Don't get me wrong... Thermalutions are great. There's a certain sense of satisfaction that you get when you click it on and it beats back the cold... Like a heated blanket on a cold, snowy night, only better because it's happening in the water while you're diving. The best part is - it warms both the water inside the wetsuit and your core... So it's effect is felt long after you turn it off... Which is good, because you've only got a couple of hours of power, assuming that you charged it to 100% before your dive. Between a thicker wetsuit without a Thermalution and a thinner one with, I'd choose the thinner one with every time.
...Which is a good synopsis of its strong and weak points. Yes, it does a nice job of making the water feel ten or twenty degrees warmer than it really is... But for a limited time, and depending on the unit to work properly. It makes a great recreational tool, but I don't think I'd want to stake my life on it for any sort of overhead (cave, wreck, deep) diving.
...Which is a simple way to say that the idea is fantastically futuristic and revolutionary and absolutely the coolest thing at the dive site. But at the same time, I see lots of room for improvement. Meanwhile, drysuits have been the recipients of the latest tech, and they're getting really good these days; which is a good thing... Because being dry while diving, donning, and doffing is something that a wetsuit simply can't do... Even if "cold" isn't really the issue.
To answer your question directly: I've been working with SiTech and BARE to test and develop a new drysuit called a Sentry. Both companies have forbidden me to talk about it, and just saying the name may be a violation of my contract. For what it's worth, I wanted to call it a "Rebel," which stays consistent with my Southern roots and company name; but with all the leftists out there these days, I suppose they figured that it'd offend somebody.
To me, that'd be a good thing, since those people probably never make it out of their mother's basement anyway - but my colors are showing. I'll try not to get sidetracked with politics.
The new suit's main features include a unique fabric that has the characteristics that I talk about above. It is made slimmer than other drysuits and is svelte and very streamlined and very stretchy - which allows the diver to dive with much less air in it than a normal trilaminate drysuit. It dives more like a wetsuit than a drysuit... But rest assured, you're dry inside... Which makes donning and doffing in cold air a sincere pleasure.
The suit still has to be altered and/or the features carefully chosen to be all that it can be - they did not take every suggestion that I gave them, even though I insisted. But the base suit itself is nothing shy of outstanding... And that's a great start.
They say it'll be out soon... But they've been saying that for months. I have no idea when they'll release it to the public. When they do, I'll be able to make my videos of it public; meanwhile, I'm not allowed to share them in the interest of corporate secrecy.
Companies like DUI and SANTI have made their awesome reputations based on customizability - to include colors and custom tailoring. While I agree that this is a great thing for the hardcore cave explorer that wants everything a certain way, the problem is that most divers purchasing a drysuit can be pretty overwhelmed with the options. Say you decide to get some thigh pockets, for example... Should you choose zipper or Velcro pockets? Big ones or little ones? If you decide to get wrist seal rings so that you can change them in the field, should you pick the round ones or the oval ones? Maybe you'll want some aftermarket ones that the factory doesn't offer in a stock suit... And is silicone better than latex for seals? Everyone seems to like the silicone, but a lot of people argue that they're not as durable. What to do?
I have talked at length with BARE about offering a suit that comes standard with a great fit and all of the modern features that have really improved drysuits over the past few years (including heavy-duty silicone seals, plastic zippers, no Velcro anything, oval wrist rings with no seals in them at all, and nitrile drygloves). Rather than relying so heavily on the purchaser - who, frankly, probably has never dived a drysuit, yet is plunking down thousands of dollars on decisions that they're not totally sure about - BARE should offer as standard exactly what the best combination is. Starting with a stretchy, durable fabric is the first key to that formula... So that a great fit is achieved without having to resort to expensive, time-consuming, and committal custom tailoring that prevents them from ever being able to resell the suit. I mean - most people buy an off-the-shelf wetsuit in one of 15 or 20 different sizes and get a great fit... Why can't that be done with a drysuit, whose design is more forgiving anyway? I could talk a lot about that, but I'll move on to make my point:
Essentially, I'd like to see them offer a drysuit that's a Mercedes-Benz... It simply comes with all the good stuff already on it, and thus doesn't get complicated during the purchase. The best part of that is this: Economies of Scale. The price should fall simply because they're all made the same. From a manufacturing standpoint, this idea is revolutionary and prices can fall considerably while maintaining excellent quality due to the consistency of manufacture... While maintaining good profit margins for the company. Sure, you can still customize it - either before or after the purchase - but out of the box it's so good that you're going to be happy whether it's customized or not.
...Which is all a very long way to say, "Watch BARE," but I'm not entirely convinced that they'll take all of my suggestions. We'll see.
