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It was almost 6 months in the making but last week on my 61st birthday Eric and I finally had our first opportunity to dive our Aqualung Fusion drysuits. Eric took to it immediately but me, not so much. I use the excuse that I was underweighted but truth was I looked like it was my first ever dive. Flipping, twisting and flapping my arms like a bird in flight. Pretty if you are a bird but not as a diver.
Suiting up actually went rather well. We had already changed some seals and trimmed others so they felt about right. We had also watched the video for donning the Fusions and did several dry runs at home. Despite our thermal gear (a hodge podge of things we already owned), getting into that 53 degree water was a shock, especially when my face hit the water. Cold too where I felt water around my neck but it was just getting under my hood not my seal. I don’t remember this happening my one week diving dry several years ago.
My only prior drysuit experience was in a crushed neoprene suit diving sidemount. That week I fell in love with diving dry and felt very comfortable in the water. This week in the Fusion couldn’t have been more different. I fought the suit and the air bubble constantly. I truly was underweighted (we need to buy more lead) but I doubt that was the only source for my problems. And I probably need new fins. I was using my Mares. Is there a fin somewhere between my light Mares and the very heavy traditional drysuit fins? I don’t need a large foot pocket.
Next dive I hope to add at least 4 pounds and move the camband weights to the bottom band. Maybe try a pound of lead on each ankle. More thermal layers too since I was pretty chilled the entire dive and I know this means even more lead. I really don’t want to wrap my legs/use some form of gaiter. Call me vain but I would like to think I can do this with skill alone. But yes, I will take some ace wraps just in case then if needed diy a pair of gaiters.
Good thing I have 8 more months to learn how to dive this thing before my California trip. I hope to meet up with some SBers then and really hope to not make a complete fool of myself.
Unfortunately living in central NC there were really no options for trying on any drysuit much less diving with one so all my research was online and my limited prior experience. First criteria was ability to don. Second was a female fit option. Overall the Fusion has been well recommended. I knew Marie13 liked hers and she has DRIS as her LDS so almost limitless options. I had several SB members pm me with suggestions and a discussion of the positive and negative qualities. And yes, the owner of my LDS dives one.It's just an inherent problem in the design of the suit. If you want to make 3 sizes that fit everybody, you're gonna have a suit that is the perfect size for 3 people, and varying levels of compromise for the other 97% of people. The problem in all of that excess designed for someone bigger has to go somewhere. The outer skin does a great job at streamlining the profile that sees drag, but does nothing for all of those potential air traps that comes with the excess material inherent to the trash bag suit design.
You're just going to have to be extremely judicious in flopping around to move all of that excess air to a position where it's able to be vented. It's just a fact that they are really good at trapping air, which equates to really poor performance if the suit is in any way too large, which they all are, unless you're one of those 3 people that perfectly fit in the thing. Unfortunately, there's really no way to minimize the amount of excess material in the suit. You could try and pay someone to cut out the excess, but then you're playing with fire when it comes to potential leaks.
What was it about a telescopic torso that you didn't like? Did you get to try any of the suit styles before your purchase? I find a lot of people buy Fusions because dive shops use them for rental suits. Instead of having to stock a wide variety of suits that fit, they only have to stock a couple sizes that mostly don't fit, but most people renting drysuits don't really know any better. A lot of those people then end up buying them when they finally decide to bit the bullet because it's the only thing they're familiar with. They don't realize the low price is a reflection of a number of compromises with the suit design.
I dive single tank with my ss Freedom plate, steel 100 tank. I had 2 two lbs weights on top camband. Then 2 three pounders in pockets at my waist. Mares Quattro fins.Just out of curiosity, what does the rest of your setup look like? Doubles/singles? Which fins etc
It's just an inherent problem in the design of the suit. If you want to make 3 sizes that fit everybody, you're gonna have a suit that is the perfect size for 3 people, and varying levels of compromise for the other 97% of people. The problem in all of that excess designed for someone bigger has to go somewhere.
Ok, Ok, here ya go...I'm not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but we want to see pics. Lots of pics. For learning purposes, obviously. We promise not to laugh... much.
BTW. We found that the diluted baby shampoo we use as defog worked better for donning the seals then KY. Is this a problem with silicone seals?