Bare Arctic / Scubapro Everflex

[Mike C]

Thinking of getting a 7ml wet suit. Wondering if anyone has any good/bad experiences with Scubapro Everflex or the Bare Arctic SGS: durability, ease of doning, doffing, etc. thanks. I have a Henderson 5ML Hyperstretch and I'm not impressed with it. After 20 dives, it is "pilled" and is starting to look worn.

 

[spectrum]

Thinking of getting a 7ml wet suit. Wondering if anyone has any good/bad experiences with Scubapro Everflex or the Bare Arctic SGS: durability, ease of doning, doffing, etc. thanks. I have a Henderson 5ML Hyperstretch and I'm not impressed with it. After 20 dives, it is "pilled" and is starting to look worn.

I have a new Bare Arcic (not SGS) and it dons and doffs very well. It has a nice close fit, enough so that I have the stitching impressions on my arms and legs when I remove it though the compression is slight. The hardest part of donning is punching through the forearm seals, those rubber rings grab the skin, a shot odf suit snot makes it easy. So far it's only been skin diving. My wife's having a hard time getting her custom suit right so our checkout dives are in a holding pattern. The key is to step in and get the knees right and then it just rolls into place.

I would have gone for the SGS suit but since this suit is a stepping stone to going dry I went with the lesser cost. The SGS skin interior should make it cling and minimize water movement very well. I also got the matching hooded step-in vest and together they make a great set.

I have a 5/3 Bare hooded vest with the skin interior and the skin surface really helps a lot. I wear that with a Bare 5/4 velocity and we've been skindiving for nearly 2 hours in the low 50s F and been fine. I have about 75 hours in the water on this suit and the only sign of war is a lightening of the black between the thighs from kicking.

Bare does a very good job with the arm and leg seals and with the bellows on the ankle zips. It's not uncommon to get a few loose stitching ends on a BARE suit so watch for that. Just tie them off and/or cement them with a drop of SeamGrip or other product. It's not a big beal and looking at the price/feature equation it's a minor inconvenience.

Pete

 

[Scubakevdm]

I really like my Everflexes. Here's a thread with other folks' opinions on them as well.

 

[fun2chase]

The Arctic is a great semi-dry. The only problem with a semi-dry is you do not want to pee in it. The marino wool lining keeps me warm and comfortable. I highly recommend it.

 

[Amphibious]

Bare Bare Bare. I have an older model of the supra-arctic with about 20dives on it I;m willing to let go cheap, pm me if interested, Size ML

only reason I don;t dive it anymore as I went to a dry suit.