LG Diver
Guest
My new Fusion drysuit with tech skin and pockets arrived the other night, and I've spent the last few nights trying it on with various undergarments, installing DC drygloves and a Halcyon p-valve on it. Tomorrow is it's maiden voyage so I don't have any in-water feedback yet, but below are my initial observations about the suit. I also bought the Whites Mk2 undergarment, as well as a Softwear 200 weight one-piece undergarment, and I'll be giving my thoughts on these in a separate thread.
1)The suit is VERY light compared to my CF200x (no surprise there). Im sure that when I compare wet weight after a dive the difference will be even more noticeable.
2)The suits range of motion is amazing! I have pretty much unlimited range of motion in the suit, once I figured out the correct suspender tightness (the suspenders arent elastic like the DUI ones are, so correct tightness is important). I initially tightened the suspenders so they had no slack while standing with arms at my side, but found that this impeded range of motion when I tried to bend over and touch my toes or crouch down and curl up into a little ball. I loosened them up all the way, crouched down and curled up in a little ball, and then took the slack out of them, and theres now complete range of motion. This adjustment also allows me to raise my arms completely over my head without feeling any tension in the suit.
3)Putting the suit on takes a little getting used to. I basically put one leg in as far as I can, fold the suit back and grab the inner liner, pull up some more, repeat several times until the leg is all the way in then repeat on the other side. Once the feet are all the way in, its easy from there. Just pull the whole thing up to the waist, adjust the skin, put the suspenders on, and then arms through. Doing this in the comfort of my home was a bit cumbersome. How this goes at the dive site without getting sand/dirt all over everything remains to be seen. I have to pretty much lay the whole thing down on the ground to get into it, whereas I could hold the DUI suit and sort of step into it without laying it down and getting it all dirty.
4)The neoprene tech skin has a lot more stretch to it than I expected. This makes for a nice tight fit. It really does look and feel very streamlined and has the look of a custom suit. Whether the stretchiness of the skin results in sag when the pockets are full remains to be seen.
5)Thankfully, the suit is not as Power Rangerish as I had feared, even with the graphics on the back and arms. I wouldnt call the graphics understated, but theyre not completely obnoxious either. If I had my preference Id go with all black, but this is a minor thing.
6)Installing DC dry glove rings on the suit is made somewhat more difficult by the integrated neoprene double cuff, but once the rings are on the suit the neoprene cuff covers the suit ring o-rings so the DCs gators are not needed.
7)The wrist seals are rather short in length- similar to the DUI seals, so when dry glove rings are installed theres very little seal sticking out past the cuff. I like the length of Viking seals much more, especially for dry glove installation, and when these are ready to be replaced Ill be going with the Viking seals on this suit too.
8)The laminate layer feels very thin and fragile, but its actually pretty darn tough. I had to whack it about 10-12 times with a ¾ leather punch and mini sledge (backed by a block of wood wrapped in a towel) to put a hole in it for the p-valve. I had to finish one edge of the hole that didnt cut all the way through with a razor, and it cut through it with ease, so the laminate appears to be very resistant to impact cuts, but less so to slicing with sharp objects.
9) My plan for the p-valve installation was to locate the correct valve location, remove the skin and install the valve onto the laminate layer, and then re-install the skin, mark the required hole location in the skin and cut it out. However, the skin neoprene seems to be thin enough that it will require some sort of reinforcement around the hole so I'm going to leave it intact for the time being. It has occurred to me that cutting a hole in the skin may not even be necessary. There is definitely enough flexibility in the skin to open and close the p-valve, and the lycra panels may provide enough water exchange through the skin to flush out any valve 'discharge'.
10)The seam finish is very clean and overall workmanship and quality of the suit is exceptional. Im also very happy that the suit comes with a Sitech exhaust valve from the factory, as I MUCH prefer this to the Apeks valves.
11)Installation of things like dry gloves and p-valves is complicated by the skin, which needs to be detached for these sorts of jobs. Not a big deal, just an extra few steps to deal with.
12)The verdict is still out on the Altera boots. With thick socks they feel a little narrow and the sole is too built up and running shoe-like for my taste. Id prefer something more minimalist and like a wetsuit bootie. I may end up going this route eventually, but Ill give them a chance. The elastic lacing system is interesting, and so far I think I prefer this to lacing up rock boots, but it still seems a little overly complicated.
Pictures, dive review, and review of undergarments to follow....
1)The suit is VERY light compared to my CF200x (no surprise there). Im sure that when I compare wet weight after a dive the difference will be even more noticeable.
2)The suits range of motion is amazing! I have pretty much unlimited range of motion in the suit, once I figured out the correct suspender tightness (the suspenders arent elastic like the DUI ones are, so correct tightness is important). I initially tightened the suspenders so they had no slack while standing with arms at my side, but found that this impeded range of motion when I tried to bend over and touch my toes or crouch down and curl up into a little ball. I loosened them up all the way, crouched down and curled up in a little ball, and then took the slack out of them, and theres now complete range of motion. This adjustment also allows me to raise my arms completely over my head without feeling any tension in the suit.
3)Putting the suit on takes a little getting used to. I basically put one leg in as far as I can, fold the suit back and grab the inner liner, pull up some more, repeat several times until the leg is all the way in then repeat on the other side. Once the feet are all the way in, its easy from there. Just pull the whole thing up to the waist, adjust the skin, put the suspenders on, and then arms through. Doing this in the comfort of my home was a bit cumbersome. How this goes at the dive site without getting sand/dirt all over everything remains to be seen. I have to pretty much lay the whole thing down on the ground to get into it, whereas I could hold the DUI suit and sort of step into it without laying it down and getting it all dirty.
4)The neoprene tech skin has a lot more stretch to it than I expected. This makes for a nice tight fit. It really does look and feel very streamlined and has the look of a custom suit. Whether the stretchiness of the skin results in sag when the pockets are full remains to be seen.
5)Thankfully, the suit is not as Power Rangerish as I had feared, even with the graphics on the back and arms. I wouldnt call the graphics understated, but theyre not completely obnoxious either. If I had my preference Id go with all black, but this is a minor thing.
6)Installing DC dry glove rings on the suit is made somewhat more difficult by the integrated neoprene double cuff, but once the rings are on the suit the neoprene cuff covers the suit ring o-rings so the DCs gators are not needed.
7)The wrist seals are rather short in length- similar to the DUI seals, so when dry glove rings are installed theres very little seal sticking out past the cuff. I like the length of Viking seals much more, especially for dry glove installation, and when these are ready to be replaced Ill be going with the Viking seals on this suit too.
8)The laminate layer feels very thin and fragile, but its actually pretty darn tough. I had to whack it about 10-12 times with a ¾ leather punch and mini sledge (backed by a block of wood wrapped in a towel) to put a hole in it for the p-valve. I had to finish one edge of the hole that didnt cut all the way through with a razor, and it cut through it with ease, so the laminate appears to be very resistant to impact cuts, but less so to slicing with sharp objects.
9) My plan for the p-valve installation was to locate the correct valve location, remove the skin and install the valve onto the laminate layer, and then re-install the skin, mark the required hole location in the skin and cut it out. However, the skin neoprene seems to be thin enough that it will require some sort of reinforcement around the hole so I'm going to leave it intact for the time being. It has occurred to me that cutting a hole in the skin may not even be necessary. There is definitely enough flexibility in the skin to open and close the p-valve, and the lycra panels may provide enough water exchange through the skin to flush out any valve 'discharge'.
10)The seam finish is very clean and overall workmanship and quality of the suit is exceptional. Im also very happy that the suit comes with a Sitech exhaust valve from the factory, as I MUCH prefer this to the Apeks valves.
11)Installation of things like dry gloves and p-valves is complicated by the skin, which needs to be detached for these sorts of jobs. Not a big deal, just an extra few steps to deal with.
12)The verdict is still out on the Altera boots. With thick socks they feel a little narrow and the sole is too built up and running shoe-like for my taste. Id prefer something more minimalist and like a wetsuit bootie. I may end up going this route eventually, but Ill give them a chance. The elastic lacing system is interesting, and so far I think I prefer this to lacing up rock boots, but it still seems a little overly complicated.
Pictures, dive review, and review of undergarments to follow....
