Waterproof Octans Vs Merino-Evolution Undergarment

[saylke]

My wife and I are about the place an order for DUI drysuits and are looking for appropriate undergarments. Currently we are looking at the Octans garment by Waterproof and the Merino-Evolution garment by Pinnacle. Any input? We dive in the cold Puget Sound, low to mid-40's.

Any feedback from experience with either of these garments would be appreciated.

 

[Camerone]

My wife and I are about the place an order for DUI drysuits and are looking for appropriate undergarments. Currently we are looking at the Octans garment by Waterproof and the Merino-Evolution garment by Pinnacle. Any input? We dive in the cold Puget Sound, low to mid-40's.

I am a big fan of the Pinnacle Merino-Evolution undies. Very warm in the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands waters. I replaced a worn out pair of Andy's Undies with the Pinnacle and I've never been happier. They're the warmest undies out there - at least amongst those manufacturers honest and open enough to post CLO ratings for their undies...which is about the only way to make true apples-to-apples comparisons.

The price on them is right, too - shop around for a good deal and you'll be out around two and a half scubabucks, which, in the undies game, is a pretty reasonable outlay for what you get.

The downside is they're kind of buoyant. I went up about five pounds of lead when I switched to them from the Andy's...not the biggest deal in the world when diving CCR, but when both rebreathers were down and I was blowing bubbles on the doubles, I actually needed a weight belt

 

[Kern]

Camerone, do you have any ideas on how well the wool garments insulate when wet, as in a flooded DS, compared to the synthetics.

 

[mangrovejack]

Merino wool is just as good if not better than synthetics when its wet. I can't find the website at the moment but it compared the different types of materials and their insulating properties when wet.

 

[Kern]

Merino wool is just as good if not better than synthetics when its wet. I can't find the website at the moment but it compared the different types of materials and their insulating properties when wet.

That's interesting, I wonder what they've done to new wool to make it so very different to old wool.