Bare has a detailed website for these new suits, but I was wondering if anyone had "real world" experience with them yet?
Bare Reactive Wetsuits--Anyone tried them?
- Thread starter guyharrisonphoto
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Schrooge
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That is a great offer.
I can't add experience but I have been looking for a wetsuit lately and everything I want says Bare Reactive.
My research is always long and hard because I live in South Africa and sometimes like to order stuff I've never seen. I hope this thread sees some responses.
GL
I just bought one (3mm) and used it about two weeks ago for 6 dives. Even though the water was not cold (+/- 80F) it was nice and warm and you could hardly feel water entering the suit. It is like a thin semi-dry. It was warmer than any other 3mm I have owned and this is probably the 5th one over the past few years. I have a 5mm on the way for the fall, then back to the dry suit for the winter.
My newly certified (5 dives including OW) nephew came down to visit over the recent July 4 holiday long weekend along with several of his siblings. I took him to my favorite local dive shop to see about getting a wetsuit so we could do some dives. Between our first and second visit, the Bare Reactive wetsuits came in. The wet suit fit him very well, it seems to be well made and all seams are fully sealed, so he bought that instead of the Henderson he was initially planning to get. It's a 7mm suit. For So Cal water, my nephew was warm and toasty the whole time we were in the water, two shore dives one day and one long 60+ minute shore dive yesterday (including a 30+ minute swim to where we dove and another long swim back). No hood and water temperature was in the upper 50s. He thinks the suit will be plenty warm for diving in Monterey Bay
From everything I've seen, I'll probably pick one up when my current 7mm suit wears out unless something better is available by then
From everything I've seen, I'll probably pick one up when my current 7mm suit wears out unless something better is available by then
I got to try out the 7mm Bare Reactive wetsuit for two dives on Sunday in a local lake. It was a mlt and according to Bare's size chart I think I am a ml. The owner of the suit said I maybe should have a medium. The first dive I wore it with a 7 mm hood and the second dive with a hooded vest (3mm vest).
I found the suit soft, stretchy and very comfortable to wear in and out of the water. The ankle cuffs have long zippers that allow easy donning. The double cuff design minimises water flow. Turn up the outer cuff, put on your boot or glove over the inner cuff then roll the outer cuff down over the boot/glove.
I found a little water flow around my neck the first dive and the hooded vest eliminated this on the second dive.
The first dive was 26 minutes, maximum depth 82 feet, 46 degrees F. I was very very cold at depth but on ascending to 30 feet the water was like bath water.
The second dive was 34 minutes, maximum depth 80 feet, 45 degrees F. Even with adding the 3mm hooded vest I was just as cold as on the first dive.
To me the suit is not suitable for the diving we do in this area.
I found the suit soft, stretchy and very comfortable to wear in and out of the water. The ankle cuffs have long zippers that allow easy donning. The double cuff design minimises water flow. Turn up the outer cuff, put on your boot or glove over the inner cuff then roll the outer cuff down over the boot/glove.
I found a little water flow around my neck the first dive and the hooded vest eliminated this on the second dive.
The first dive was 26 minutes, maximum depth 82 feet, 46 degrees F. I was very very cold at depth but on ascending to 30 feet the water was like bath water.
The second dive was 34 minutes, maximum depth 80 feet, 45 degrees F. Even with adding the 3mm hooded vest I was just as cold as on the first dive.
To me the suit is not suitable for the diving we do in this area.
I have used my 7mm twice now, 56F for an hour on the last dive and was entirely comfortable. I was using my existing 7mm step-in Bare Elastek hooded vest with it. It seems like a nice trade-up from my 7mm Bare Arctic from 2005 with 300+ dives on it.
The first time I used just my Seasoft Stealth boots alone and felt some water intrusion around the inner seal/dam. For the second time I went with neoprene socks, pulled the seal/dam down over that then the boot and covered it all with the outer zippered leg layer. That labyrinth seal was about as perfect as my drysuit! The rest fit with perfect compression and was awesome. The seam construction should keep it water tight for a long time.
Case closed on my wetsuit upgrade.
Pete
The first time I used just my Seasoft Stealth boots alone and felt some water intrusion around the inner seal/dam. For the second time I went with neoprene socks, pulled the seal/dam down over that then the boot and covered it all with the outer zippered leg layer. That labyrinth seal was about as perfect as my drysuit! The rest fit with perfect compression and was awesome. The seam construction should keep it water tight for a long time.
Case closed on my wetsuit upgrade.
Pete
OP
Bringing this thread back. Although I don't buy the infra-red material hype, they look like very well put together suits and I am interested. For you users, how does the inner lining dry out? Does it dry quickly, or does it take hours or overnight like most wetsuits?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Why not? Don't those super thin "space blankets" purport to do the same thing? And they are known to work, right? Work better than an equally thin layer of neoprene, anyway. Why couldn't the Bare suits have something that works on the same principal? Your body radiates heat as infrared radiation. A wetsuit with a material that reflects that and thus keeps you warmer seems believable.
Anyway, I know 3 local guys that have these suits. And at least 2 of the dive guides on the boat I was on last week in Hawaii had them. Of the local guys, the representative comment I've heard is "I wear my 5mm Reactive suit in the quarry and I am just as warm as wearing my other suit that is 7mm." All 5 of the people I've talked to about them all seem to agree that they are warmer than any other suit they've used of the same thickness.
One new bit, to me, was noticing that one of my dive guides last week had a broken main zipper on his. It had broken. He worked it and got it back together and was just making sure not to zip it too far up or down (I can't remember direction was the problem). Then he accidentally did zip it too far and it came apart again, which is how I noticed it. Anyway.... he said that they loved the suits but his shop had seen an unusually high number of main zipper failures on the Reactive suits as compared to other suits. He added that I should at least note that his suit had something like 500 dives on it... I didn't attempt to clarify but his gist seemed to be that the zippers aren't typically breaking right away or anything. They just seem to not last AS long as zippers on other suits.
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