Where in the PNW are you, trippysmurf? I can give you some tips on standing dives in the Seattle area, if that's where you are -- the more you dive, the better you get, and the better you get, the more fun it is!
Cold water dives and drysuits
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Selchie in LB
Contributor
Why do say you wouldn't buy one again? I was looking at Whites Fusion at the Long Beach scuba show. Seems like a really good suit for the money. Right now I dive a Mares She Dives crush neoprene. It has been a good 1st drysuit. I have been told get a DUI. Well I would except that it has to be custom fit and costs $$$$. I did even ask price. Seems all the tec divers down here dive DUI.
Anyway back to Fusions. My one question for those who dive them how is the 'bubble' control? I'm finally able to really feel the air move in my Mares so I can control it better. It seems with the Fusion there is the possibility of a lot of air to manage in the suit.
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There really is no "bubble" to speak of. Fitted right, the skin of the suit compresses the core nice and evenly throughout the body. The air seems to be fairly evenly distributed around. I need very little air in the suit for squeeze and/or warmth.
My thoughts and experiences with the Whites suit documented in many threads, most recently here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/exposure-suits/456489-calling-all-whites-fusion-divers.html
To your question about bubble - you won't notice much movement in the whites suit as there are a number of folds on the inner shell that trap air. It has the upside of giving you more freedom to go head down/head up for hunting, wrecking, etc. but the potential downside of venting more slowly than you'd like as air gets trapped. If you do go the Fusion route I'd strongly recommend against the bullet skin. It's terribly heavy and takes ages to dry. The tech skin seems to be a good compromise, though I still maintain that the whole thing is less good than any cordura shell suit.
Herb-alaska
Contributor
elmer fudd
Contributor
I prefer neoprene type suits myself. I like the stretchiness they offer and that they tend to be more streamlined. I dove a Mobby's Armorshell, (trilam), for about 2 years and hated it. If I added a layer of undergarments it went from fitting comfortably to feeling like a straight jacket. It also seemed to spring leaks very easily and tracking them down was next to impossible. My Apollo suit on the other hand has been great. Except for the back zipper, it's really been an ideal drysuit.
I haven't tried the Fusion, but that would also be high on my list just based on all the positive feedback it gets.
I haven't tried the Fusion, but that would also be high on my list just based on all the positive feedback it gets.
LowDrag
Contributor
Sorry but I have to disagree with this statement. Granted I am a new Fusion Bullet diver and do not have hardly any time in my suit but I find this to be a completely wrong statement. I do a dive then hang my Bullet in the garage on a suit hanger and turn on a fan and it is dry the next day.
To Selchie...like I said above, I am new to the Fusion and it is the only dry suit I have ever dove. I did my first dive outside of the pool last Sunday (dry suit check out dive) and had little to no issue with controlling the bubble. On this dive there was a bit of task loading due to seriously low visibility and being new to dry suit diving along with diving a new location. My wife and I both had good dives in our Fusions. I did not invert so I can not talk on that but during our pool session when we did the inverted uncontrolled ascent practice I found it very easy to right myself and get stable.
PS to Matt...I figured out how to keep the suit sag during surface intervals from being a PITA. Put on a belt...pretty simple huh?
I am going to try it tomorrow, I will report back on how that little trick went...GOOD DIVING ALL!!
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This is a great example of how you have to define your terms. "Dries slowly" for someone used to a standard trilam suit could be anything more than an hour; clearly for LowDrag, hanging a suit in front of a fan overnight is no problem. If you travel a lot, drying overnight may not be an option, if you are taking an early flight out . . . "Heavy" is another relative term. If you are used to a Fusion Sport, EVERYTHING is heavy. If you have previously dived a compressed neoprene suit with a telescoping torso, the Fusion Bullet may feel pretty light to you. If you are parsing kilos for tropical dive travel, you are going to be much more worried about weight than someone who shore dives in Seattle and drives the suit to and from home.
Getting the right gear often requires that you have a strong sense of the kind of diving you intend to do, and what your major constraints are. I travel; I have budget constraints; I'm NOBODY's standard size, and I consider leaking to be a mortal sin in a dry suit. Those considerations shape my purchasing decisions, but someone else might have different priorities.
I do agree, as someone who had no intention of diving in Puget Sound at the beginning, because it was too *&#* cold, that if you are willing to throw enough money and experimentation at exposure protection, you can dive most anywhere comfortably.
Getting the right gear often requires that you have a strong sense of the kind of diving you intend to do, and what your major constraints are. I travel; I have budget constraints; I'm NOBODY's standard size, and I consider leaking to be a mortal sin in a dry suit. Those considerations shape my purchasing decisions, but someone else might have different priorities.
I do agree, as someone who had no intention of diving in Puget Sound at the beginning, because it was too *&#* cold, that if you are willing to throw enough money and experimentation at exposure protection, you can dive most anywhere comfortably.
Dries slowly = not dry by the time we get back to dock and I have to pack up, or at least mostly. I recall being in high springs and wrapping my last dive of the day in my fusion bullet around 3pm. The suit hung outside for about 16 hours and I could still wring it out when I had to pack up and head for the airport. Nothing like paying that overweight fee for some authentic Santa Fe river water.
BTW, Matthauck, I agree with you about the Bullet. It is slow-drying, worse than Peter's compressed neoprene suit.
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