Santi E Motion Drysuit

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Ouvea

Contributor
Messages
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Location
CA, USA
# of dives
1000 - 2499
Hello:

Considering replacing my current drysuit with the Santi E Motion. Saw it a scuba show was very impressed with its light weight and apparent durable construction. Would like to know if Santi offers the E Motion with silicone seals. Catalog shows the suit comes with standard latex seals.

Thanks,
O.
 
I have the Santi E Motion with silicone seals. It's a great suit (replaced my Diving Concepts). The only think that I don't like is that I have the Si Tech Antares rings on it, but I might change those out. The locking system doesn't work great for me, and the rings are small for my hands. But I really like the silicone seals.

Mike
 
Yeah I have large hands and am not able to put my hands through them easily. Actually I find the antares system smaller then other ring systems out there.

The oval shape I find actually limits the ability to scrunch my hand up and get them through.
 
Yeah I have large hands and am not able to put my hands through them easily. Actually I find the antares system smaller then other ring systems out there.

The oval shape I find actually limits the ability to scrunch my hand up and get them through.


Right... I actually think that's the point of the system, supposed to be a lower profile. I'm going back to the "dishwashing glove" system... cheap gloves that you pull over the existing ring system while wearing a glove liner. I used this with my old suit with these rings: http://www.diveseekers.com/Rubber_Cuff_Ring_Set_p/sit-60402.htm
 
Lower profile yes, but i can't get my hands through them at all. I'd highly recommend the kubi glove rings from dive rigt in scuba, they are sold as the utd system. Best ring system I've ever used.

Now back to our regularly scheduled emotion suit. This suit will be what I am replacing my espace with this fall. Top notch build!!
 
This suit (E.Motion) will be what I am replacing my espace with this fall.

Can you talk a little bit more about why you're switching from the Espace to the E.motion? I've been reading about both of these suits (and the E.Lite) online. Other than being about 25% lighter, it's not clear to me what the other differences are. Of course, Santi's marketing materials make all the suits sound ideal (and I'm sure they're all awesome in their own ways), but they leave me failing to understand why I might choose one model of suit over another.
 
How would you guys compare it to a DUI TLS-350, Bare Tech (self donning) or a Whites Fusion? Santi markets this as a tough, streamlined suit that provides great range of motion and flexibility. I managed to look at Ti-Zip from Bare and was quite surprised at how much easier it opened and closed, as opposed to a standard brass zipper.

Also, for those of you who have pockets on your suits, do you find that they negatively affect aerodynamics? It would be a shame to have your keep your gear streamlined, only to be "slowed" by a couple of parachutes on your thighs.
 
How would you guys compare it to a DUI TLS-350, Bare Tech (self donning) or a Whites Fusion? Santi markets this as a tough, streamlined suit that provides great range of motion and flexibility. I managed to look at Ti-Zip from Bare and was quite surprised at how much easier it opened and closed, as opposed to a standard brass zipper.

Also, for those of you who have pockets on your suits, do you find that they negatively affect aerodynamics? It would be a shame to have your keep your gear streamlined, only to be "slowed" by a couple of parachutes on your thighs.

I don't have pockets on my suit but from what I have heard from people who backmount they are fine. The pockets are on the side, and are in the stream of water already broken by your shoulders. This doesn't hold for pockets when side mounting, because of the location of your tanks the pockets are on the front of your thighs, I don't know how draggy they are then. Because the pockets aren't open at the top/front they shouldn't be too bad though.
 
Also, for those of you who have pockets on your suits, do you find that they negatively affect aerodynamics? It would be a shame to have your keep your gear streamlined, only to be "slowed" by a couple of parachutes on your thighs.

I don't think that you are looking at the problem in the best way. First figure out what tools you need to take diving, and then optimize your streamlining. Sure, adding pockets (or any piece of gear) does affect your profile and water resistance, but this is negligible, and for the most part things like improved buoyancy control and kicking style will do a lot more to improve your gas consumption than doing without a pocket.

For example, when I dive in the northeast, I choose to carry a GPS radio, an SMB, a reel, a spool, a spare mask, a slate, several cutting devices, and a spare light. I have managed to put the light and the cutting devices on my harness very neatly, and the reel clips on my right hip. But all the other stuff has to go somewhere, and putting it in pockets, clipped to bungee loops, is by far the best way of doing that, and making sure that they are easily available in an emergency.

I like pockets so much that I wear one of these when I am diving in the Caribbean in a 3 mm shorty on single tank: Highland Neoprene Pocket Shorts - Dive Gear Express

Now, if you are doing a shore dive in Bonaire in 20 feet of water, 30 feet from the dock, maybe you don't need all that stuff. But the Santi pockets are VERY well designed, and are certainly worth whatever minimal drag they add to your profile...

My 2 psi... :)
 
Well in my case I am mainly looking for a lighter suit to travel with, etc. If the emotion suit would have been available and I had seen it in person, I would have bought it on the spot, it just looks sharper, and feels better when wearing it IMO. There is more to it which I will elaborate belo:

Durability:
The espace is basically comparable to the CLX450 from DUI, the suit is a tank, not literally but it is highly abrasion/puncture resistant, which is good news. The material weight is 420g/unit measure(can;t remember if it is metres or feet)/ The emotion material weight is only 260g but it is of a ripstop material. IT is not as abrasion resistant as the espace, however what santi has done, is used a lighter weight material for the construction of the suit, and added in what appears to be the elite material(460g) in the areas of the suit that see the most wear (seat, knees, butt, forearms/elbows) What this has done is created a light suit that is extremely durable in the areas of high wear/punctures. etc.

Fit
The espace is cut a slight bit larger from my research to account for the material, it is flexible but from my understanding it is not nearly as much as the emotion. The stock emotion I tried on in my local shop, I could stretch the material a fair bit more then the espace. Typically this allows for a much better cut to the suit in my experience, although I may be wrong on this.

Features:

The espace suit as weith all Santi suits, come with pockets. They do the job, however I prefer the elite pockets and had those installed instead of the espace ones. There are no knee pads on the espace and I had those added as well. At the time the t-zip was not an option, but since i am due for a new zipper here very shortly this will be added onto the suit. The emotion come with all these featured right out of the box, so it is just less to add onto the suit as it comes with them stock.

Price:
The stock espace has the emotion beat in terms of cost. That is until you start adding features, like knee pads, better pockets, etc it quickly will become more if not equal to the cost of the emotion (~5-600 dollars for pockets and knee pads, might be less now).

Accessories:
This is on a side note, but if you are getting accessories added to the suit, get the sitec neck ring, however avoid the antares wrist change system (they are just junk) they do no always pop off, go with a diving concept/kubi style dry glove ring system, much better and you will not go wrong. Seal changes take literally an hour and you can sit back and enjoy a beer. That and wrist seals do not see the abuse the neck seals do and tend to last longer and if they do fail you have the ring system installed so you can continue to dive with dry gloves, just glue new ones on when you get home. Neck seals are different, they tend to catch on things when you havee the suit half on, etc so I have a quick change system there, so I will not loose a dive if that happens. If you are getting a p-valve installed on the suit avoid Light Monkeys, they are notorious for not working properly, sure there are people who have them and they work fine, but do some digging on other boards and others will agree, there is sometimes materials left in the valve the obstruct the valve from working. I would suggest halcyons, they seem to make the best and I have never heard of an issue, except for one that had the duckbill portion go, easy fix. Just my two cents and from many years of diving drysuits and on the hunt for good gear.






Can you talk a little bit more about why you're switching from the Espace to the E.motion? I've been reading about both of these suits (and the E.Lite) online. Other than being about 25% lighter, it's not clear to me what the other differences are. Of course, Santi's marketing materials make all the suits sound ideal (and I'm sure they're all awesome in their own ways), but they leave me failing to understand why I might choose one model of suit over another.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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