Selachimorpha
Contributor
Anyone own one of these? How is it? Could you give me a quick review please?
Scubapro Fjord HD Drysuit
- Thread starter Selachimorpha
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
vixtor
Contributor
As I was looking to buy a drysuit, my LDS owner allowed me to dive his Scubapro Fjord HD suit (one of the options that I was looking at).
First, the dry suit is very solid. Officially, it is a cordura trilaminate. The suit is really heavy, strong. Although this particular suit was dived a lot in the Black Sea (where everyting - and I mean everything - is covered by a layer of sharp mussels) and it also went through a lot of rusty wrecks, there's no sign of abrasion on it. The collar and cuffs are made of latex, the collar having an external neoprene protection against cold. The feet have neoprene socks and rock boots. The zipper is protected by another external zipper. The suit is a front zip with telescopic torso.
Under the suit I worn two protection layers (a standard 100g and something else that I forgot what it was, as advised by Harry, the LDS guy). In water I was all fine, I felt some cold only at the toes.
Donning the suit for the first time was very funny and tiresome at the same time, but manageable with a little more help. For my body size, the suit was slightly large (it was an XL), enough to make me look goofy, but not too much to be disturbing. The neck and cuffs I think were a little tight for me, but this will be easily adjustable on my own suit.
In water, I had a squeeze sensation while at surface, when swiming. I discovered very fast that in this position there's no way to put air in the feet and avoid the squeeze, and that probably it is a normal feeling when using a dry suit. Under water, it was comfortable. Basically I haven't felt the water at all, except for the head and hands, which were protected by 5mm wet. Inflating the suit under water to stop the squeeze is easy, without any issues even though I didn't had experience with dry suits before. I have used the drysuit only with a little air to avoid the squeeze, while compensating with the wing.
I was surely way to heavy with the 8kg weight belt that I have used. Normally I use 3kg with the 7mm wetsuit. I think I was even heavier than my wing capacity (30lbs), as I had to close the drysuit exhaust valve and fill it a little to help floating and avoid sinking. Anyway, I can sure drop a lot of weight, as I was sinking like a rock when deflating the wing. Unfortunately the sea was too stormy to allow for a weight check during a shore entry, so I used more lead to avoid the need of exiting back the water.
I normally use with the same equipment (except the suit, my own being a 7mm neoprene) 3kg of weights. My tank is an 18.3kg 15L steel tank, and I have a medium DSS steel backplate. The guy that dives this drysuit uses 2kg of weight when using 10L doubles.
I could not really enjoy the floating sensation because of the storm - I had to hold the rocks so I was not bounced by waves in all directions, but it was enough to see how the suit feels.
I have tested on purpose the floaty feet feeling, by raising them in water. Because of the boots, only the calf inflated, and it was easy to restore the horizontal position.
I don't really know if it's normal (but it makes sense when thinking about it), but in any position some of the body (the lowest part) was feeling a little squeeze. I think this is normal, because the air bubble goes to the highest position no matter how many air you put inside. It was not a unbearable squeeze anyway.
Surfacing was easy, the valve evacuated by itself. I just had to adjust the left hand position a little (but this hand holds the inflator anyway). I thought I have surfaced a little too fast, but the compute record shows two perfect ascents, with less than 10m/min.
I was 100% dry at the end of the dive, and such an enjoyable sensation it was during the sunny autumn day with ~11 degrees in the water and ~17-18 in the air. With my wetsuit it would not have been that pleasant.
The suit fits all my wishes (front zip with protection, latex cuffs, neoprene neck protection, socks with rock boots, strong built and material, adjustable valve). I had some doubts about the fact that being new nobody reviewed it until now, but now all my worries are gone by testing it. Weighting everything, even though I'm guess there might other cheaper options (this one is 1379 USD together with a 100g under, the rock boots and the hood included in the offer), I liked how strong it feels and the fact that I will easily have local support for it if needed. By testing it in water, my only concern (the fact that there's no review of this suit on the internet) went away.
After the dive, I had the opportunity to test the fit of a L size (that somebody brought from home for this), which suited me perfectly.
Therefore, I am now waiting impatiently my very own Fjord HD that I have just ordered
First, the dry suit is very solid. Officially, it is a cordura trilaminate. The suit is really heavy, strong. Although this particular suit was dived a lot in the Black Sea (where everyting - and I mean everything - is covered by a layer of sharp mussels) and it also went through a lot of rusty wrecks, there's no sign of abrasion on it. The collar and cuffs are made of latex, the collar having an external neoprene protection against cold. The feet have neoprene socks and rock boots. The zipper is protected by another external zipper. The suit is a front zip with telescopic torso.
Under the suit I worn two protection layers (a standard 100g and something else that I forgot what it was, as advised by Harry, the LDS guy). In water I was all fine, I felt some cold only at the toes.
Donning the suit for the first time was very funny and tiresome at the same time, but manageable with a little more help. For my body size, the suit was slightly large (it was an XL), enough to make me look goofy, but not too much to be disturbing. The neck and cuffs I think were a little tight for me, but this will be easily adjustable on my own suit.
In water, I had a squeeze sensation while at surface, when swiming. I discovered very fast that in this position there's no way to put air in the feet and avoid the squeeze, and that probably it is a normal feeling when using a dry suit. Under water, it was comfortable. Basically I haven't felt the water at all, except for the head and hands, which were protected by 5mm wet. Inflating the suit under water to stop the squeeze is easy, without any issues even though I didn't had experience with dry suits before. I have used the drysuit only with a little air to avoid the squeeze, while compensating with the wing.
I was surely way to heavy with the 8kg weight belt that I have used. Normally I use 3kg with the 7mm wetsuit. I think I was even heavier than my wing capacity (30lbs), as I had to close the drysuit exhaust valve and fill it a little to help floating and avoid sinking. Anyway, I can sure drop a lot of weight, as I was sinking like a rock when deflating the wing. Unfortunately the sea was too stormy to allow for a weight check during a shore entry, so I used more lead to avoid the need of exiting back the water.
I normally use with the same equipment (except the suit, my own being a 7mm neoprene) 3kg of weights. My tank is an 18.3kg 15L steel tank, and I have a medium DSS steel backplate. The guy that dives this drysuit uses 2kg of weight when using 10L doubles.
I could not really enjoy the floating sensation because of the storm - I had to hold the rocks so I was not bounced by waves in all directions, but it was enough to see how the suit feels.
I have tested on purpose the floaty feet feeling, by raising them in water. Because of the boots, only the calf inflated, and it was easy to restore the horizontal position.
I don't really know if it's normal (but it makes sense when thinking about it), but in any position some of the body (the lowest part) was feeling a little squeeze. I think this is normal, because the air bubble goes to the highest position no matter how many air you put inside. It was not a unbearable squeeze anyway.
Surfacing was easy, the valve evacuated by itself. I just had to adjust the left hand position a little (but this hand holds the inflator anyway). I thought I have surfaced a little too fast, but the compute record shows two perfect ascents, with less than 10m/min.
I was 100% dry at the end of the dive, and such an enjoyable sensation it was during the sunny autumn day with ~11 degrees in the water and ~17-18 in the air. With my wetsuit it would not have been that pleasant.
The suit fits all my wishes (front zip with protection, latex cuffs, neoprene neck protection, socks with rock boots, strong built and material, adjustable valve). I had some doubts about the fact that being new nobody reviewed it until now, but now all my worries are gone by testing it. Weighting everything, even though I'm guess there might other cheaper options (this one is 1379 USD together with a 100g under, the rock boots and the hood included in the offer), I liked how strong it feels and the fact that I will easily have local support for it if needed. By testing it in water, my only concern (the fact that there's no review of this suit on the internet) went away.
After the dive, I had the opportunity to test the fit of a L size (that somebody brought from home for this), which suited me perfectly.
Therefore, I am now waiting impatiently my very own Fjord HD that I have just ordered
OP
Selachimorpha
Contributor
Thanks for posting back but I have since purchased a BARE drysuit, the Scubapro was just one of many options i was looking at. You are correct, no reviews for it anywhere, I'm sure people will thank you for writing the first one! I hope you enjoy diving your new suit!
Similar threads
