Way better alternative to TLS 350 Dry suit!!!!

[danvolker]

My wife Sandra is having to send her TLS 350 in to DUI for a leaky zipper....after maybe 3 years of heavy use, it appears to be fraying and not made to handle the constant diving use.....

But, Sandra and I hate drysuits anyway, for all the huge drag and extra propulsion work they cause--we dive in areas where currents are problematic for Drysuit divers...they just don't have the ease and range of travel on a dive that a wetsuit diver will have in these currents if any deviation from directly down current is required.

The solution was the Aqua Lung Semi Dry suit Sandra saw at the DEMA show...


The typical place for Sandra to need her Drysuit in Palm Beach Fl, has been at the Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park....
She typically dives 4 to 6 hour long dives there, and you only have the one hour of peak high tide without current.
Tidal currents can be very large here, and at full rip, the TLS 350 has so much drag, Sandra can lie on the bottom, and feel the current trying to roll her over from all the drag on the dry suit...but...with this Aqua Lung Semi Dry, it is so slick that relatively speaking, she feels no current at all....
Ths big concern was whether she could stay warm enough on a 5 and 6 hour dive, without being in a Dry suit...
She used this suit the last couple of dives, with water temps as cool as 69 or 70 degrees, and was actually warmer in the Aqua Lung semi dry than she has ever been in the Drysuit ( in which she uses near-arctic level insulation).
In fact, she was nervous at the start if yesterday's dive, that she would be too warm!!!

Sandra was also wearing the Thermolution Heated Undergarment--an electric tee shirt concept, that you can turn on, then turn off as desired....and with 3 temp settings.....As it happened, she could not turn the shirt on, because the suit was too warm...When she got out of the water, and was removing the semi dry, she did turn on the tee shirt then, as this kept her nice and toasty warm while rinsing everything off. See Thermalution Heated Undersuit -70M (Shortsleeve)


The reason for the 4 to 6 hour long dives, is macro photography at the world famous BHB Marine Park...
You can see what she spends all this time on at www.facebook.com/WILD.DIVING

 

[tomfcrist]

Is that a metal zipper Dan? I had an Aqualung Semi-dry, but it had a plastic zipper which failed after about 15 dives....partially my fault, but should be able to expect better quality out of a suit that expensive. It was an 8/7 and was comfy down to about 42 degrees, which suprised me a little bit.

 

[danvolker]

Is that a metal zipper Dan? I had an Aqualung Semi-dry, but it had a plastic zipper which failed after about 15 dives....partially my fault, but should be able to expect better quality out of a suit that expensive. It was an 8/7 and was comfy down to about 42 degrees, which suprised me a little bit.

The zipper that is leaking in the TLS 350 is plastic, but I think it is leaking in the fabric area the zipper is built into, not in the zipper itself.....and in the Aqua Lung semi dry....I think it is metal...Sandra is diving now..still..has been since early morning at the BHB.....I will ask when she get's back.