Whites Fusion: Owner Updates / Opinions?

[Catt99]

I've read just about all the threads I've found at SB that focus on Whites Fusion dry suits -- including of course James' (fdog's) fantastically detailed review thread. I'm pretty intrigued by the Fusion suit BUT I have no personal experience whatsoever to rely on -- I'm taking a dry suit course in two weeks in which I'll use a rented DUI TLS 350. My only "experience" with dry suit diving is buddying-up with an accomplished diver in Catalina who wore a DUI and was much more comfortable than my wife or I was in 7mm wetsuits -- and that's not really experience, of course.

So I'm still in info-gathering mode with the expectation that I'll purchase a dry suit (the extent to which I use it will likely depend on how much my wife, my main buddy, enjoys dry suit diving), and forums such as ScubaBoard are great opportunities to gather relevant information.

Any owners care to chime in with how their suits continue to perform now that more time (and hopefully more dives!) have passed since some of the earlier posts? Any wear issues? Newly-developed concerns? Problems that may have cropped up since the early days? Thanks.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

1. My zipper is fraying a little faster than is normally the case and I am not sure why as it is lubricated every other dive.

2. There has been some minor pilling on the lycra tech skin material where the back plate rubs - normal for lycra but something to expect.

3. Whites seems to be continually upgrading details on the suit (reversing zipper direction on the suit, etc.) so concerns with older suits may not always apply to new ones.

4. the suit is still the dryest drysuit I have ever owned.

 

[TSandM]

My zipper has been very difficult to zip/unzip from the beginning, and is fraying quite badly and getting progressively more difficult to move, despite careful care. Other than that, I have no complaint about the suit at all. I have a little pilling of the Lycra where I spent some time in Florida crawling around on limestone, but I don't have any from my harness. I've had no leaks. The seals appear to be VERY durable. Overall, if the zipper worked the way it should I'd say the suit was perfect (except it looks pretty stupid on everybody ).

Edited to add that I have about 70 dives on the suit now.

 

[Kern]

My zip has been a dream to use. Easy to do up by myself, just glides open & shut no problems & no fraying (knock on wood). It has a little pilling under the right arm pit to date, nothing major & I can't find any elsewhere. I have a small 1cm abraded area that has gone through the left knee pad. That happened when re boarding after a research dive on a shallow reef in a very lumpy sea & the ladder was whipping around like a maniac. Considering the pounding the suit took on the 5mt reef over 2 dives & 2 boat re-entries I was quite impressed that this was the only damage. I wouldn't have been surprised if the suit had been shredded after that sort of abuse. I figure another 50-100 wreck dives & another couple of dozen difficult research dives should be a good test of the suits mettle.

I'v only done about 40 dives in it to date. These have ranged from nice easy single tank dives to research dives in fowl weather on shallow reefs to 50mt wreck dives in twins & all the other plumbing required for deco.

And yes, there are a lot of spaceman/power ranger comments.

PS. It's a teck skin & the pilling is on the lycra.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

While getting out of the water last week, another diver commented "a camoflaged dry suit!". So apparently, when you can only see the upper half of the suit from some angles the graphics look like grey and black camoflage. Then of course you get all the way out and the awful Power Ranger truth becomes apparent.

I had been hoping the graphics would peel off with a little age, but so far no luck.