Who hates their White Fusion Dry Suit?

[Crush]

One small suggestion that worked for me - if buoyancy is a problem, don't use your drysuit for buoyancy. I put just enough air in mine to keep the squeeze off and use my buoyancy compensation device for, well, buoyancy. By keeping my suit air to a minimum, it allows me to quickly notice where there is too much air in the suit. When I begin to feel a pocket or air rolling back and forth between my shoulder blades, it is time to dump air from the suit. Having your buoyancy compensation device cinched tightly to your back may help you notice if/when your suit is getting overly full of air as it will force the air up to your shoulders.

Sometimes I suit up in a parking lot where the air is 80F or warmer and enter water at about 50F. Moisture from condensation will occur, but you can minimize both the condensation and the discomfort it causes you. The discomfort can be overcome by using a wicking later as others have noted. For shore diving the condensation can be reduced by assembling your gear and hauling it to the water's edge while wearing your jeans and T-shirt. Next, suit up quickly but keep your hood off and jump into the water ASAP, without your dive gear. Get your hair wet and cool off for a few minutes. Then, put on your hood and dive gear. This approach has made a large difference to my dives.

 

[Jimmer]

Lynne, do you have any idea how the Bullet compares to the Tech? I've never dove the sport skin, but I would imagine that the tech certainly "compresses" more around the arms and legs than the sport does, seeing as the sport is simply lycra. If it doesn't compress anymore than my tech skin, I can live with that.

Jim

I think those of us who said diving the Fusion was like diving a 3 mil wetsuit were simply referring to the mobility. It's definitely still a dry suit!

There are two issues I have with the Bullet skin and getting the suit on and off. One is that the arms and legs compress more than the Lycra does, so the bag is even more crumpled around me and it just seems far more difficult to push my feet down the legs. The other is that the arms don't attach to the bag with Velcro (I have no idea why not) so you can't even pull a little bit on the skin to help work the arms up. I could do that with my Lycra one. Now I have to reach up inside the sleeve with the other hand, and try to work it up my arm.

It has never been terribly easy to get the suit on over the Mk3 undergarment (over thinner undergarments, it's really easy to trivial). But the new skin has made it go from mildly annoying to sometimes frustrating to tears, especially if I end up gearing up in a hurry.

 

[netmage]

As the author of the "as flexible as my 3mil wetsuit" comment, I still stand by it.

At the time, the comparison was:



Yes, the Fusion is a drysuit. Yes, you have to fly the bubble and control the buoyancy. However, in a Fusion, I can reach everything (like valves) that I can while wearing a 3mil, with comparable resistance to motion.

Never said it was just like a 3mil wetsuit. That would be hyperbole.


All the best, James

Flexible and streamlined....

 

[TSandM]

I have no idea how the Bullet compares with the Tech. I've never even tried on a suit with the Tech skin. I did try on a suit with the Limited Edition skin, and it didn't seem as difficult to get on as mine does now, but it may also have had the different cut on the arms and legs, and I only tried it on once.

 

[HenrikBP]

The feet and ankles are tight. <snip> Maybe with the Bullet Skin I would be happier.

The Bullet skin is tighter than the other skins, so make sure to try it on first.

When White's developed the newer "Fusion Boot" they made a couple changes to the leg, increasing the opening at the ankle and adding the Velcro for the boot.

What Mike said. My suit is at Whites right now for exactly that procedure.

Lynne, do you have any idea how the Bullet compares to the Tech?

I own a Tech, a Tech LE and a Bullet skin. For ease of putting on and getting out of, the regular Tech skin wins hands down. The other 2 skins have less stretch, the Bullet being the tighter of the two. In particular the velcro at wrists and ankles is tighter than the other skins.

I know that Whites - for some - recommend going up a size in skins when getting the Bullet.

The Bullet pockets are quite a bit better than the ones of the Tech LE skin. The flap is a bit heftier and feels sturdier, and the less stretch of the "Gator" material is an advantage in the pockets . They've also added "non-skid" material to the back of the pockets so the sagging really has lessened. That said, there's still room for improvement - the pockets could be bigger, and it'd be great if they were even less floppy.

Henrik

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I did my Drysuit course in it and HATED it! I tried DiveRite and loved it. Fusion had an elastiic skin that was compressing the outer shell against my body. It was making me feel like I was trapped in a garbage bag. The logic behind that was that it makes the suit more ..ahem "stream lined." My instant reaction was to get the hell out of that suit.

Hated it.

 

[aquaregia]

What size are you? I might be in the market for a drysuit, if the price is right (read: extremely low, possibly motivated by hatred).

 

[tech3324]

Fusion had an elastiic skin that was compressing the outer shell against my body. It was making me feel like I was trapped in a garbage bag.

I have to ask, did you put air in the suit?

 

[RIdiverMike]

As others have said, I can relate to your issues, though some seem related to drysuit diving in general. In my case I had great difficulty venting air which lead to numerous uncontrolled ascents, the worst from about 50 ft where the bubble got into my feet, inverted me and popped my fins right off during the rapid ascent. Also had a very annoying crotch squeeze.

I wanted to quit the drysuit but TS&M and others suggested sticking with it and provided a number of ideas to resolve my specific issues. I replaced the exhaust valve and that helped immensely. I'm also better at venting the air from my suit before the dive and that relieved the crotch squeeze.

I've got about 30 dives on it so far and it's become much better, though I still consider myself a relative rookie at it and probably wouldn't go much deeper than 50-60 feet right now.

If you hate the Fusion itself, then sell it, but maybe consider not giving up on drysuits all together. I'm very happy that I stuck it out - you might be too!

Good luck!

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I have to ask, did you put air in the suit?

Getting in was not the easiest because it felt like crawling into tight body stockings. Once I put air, the suit inflated and the stated "advantage" of stream lining was really not obvious. Besides congesting the suit volume and thus making it more difficult to get in, I really did not see what that added lycra skin was supposed to be doing. Two layers of crawling skin, one on top of the other is supposed to make diving easier and more pleasurable? I don't think so

This suit went against my core philosophy behind diving gear. "SIMPLE" and "RUGGED" will prevail over "CUTTING EDGE" or "HIGH TECH" 99% of the time. This philosophy results in my preference of :

1) solid rubber fins like Scubapro Jets over split fins and pivoting blade fins etc.
2) BP Wing with a minimal harness over BCDs with bells and whistles and hooks and weights and the kitchen sink.
3) Flat low profile mask over masks with purge valves etc.
4) Basic single layer drysuit over lycra skin or bullet skin etc.

All these innovations add more things to go wrong. This does not mean innovation and improvement is not possible and should not be attempted by companies. All it means is that 1 percent of the time improvements are really beneficial to the end user. 99 percent of the time it is clever marketing that is beneficial to the manufacturer and the distributor. Ever since I adopted this philosophy of purchasing gear I have spent more time diving and less time buying or exchanging stuff and dealing with customer support.

My 2 cents