Review of Deep 6 Drysuit

[taimen]

Would you please share what undergarments you wear with your Makara and the amount of lead you use at your suggested temperature range and any associated comments deemed appropriate (especially if relative to other Drysuits).

I am not a Makara diver, but have some experience with Softdura (which is closely realated). They are trilaminate suits, and there shouldn't be any substantial differences in weighting or undergarments needed. I you plan to use really thick undergarments like Santi400x or Weezle extreme+ it might be a good idea to mention this when ordering to get slightly looser cut.

 

[king_of_battle]

To Deep 6 Makara Drysuit owners:

Thanks for your suit review & comments. Would you please share what undergarments you wear with your Makara and the amount of lead you use at your suggested temperature range and any associated comments deemed appropriate (especially if relative to other Drysuits).

Right now I've been wearing a fourth element X-Core vest paired with the Halo3d under the suit (34-36F typically right now). Its a little snug but I don't mind it underwater with a little bit of compression. I typically dive double 117HPs, steel BP, and a 4-6 lbs. tailweight depending on fresh/salt. Once the water warms up I'll shed some undergarments and switch to fourth element arctics. Other than the sleeves being a little long and it being a little bit of a PITA to zip beyond my shoulder no complaints with the suit so far.

 

[BoltSnap]

I typically dive double 117HPs

No issues diving with 117HP doubles instead of 100's or 120's?

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Can you guys post pictures of your Deep 6 suits? Thanks.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Here is mine ...

 

[pauldw]

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

One of the best suits in the market!

 

[Doctor Rig]

I wear 4th Element Arctic Expedition undergarment and I have used it down to 40 degrees and I was fine. Not sure how that setup would do at 35 degrees.

I also have a custom made 200 gram u set garment for warmer waters.

Hope this helps?

@CAPTAIN SINBAD
Thanks for sharing pictures of your Makara Deep 6 suit.... sweet, no doubt!! Thanks also for sharing what you wear as undergarments. Would you also share how much additional weight is needed for your Makara with each undergarment, over and above what you’d use for a 3mm neoprene full suit.

Also, I’d love to know if your custom fit Makara reduces the amount of weight needed, as compared to other non-custom fit or off the rack drysuits?

Reducing the need for the weight required for a conventional cold water wetsuit is my objective, if possible and practical. That’s the reason I’m looking into using a Drysuit or crushed neoprene suits. I’m surprised that cold water weight management is not more widely discussed within the ScubaBoard forum (or did I just miss it).

 

[king_of_battle]

No issues diving with 117HP doubles instead of 100's or 120's?

120 are just too damn long for me. I don't mind 100s but for an extra 34CF + I'm a little on the shorter side the 117s work great for me. The only time they are a problem is when I think I'm smaller than I am trying to get through a restriction but to be fair I dont think I could get through most of them with 100s either. I had one set of 100s, one set of 117s, and ultimately decided to get another pair of 117s for myself. My wife on the other hand prefers the 100s even though shes shorter (5'3"ish) than me (5'8"ish).

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

@CAPTAIN SINBAD
Thanks for sharing pictures of your Makara Deep 6 suit.... sweet, no doubt!! Thanks also for sharing what you wear as undergarments. Would you also share how much additional weight is needed for your Makara with each undergarment, over and above what you’d use for a 3mm neoprene full suit.

Also, I’d love to know if your custom fit Makara reduces the amount of weight needed, as compared to other non-custom fit or off the rack drysuits?

Reducing the need for the weight required for a conventional cold water wetsuit is my objective, if possible and practical. That’s the reason I’m looking into using a Drysuit or crushed neoprene suits. I’m surprised that cold water weight management is not more widely discussed within the ScubaBoard forum (or did I just miss it).

So sorry for the late response. I was digging through my old log book to see where I could find the amount of weight listed. I am realizing that all the times I have used this is when I was diving doubles so I was only wearing 6 lbs (fresh water) to compensate for buoyancy loss towards the end of the dive. Even that I was finding to be unnecessary.

It does need more lead than a 3mm wetsuit for sure because I wear 6 lbs with full neoprene suit and back plate with AL single tank. With the heaviest undergarment, it needs slightly less lead than my Othree condensed neopreprene drysuit. That suit was thick neoprene that kept me warm in sweat shirts and never needed to buy a drysuit thermal. Looking back, it required more lead though.