DIR- Generic New Santi Avatar Drysuit ordered—full review to follow soon.

[Hartattack]

And I prefer glued seals, for me no rings. They irritate. So you see different preferences.

Very cool, yeah, it’s a great little suit for the price.

 

[laikabear]

Finally, the zipper path is the old school way of doing it, and now
that I have tried on the E.Motion+, I wish they had used the new style. Some may like it, though,
so this is more of a personal gripe.
...snip...
All things considered, at $1,299.00, I think Avatar hit the ball out of the park with this suit. This
is the type of equipment our new teammates can buy with confidence and at a price point that
will allow them to pursue more training and garner the skills needed to comfortably progress
along the GUE training path.

Did you end up paying $1299? Or was there some type of deal for you posting a review in Quest?

What do you mean about the zipper?

 

[Hartattack]

Did you end up paying $1299? Or was there some type of deal for you posting a review in Quest?

What do you mean about the zipper?

Hi, I paid the regular price—I wish I got a deal! I genuinely like the suit and think it fits price-wise for those of us already spending a lot on gear.

For the zipper, the Emotion +, and I believe the Elite + ‘s zipper travel goes downward from your right shoulder to your left hip. IMHO, this channel change makes it a bit easier to doff and don. In contrast, the older way—left shoulder to the right hip can be a bit awkward.

 

[Germie]

I have a right shoulder zip on de Avatar, and my other suits have a left shoulder zip. There is no real difference, but if I can choose, definitely left, why? That is the normal position as most suits have.

You cannot have mtm. I have the woman XXL. This means it fits me with 1.82m. The neckseal is a little bit too wide also, so I have to use an extra elastic part over it. The wrist seals are sadly only conical ones and not HD. Normally I only use HD bottle neck ones. It is not a big deal, if I have to replace, I will replace all with HD ones. Neckseal will also be a HD one then.
The suit is extremely light. The boots are the heaviest, haha. When drying, just over a cardoor and it is dry when you move home, except from the boots.
I have used it now on all kind of dives, trimix, cave, teaching, wreck. You will know how it lasts if it has 400 dives on it, that will take 2-2.5 year. Now it looks nice, not completely like new anymore (rust from wrecks, some clay on boots from caves), but absolutely not worn. I expect from every suit that you can get 800-1000 dives out of it with only some replacements of seals, boots, zip, no big repairs. We will see if this suit can hold this.

 

[vioch]

all with HD ones.

HD bottle shaped wrist seals are PITA - very hard to get them off if undergloves are under the seals (in case of seal on seal gloves).
HD cone shaped neck seal is fine.

P.S.Don't know any drysuits from breathable (or other light weight) fabrics that could last significantly past 200-250 dives - all begin to leak through fabric. Please, keep informing about Avatar - hope it is not its case

 

[Germie]

HD bottle shaped wrist seals are PITA - very hard to get them off if undergloves are under the seals (in case of seal on seal gloves).
HD cone shaped neck seal is fine.

P.S.Don't know any drysuits from breathable fabrics that could last significantly past 200-250 dives - all begin to leak through fabric. Please, keep informing about Avatar - hope it is not its case

ANd I need the bottlenecks for seal over seal gloves. So you see the differences in preferences.
Also another problem with the normal seals is that m skin (no lotions or creams) make them detoriation fast. So the thin seals last normally only 3 months. The HD ones on wrist start to get sticky also soon, but last then around 2 years. The neckseal around 1 year (200 dives).
So the best is to have choice about the seals. But I can understand that this cannot be done with the cheaper suits.

I know from the 200-250 dives with membrane suits. I dive 200-250 times a year normally (this year I am afraid that it will stick with only 170-180 dives). And I have several suits. So I do about 100 dives per year in 1 suit. Now I try to use the Avatar as much as possible. But sadly again a trip is cancelled. So next week office job and not doing 14 dives. BUt I hope that Santi with the avatar makes better suits than from the other brands I know that have breathable suits. At least this is the first standard size I fit in.

 

[laikabear]

Hi, I paid the regular price—I wish I got a deal! I genuinely like the suit and think it fits price-wise for those of us already spending a lot on gear.

For the zipper, the Emotion +, and I believe the Elite + ‘s zipper travel goes downward from your right shoulder to your left hip. IMHO, this channel change makes it a bit easier to doff and don. In contrast, the older way—left shoulder to the right hip can be a bit awkward.

I have an E-lite and the zipper starts on the right shoulder, as it does on all their womens' suits AFAIK. I was not aware the new mens' suits have switched to the right shoulder, too.

I got a Seaskin drysuit as a backup and they let you choose zipper direction. I chose the right shoulder so I wouldn't get confused between the 2 suits. They call the right shoulder an option for left-handed divers. I am left-handed so maybe that's another reason I like that option.

 

[Germie]

I am left handed and there is no single reason that left handers need other zips. It maybe works if you are stiff on 1 side, but for me, I am not stiff in shoulders, so I prefer the normal position if I can choose.

 

[laikabear]

I am left handed and there is no single reason that left handers need other zips. It maybe works if you are stiff on 1 side, but for me, I am not stiff in shoulders, so I prefer the normal position if I can choose.

I figure most people buying a 2nd drysuit or beyond would prefer getting the zipper oriented the same way as they were used to, especially if both suits would be in use at the same time (like mine). For me, having that stay the same would trump which hand has to start the zipper.

But I also wonder if @Hartattack is a lefty, since he said he found the left-sided zipper awkward!

Frankly I have no idea why Santi had the convention of opposite zips for men and women. Maybe it's like shirt buttons and they think women have servants to dress them for diving.

 

[beester]

Also no idea why they switched sides of the over the shoulder zipper? What really is the benefit of one over the other?