Abyss Tech Spec - Immersed Magazine Spring 99
Perhaps youve heard the line If you build a better mousetrap, then the world will beat a path to your door? What if its not a mouse trap your trying to build, but an exposure suit for people who daily compress it at great depths, scrape it, bang it, inflate it, pull on it and generally abuse it, but still expect it to be their best, most waterproof friend.
Gim Gheorghe, the owner of Abyss Diving Suits Ltd. has asked himself and the people who buy their quality drysuits what makes a better mousetrap every day since he started the company 8 years ago.
Gim began his diving career with the Romanian Navy and spent 6 years with their underwater dive team. Training was often hard and at times complicated by a mix of both good and bad equipment. This included Russian, French and some English gear, with the occasional mystery piece thrown in. The members of the dive team who had had extensive training in how all the gear worked, also handled much of their own repairs and maintenance.
With this, Gim soon came to appreciate items that were well made, and saw that the best products often shared the same characteristics. They incorporated simple designs with hi-quality materials so that the end product was durable, easy to use, and easy to maintain or repair.
After leaving the military he worked as a commercial diver and in 1988 he emigrated to Canada where he continued to work in the commercial diving industry in British Columbia. By this time had seen just about every piece of underwater gear and drysuit ever made and he began to wonder if he couldnt do it better.
Abyss Diving Suits began in 1991 with their first 3 suits, which Gim carefully assembled then stitched by hand. They featured shoulder entry zippers for durability, and a minimum number of tightly stitched, triple glued seams. They were immediately put into commercial diving use for a trial by fire period and performed beyond everyones expectations. Following this first success the company became a reality, investing in machinery and raw materials so Abyss could began to grow. What became of those first 3 suits? Well, two of them are still in active use on the West Coast of Canada today.
In 1997 a decision was made to improve service across North America by opening a manufacturing facility on the eastern seaboard. At this time Greg Pyne came on board to help establish and manage Western Abyss Drysuits and went through an intensive training period to add to his own skills and ensure the quality and consistency of the products. Greg already had several years experience as a dive store retailer and repair technician, was an accredited occupational diver and a PADI instructor since 1989.
Gim and his wife Denise then moved their family 3300 miles to Halifax, Nova Scotia to start up the new operation. The two facilities maintain a very close working relationship and a constant flow of information and ideas keeps Abyss Diving Suits in touch with the latest technologies, trends and ways to improve their products.
Through the suggestion of working divers, as well as Greg and Gims experience, Abyss has developed one of the widest cross sections of sport, commercial and technical drysuits available today. Including suits of traditional 7mm neoprene and unique fully collapsed 2mm neoprene and ultra tough KEVLAR®.
For cold water recreational divers, the 7mm Neoprene Sport or Explorer are popular choices. Commercial cold water divers can look at the 7mm Pro and Pro Kevlar which feature a heavy-duty commercial zipper and either commercial grade nylon or Swiss Kevlar exterior coatings. The Abyss Tech is a 4mm-compressed neoprene, which may be dove with or without an undergarment depending on water temperature. New this year is the Atlantis and Pro Kevlar TX, which offer the diver a very thin 2 mm collapsed neoprene shell suit.
The collapsed neoprene suits were in development over two years and the prototypes were extensively field tested prior to their release. These suits offers near zero buoyancy while remaining flexible and are very tough. The advantage of this type of suit material is that it does not crush out at depth so deep divers wearing a good quality undergarment will remain warm.
Regardless of who makes your drysuit, most share similar characteristics. All have a waterproof shell of neoprene, trilaminate material or vulcanized rubber, with an attached boot or sock. Seals on the neck and wrist keep water out and a watertight zipper allows the diver to doff and don the suit
How Abyss approaches the construction of a drysuit begins with design. The initial stock or custom sized pattern is made to minimize the number of seams and potential stress points on the suit. Although that may not allow for a wide variety of exotic color patterns, it does minimize the number of places a suit could fail and increases its durability and life span. As most technical divers know, simplicity often means reliability.
After the original paper pattern is made, the suit material is then cut and any external parts such as pockets, kneepads etc. are installed on the suit. The first coat of a custom adhesive is applied followed by two more. All the components of the drysuit are carefully assembled by hand to ensure that all seams are even, with special attention being given to joints and T-seams. After a curing period, the suit is ready for sewing, which gives added strength to the seams.
All the suit seams are double, interlock stitched to ensure no unraveling of the threads should they be cut or snagged. This unique double stitching creates a very tight seam with no leaks. At this point, many would consider the suit complete and after leak testing it would be ready to ship - not at Abyss. A little over a year ago, research and development began into different ways of adding additional strength and durability to the seams of their suits. Working in conjunction with several sealant companies they have introduced the ADS3000 Advanced Polymer Sealant System which is applied to all interior seams after the suit is sewn. This unique product remains flexible through a wide temperature range and has allowed them to double their seam warranty.
After this final sealant has cured, the suit goes through final quality control and leak testing before it is ready to be shipped to the customer.
Today Abyss dry suit customers range from commercial urchin divers and underwater construction workers to sport divers probing the shipwrecks of the Great Lakes. Technical divers have also discovered the wide range of suit styles and thickness and have used them in locations ranging from Florida caves to the Shipwreck graveyard of Scapa Flow.
Abyss Diving Suits company motto continues to be Craftsmanship for the Depths and is part of every suit that goes out the door, but maybe it should be building a better mousetrap.
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Since this Article appeared Abyss West has ceased operation and all production is now from their Halifax operation, which is opening a new expanded production facility this spring.
I think the one of most amazing thing about this article is the fact that Gim stitched his first three suits by hand ( needle and thread !) Just imagine that for a minute...
my hands get sore now if I have to write more than a paragrah.
If you are in Nova Scotia try Torpedo Rays
http://www.torpedorays.com/ and in Ontario try Dive Source
http://www.divesource.com/
Also if If you need a custom suit never buy it over tha phone as you really should be measured in person.
Hope this helps.
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