I got my new Fusion two days ago, and I spent the whole day in the water with it yesterday. The bottom line: They've improved the suit enormously since I bought my original. It was a good suit then, and it's a better suit now.
The details:
The cut of the suit has been changed even since the loaner I've been using. It is now trivial to get into and out of the suit with the MK3 undergarment on. This is a big plus! The current suspenders are very nice and hugely better than the original ones. I like the Tech skin -- the pockets are enough for any open water diving I will do. (For caves, I'm still going to have to use the Sport skin and X-shorts, in order to carry around bunches of spools.)
The neck ring was something I was a little worried about, having read at least one report of someone finding it uncomfortable. I'm so narrow across the shoulders, I was afraid it would end up under my harness and be uncomfortable. Looking at it, before putting the suit on, didn't reassure me any. But in practice, the ring makes putting the neck seal on a little tiny bit more difficult (or maybe just more awkward), but once it is on, the ring was completely unnoticeable. I'm very happy about this!
The silicone neck seal is very soft and stretchy, but unfortunately WAY too big for my neck. I used it yesterday with a BioSeal under it, and it seeped only a little, which is fine for summer and short dives, but probably isn't going to work for winter and long ones. It will have to be replaced with a small latex seal
The wrist rings are much bigger than I expected, and my first reaction was panic, because there was NO way that my Viking dry glove rings were going to go on behind the SiTech ones. But I investigated the situation a bit further, and discovered that I could remove the inner ring from the SiTech system, and actually use the OUTER ring of the Viking bayonet setup to replace it, and it worked perfectly. And the end result feels nothing different from my Viking rings alone. Major win here!
On the other hand, the silicone wrist seals, which are soft and lovely, are also too big . . . good enough for use under the dry gloves, where a major flood is going to make me head in anyway, but they will NOT work in Mexico, where I don't wear gloves and do use my hands a lot. So they'll have to be replaced with latex, too.
Bottom line, as I said, is that this was a good suit, and is now a better one, but small people who are going to use the ring system should just order the small latex seals to start with, and skip the silicone, at least until or unless they start making them in more than one size.
Thanks to Mike at Dive Right In Scuba for making me a very nice deal on a new suit!
The details:
The cut of the suit has been changed even since the loaner I've been using. It is now trivial to get into and out of the suit with the MK3 undergarment on. This is a big plus! The current suspenders are very nice and hugely better than the original ones. I like the Tech skin -- the pockets are enough for any open water diving I will do. (For caves, I'm still going to have to use the Sport skin and X-shorts, in order to carry around bunches of spools.)
The neck ring was something I was a little worried about, having read at least one report of someone finding it uncomfortable. I'm so narrow across the shoulders, I was afraid it would end up under my harness and be uncomfortable. Looking at it, before putting the suit on, didn't reassure me any. But in practice, the ring makes putting the neck seal on a little tiny bit more difficult (or maybe just more awkward), but once it is on, the ring was completely unnoticeable. I'm very happy about this!
The silicone neck seal is very soft and stretchy, but unfortunately WAY too big for my neck. I used it yesterday with a BioSeal under it, and it seeped only a little, which is fine for summer and short dives, but probably isn't going to work for winter and long ones. It will have to be replaced with a small latex seal
The wrist rings are much bigger than I expected, and my first reaction was panic, because there was NO way that my Viking dry glove rings were going to go on behind the SiTech ones. But I investigated the situation a bit further, and discovered that I could remove the inner ring from the SiTech system, and actually use the OUTER ring of the Viking bayonet setup to replace it, and it worked perfectly. And the end result feels nothing different from my Viking rings alone. Major win here!
On the other hand, the silicone wrist seals, which are soft and lovely, are also too big . . . good enough for use under the dry gloves, where a major flood is going to make me head in anyway, but they will NOT work in Mexico, where I don't wear gloves and do use my hands a lot. So they'll have to be replaced with latex, too.
Bottom line, as I said, is that this was a good suit, and is now a better one, but small people who are going to use the ring system should just order the small latex seals to start with, and skip the silicone, at least until or unless they start making them in more than one size.
Thanks to Mike at Dive Right In Scuba for making me a very nice deal on a new suit!
