This is another area where I stepped away from the Scubapro Drysuit line. Although, I do like their neoprene one, I’ve outfitted many students in it and it handles well.
Long before I decided to go the professional route I saw a discussion about drysuits, probably on Scubaboard*, about the pros and cons of different types of suits. I may go into some of those differences later, but for now I’ll say I got interested in the Whites Fusion (before it was bought by Aqualung).
Over the years,I tried a few others and found that normal shell suits had a really steep learning curve dealing with the air bubble. I didn’t want a neoprene one as I wanted more temperature tolerance. So thanks to Indian Valley Scuba, they had a “try a drysuit” dive at a quarry nearby. before I put down some serious cash, I had a chance to try the Fusion. I saw written somewhere that it was like diving a wetsuit and after more than 7 years of diving it I have to say it does dive more like a wetsuit than any other drysuit I’ve tried. I have 3 of the skins for it; the Tech, Bullet and Sport.
Unfortunately nothing is perfect and that is true of my drysuit. I think the two nits I have are the pockets and the time to put it on. Neither the ones on the Tech or the Bullet are useful to me. I ended up using the Sport and currently using a pair of Apeks Dive Shorts. So far the only ones that have a high enough waist, that I don’t feel like they’ll fall off.
It does take a few minutes more to put it on.
After diving the latex seals (both neck and wrist) that came with it for a few years I switched to the SI Tech 1st generation neck wring and wrist cuffs with the ANTARES dry gloves. Although I love the rings and cuffs with silicone seals, I really hate the Antares glove system**. I’ve about given up trying to make them work without leaking. I have even gotten the orange inserts to try and make the seal better. But it hasn’t, they still leaked pretty bad on last week’s dive. I have one last idea and then I’ll find a different system. The problems started with even putting the rings in. I used the thinner blue gloves and tried to use the recommended blue rings. After breaking 4 of them we moved to the green ones and that worked. I wouldn’t even want to try any thicker gloves.
* Scubaboard – where the internet goes to dive ? – Probably the best place to learn new things about diving. Just remember it is the internet so take what you read with a bit skepticism and a thick skin.
** This is of course my opinion and my experience. Yours may differ.
