Terrible santi service

[vinegarbiscuit]

+1 for dealers recommending the E.Lite over the E.Motion. My husband's ancient Andy's suit died on a cave trip, and a new suit purchase was a rather urgent matter! Upon hearing that my husband is also a Northeast wreck diver, the dealer warmly recommended the E.Lite. My husband is very happy with it. A couple of friends up here with the E.Motion have sold theirs because of the light fabric, and wished they had bought the E.Lite from the get-go.

To the OP - I am sorry you have had such a rotten experience. I hope everything works out.


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[Rosborne]

After about 33 years of diving in Viking suits, I finally joined the 20th century and ordered an eMotion last fall. Mine was a stock size and arrived on time, and as promised. However, the Flexsole boots were too small. The dealer kind of avoided the situation as the suit ultimately was delivered directly from the (then) Canadian Distributor to save some time. After a discussion with him regarding the measuring instructions, he and (I understand) SANTI HO agreed to swap the boots out for a warmer and larger style. This was done through the Distributor on Cape Breton, but at a repair facility.

This change was done well, and fairly quickly, and at no cost to me, other than shipping, and after I had about 40 dives on the suit.

I have nothing but good things to say about the former Canadian Distributor, SANTI and the suit itself. I should also say that I ordered this at a time when many, many of my friends were diving DUI FlexExtremes and were having terrible luck with the suit and the service. To this day, those folks are wet after every dive. They just accept it.

Finally, without a distributor in Canada now, I wouldn't buy another SANTI. Service will be too complicated and too expensive. With the change in the US dollar, the price on a SANTI is ridiculous now.

I bought this suit primarily for travel, but I wear it on most dives. I decided not to sell my Viking ProTec however, because I just don't believe this suit is going to last. It's just so light. Next season, I will probably revert to my Viking and keep the SANTI for travel as originally intended.

I was also quite happy with the former distributer.

---------- Post added September 16th, 2015 at 01:43 PM ----------

Don't know. Santi won't say. It's all the diver's fault.

---------- Post added September 17th, 2015 at 08:17 AM ----------

I'm in the market for a new suit. Any recommendations? Durable and yet flexible enough to reach both valves. Also I agree with one person who posted, no more manufacturers that are ten thousand miles away. American or Canadian.

 

[Santi Diving]

To all interested in this thread - we have already contacted and hopefully well solved or explained both services now
Regarding the E.motion fabric, as we have also explained to Mr Osborne,

The Emotion trilaminated external fabric is a thin 260 g/m2 ribstop fabric from the outside - it is flexible, light and resistant to tear due to its special construction, but as already mentioned, it is not indestructible the way cordura drysuits or heavy nylon drysuits are, that is why the accidental, external, but deeper cuts from very sharp surfaces under water (in wrecks or in caves, or even sharp shells) may lead to small leaks.
When creating the Emotion drysuit we were aware that this type or fabric has a lot of great advantages like loghtness and flexibility but it does have some drawbacks in being a light trilaminate drysuit, so for some experienced or havy conditions divers it is better to choose our Elite model, which is made of a bit less flexible, but very durable ripstop fabric.

Please know, that we hear all market opinions and always try to veryfy and think them over.

 

[Belce]

My experience has been very different. I got some movement on my issue when I went to Halcyon after not getting much from the previous Canadian distributor. I bought a mtm dry suit and their bz400 undergarment a year later, also mtm. I bought from the same store and the same person measured and confirmed there was not a real difference in size before submitting. When the undergarment arrived, wearing it with the drysuit was like a Charlie Brown snow suit. While it took a couple of weeks to provide information for my situation and for Santi to come back with a decision, my drysuit is now in Poland getting fixed. This is a very expensive fix as well. Santi when informed of the problem immediately took responsibility and are correcting it.

A friend of mine at work asked me if I would buy Santi again after all of this and after some thought was able to say yes. And part of that is due to their response to my problem.

 

[KevinNM]

My suit went to the facility in north Florida. It's Halcyon's facility and they were very nice.

I suspect that Frank is talking about Gamble Scuba in Gainesville, whose main business is repairing and altering drysuits. Which he appears to be very skilled at doing.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

I suspect that Frank is talking about Gamble Scuba in Gainesville, whose main business is repairing and altering drysuits. Which he appears to be very skilled at doing.

Most likely talking about EE, not Gamble in this situation.

 

[Wookie]

Gamble in North Florida, Aqua Diving Academy in Maine. Does anyone else fix drysuits?

 

[Rosborne]

To all interested in this thread - we have already contacted and hopefully well solved or explained both services now
Regarding the E.motion fabric, as we have also explained to Mr Osborne,

The Emotion trilaminated external fabric is a thin 260 g/m2 ribstop fabric from the outside - it is flexible, light and resistant to tear due to its special construction, but as already mentioned, it is not indestructible the way cordura drysuits or heavy nylon drysuits are, that is why the accidental, external, but deeper cuts from very sharp surfaces under water (in wrecks or in caves, or even sharp shells) may lead to small leaks.
When creating the Emotion drysuit we were aware that this type or fabric has a lot of great advantages like loghtness and flexibility but it does have some drawbacks in being a light trilaminate drysuit, so for some experienced or havy conditions divers it is better to choose our Elite model, which is made of a bit less flexible, but very durable ripstop fabric.

Please know, that we hear all market opinions and always try to veryfy and think them over.

Indeed they did contact me and to their credit they picked up the cost of the multiple repairs done by Halcyon in Florida. I appreciated that gesture though I shouldn't have had to fight the fight all the way to the top of the company in Poland. But fair's fair. They ultimately did the right thing.

But have a look at this video link. I thought I would document my first use of the suit. Recording taking it out of the box and using it on one dive. See what happens.

https://youtu.be/akLsWYD-EBc

Robert

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

Gamble in North Florida, Aqua Diving Academy in Maine. Does anyone else fix drysuits?

We did almost 800 last year...

 

[Tracy]

I did about 10. I was pretty happy with that.