-taped lightweight john plus one of those dry tops
that have an elastic waistband.

Seems to me like the john/dry top is the best of both worlds except for
entry/exit. You get the unlimited upper-body mobility, you get the
protection/floatation/streamlining of neoprene, and, even though you get the
drainability of ankle cuffs, drainability becomes a non-issue because the john
is a tight fit.

Also you get an acceptable degree of adjustability. You can wear just the john,
just the top, or both together with varying supplemental layers under the top.
You could even have two johns: something like 2mm and a 5mm for warm/cold water.

I always wear neo booties under my surf shoes anyhow to reduce bruising on my
feet, and maybe having calf zippers on the john would mitigate the remaining
entry/exit issue.
--
PeteCresswell