Boldly Wear What No Diver Has Worn Before

To my knowledge, there weren’t many underwater exploits on any of the Star Trek series, but that didn’t stop Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, son to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, from creating “The Original Series Wetsuit” that would make his father proud…I think.

While Gene was crazy about outer space, Rod loves the watery depths and created the Roddenberry Dive Team to increase ocean awareness. “Our mission is to use the notoriety of the Roddenberry name and Star Trek to get people’s attention that indeed our oceans are truly the final frontier,” he told Undercurrent. A $50 membership fee gets you discounts on team events and logoed gear sold on the Web site.

For the wetsuits, Roddenberry worked with West Coast custom shop JMJ Wetsuits to create 3-, 5- and 7-mm onepiece, full-length wetsuits with the uniform colors and rank insignias that Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew wore. And yes, these are real wetsuits, Roddenberry says. “These are not novel gimmicks, these are the real deal, made using the highest- quality materials and expert craftsmanship.”

Priced between a whopping $435 and $470, these may be wetsuits only devoted Trekkies will spring for, but each wetsuit is custom-made. You need to get yourself sized and measured by a professional tailor first, then you send the measurements to JMJ and it’ll deliver your perfect-fit wetsuit in six to eight weeks. You’ve got your choice of Command Yellow, Science Blue and Engineering Red, although you may not want to wear the latter on a shark dive. To buy the wetsuits and join the dive club, go to www.roddenberrydiveteam.com.