Whites Tech Skin - FDog Review

[skdvr]

fdog - when you recieved your tech skin did it have the hole cut in it for the dump valve? I just got my tech skin yesterday and it has the hole for the inflator valve but not for the dump valve...

Thanks
Phil

 

[fdog]

Yes, it had a hole cut.


All the best, James

 

[skdvr]

damn you are quick....

I was just going to post that I already heard back from Tyler and that it was supposed to have the hole cut in it, but for some reason this one does not. I am just going to do it myself...

Thanks James

Phil

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I installed a pee valve in my Fusion today. It went as follows:

1. Put the suit on, and mark the spot for the valve/hole on the bladder. This was easily done by gently poking the tip of the ball point pen through the lycra to mark directly on the bladder. (This would not work so hot with a neoprene tech skin - which is why I elected to do the lycra skin first.)

2. Take the suit off, undo the velcro on the leg and pull the skin up above the location of the soon to be hole. Trace a suitable sized hole around the mark (I used a stencil and a 19/32" hole worked well with my OMS Compact Pee Valve - but check yours as I have seen OMS valves in two diameters.

3. Pinch the suit and cut through the bladder in the middle of the marked circle, then cut around the outline with a pair of small sharp scissors. Putting a hole in a new drysuit ALWAYS makes me nervous.

4. I then cut two gaskets from a piece of rubber and made them the same outside diameter as the pee valve and cut a 19/32" hole in the center of both.

5. Glue the gaskets to each side of the bladder using Aquaseal. The Aquaseal with Cotol 240 for an accellerator did not eat through the bladder - that possibility belatedly occured to me after I had aready stuck things together. Apply the Aquaseal in an even coat to the gaskets and then stick them to the bladder - 1 inside and 1 outside. I used a DVD case inside the leg to provide a flat working surface and to prevent the potential of sticking the leg together if the glue oozed out (a thin coat is really all you need). I used "Airplane, the don't call me Shirley edition" but I suspect any DVD case will work. "The Deep" or "The Abyss" may be more appropriate.

6. After positioning the gaskets so the holes all lined up, I let the glue set up slightly and then applied a thin coat of silicone grease to the outside of the gaskets more or less as a release agent in the event any Aquaseal squished out. It would be awkward to a DVD movie case glued inside the leg, but the suit would probably still fit.

7. I then weighted the gasket/bladder/gasket sandwich with 4 one pound lead ingots using the DVD case as a backstop and let it dry 2 hours. (let it go 24 if you do not use an accellerator)

8. When it was dry, I installed the valve, put the suit back on, and re-attached the velcro at the ankle.

9. I then walked around a bit to let the cover find the spot where it was happy. I then marked the center of the bump where the pee valve was under the lycra skin with a pen.

10. I then traced another hole slightly smaller than the thread diameter of the exhaust valve housing on the Pee Valve and cut out the circle in the same manner as the bladder. This was a slight stretch fit over the male threads of the housing. Once installed, I screwed the cover on the housing taking care to fully capture the lycra cover all the way around.

The end result is neat in appearance and capturing the lycra skin between the two parts of the valve that are on the outside of the bladder worked very well. It does not seem to put any great degree of stress on the skin.

The whole operation should work even better with the tech skin when in arrives in a week or so. The neoprene fabric will work even better in terms of not having to worry about fraying. I'll do the same thing in terms of putting the suit on and then locating the pee valve under the skin to mark the hole.

 

[tomdell]

Call to TSandM:Hi, so you are using some shorts over the Fusion? I have been thinking about it because, first, I do not like to pull up my lycra all the time because it sags at the crotch area and, second, because I would like to have some kind of a pocket. What shorts do you use?
Thanks for your posts, very helpful.

 

[carry93]

Diving the Tech Skin​

Despite the small additional snugness of the Tech Skin, I have found donning this version to be about the same ease as the lycra Fusion. Those that have dove the Fusion will tell you there’s a trick to putting it on, mostly focused around pulling the legs up from the inside of the suit, and this really isn’t any different.

All my dives with the Tech Skin have been in 41 degree water, wearing XL Mk3 underwear and midweight DuoFold Varitherm bottom and top against the skin.

As soon as you submerge, the first thing that jumps out is how the graphics really stand out underwater. For those that like the graphics, it’s a good thing, and with the upcoming color options may help in team member differentiation.

Warmth

For these dives in 41 degree water, I was curious if the 1mm material would help as far as warmth. When first getting in the water, I would say, yes, it adds a couple of degrees of apparent water warmth. This I felt was from a bit of contact isolation from the cold water.

However, at the conclusion of a mile’s worth of scootering, I feel just as if I had the lycra skinned Fusion on. This is probably from water circulation between the Tech Skin and the bladder from the high scootering speeds. This is different from the feeling I’d get when we stopped, for example to unclip a scooter I’d been pressure testing, where I could feel a bit more warmth. So as a pedestrian, you’d probably get an extra couple degrees of temperature tolerance, as a scooter driver, not so much.


Buoyancy and Trim

I initially put an extra 2 lbs of weight on, expecting the neoprene to make me a bit positive. After spending a dive feeling as if I was 2 lbs heavy, I concluded that there really wasn’t much buoyancy difference and have since ditched the extra weight. It’s possible the weighting difference may be there, at perhaps a half a pound, but I’m not good enough to feel it.

I was expecting to feel a bit more float in the legs from the neoprene. Surprisingly, this didn’t materialize for me, and as far as trim went, I felt as if I had my standard lycra Fusion on.

Air bubble management was just the same as the lycra Fusion, very easy, and no apparent “forcing” of air out the exhaust. I did feel that air migration was a bit slower than usual, and have found that it’s laughably trivial to get exactly the right amount of air in my feet.

Speed

The Tech Skin is faster than the lycra Fusion by 3 fpm, a number that places it in the category of possible statistical error. However it certainly isn’t slower, being consistently on the faster side in my testing, so scooter drivers can use the Tech Skin without worry of excess drag.

Pockets

While underwater, the pockets were…pockets. Just like any other pocket, if you get my drift; very unremarkable. I’d open them, get stuff out, close it, no issues. Easy to find and just where you’d expect them. I was worried that the 1mm neoprene would allow them to flap all over, and make it tough to stuff things back into the pocket as the pocket moved around, but no, not an issue. When stuffing my SMB back into a pocket it did move down my thigh an inch or two, but was not a problem as I was able to really cram it down to the bottom of the pocket.

I will say that I was worried about excess contents weight and pocket movement, and in some regards I was correct in this, and in others I didn’t notice it.

When fully geared up, with a BP/W on and a weight belt, even when out of the water and with the suit wet, the pockets really don’t move much. They feel pretty much like regular pockets on a drysuit. You can walk around and bend over, and even when well loaded they stay put.

And underwater, all geared up, it’s really not an issue. I’m pleased with the pockets underwater.

BTW, for those interested in just how much stuff is in the pockets in these photos, I had tried to make it a pretty tough test, so I put my usual in each pocket plus a 1 pound weight:

The place the pockets fell short of expectations came when the BP/W and weight belt was off, and I was traipsing up and down the beach recovering scooters and such. The pockets would sag, and drag the crotch of the Tech Skin down by quite a bit. “Gangsta Pants” is how I’d read one person describe it, and that’s apt.

As you can see above, it’s something you can grab the side of the suit and pull up back into place, something I do now on a regular basis when wearing the suit, which becomes annoying.

In all fairness, I’m sure this is something Whites saw coming, and why they resisted the idea of sewing pockets on initially.

If I could wish for something, it would be that the torso of the Tech Skin was about 4 inches less tall, about the amount of fabric you can see me pulling up in the photo.

Still, in the suit’s intended use, in the water geared up, the pockets are great. And out of the water, geared up, it’s usually not an issue. It’s only when you have the pockets (admittedly well laden in my tests) full and are just wearing the suit when it becomes an issue.

After the dive
I’ve been used to getting a dry Fusion in about an hour and a half of drying. No more – in 68 degree/20 % humidity conditions, I found the Tech Skin to be dry to the outside touch in a couple of hours. However, despite being allowed to dry for the night, I still found the space between the Tech Skin and the bladder to be damp in the legs and down the back. So there’s a bit more care in drying required.

The inside is still the same, of course: flip inside out, dry off with a hand towel, and bone dry after being hung up for 15 minutes.

I haven’t had the Tech Skin long enough to assess long term durability.

A question I’m asked is if I anticipate using the lycra skin again. Absolutely. The lycra skin is a bit more flexible, a pound or two lighter for airline flights, and I will definitely be switching back to the lycra when I’m headed for the tropics.

Positives:

• Great pocket design
• A bit warmer
• Great air bubble control
• More durable feel
• Flexibility close to the lycra
• Pockets stay put when geared up

Negatives:

• Pockets sag when not geared up

With the positives and negatives said, there’s the acid test for me: you won’t find me taking the Tech Skin off of my Fusion anytime soon, I like it that much.

I hope this helps you if you’re considering a Tech Skin for your Fusion!


All the best, James


PS – A big thank you to my wife Janet for patiently shooting the images for this review!

Hello James,

Thanks for your great article. I am new to Fusion and I notice that you are also using single tank with Wing + Backplate. May I know how you put your weight and how many lbs / kgs you are using? I am using a separate weightbelt with 16lbs of weight but it keeps dragging during the dive. And it seems you don't have any weight harness, so may I know how you put / distribute your weights?

Many thanks for your help.

Cheers.

 

[fdog]

Hello James,

Thanks for your great article. I am new to Fusion and I notice that you are also using single tank with Wing + Backplate. May I know how you put your weight and how many lbs / kgs you are using? I am using a separate weightbelt with 16lbs of weight but it keeps dragging during the dive. And it seems you don't have any weight harness, so may I know how you put / distribute your weights?

Many thanks for your help.

Cheers.

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner.

Right now the water is a charming 41 degrees at Lake Tahoe. For warmth, I am wearing the White's MK3, which uses Primaloft, and gets most of it's warmth from loft.

<<It is also very apt to note my lungs are huge - far more than the norm - I believe the quote from Tobin was "freakishly large", and this generates about 4 kg of extra buoyancy for me>>

In a single, I use:

• Steel HP 100
• DSS Medium sized stainless BP
• DSS weight plates
• 28 lb weight belt (32 lbs in salt water)

The weight belt is a standard, nylon, cheap one with pockets for weight. No schmancy suspenders or anything.

This places me neutral, maybe 1 lb negative, at 3' with a cylinder at 300 psi, suit shrink-wrapped and wing empty.

Be aware I am long and skinny, so overall, this seems to be about 10-12 lbs more weight than most seem to carry.


Hope this helps!

All the best, James

 

[MarkH]

I'm 6' and about 150 lbs. I wear 45 lbs of lead with the Fusion Tech skin and the MK3. Any less than that and I get too shrink-wrapped and cold. Plus it would be hard to stay down towards the end of the dive.

 

[fdog]

To clarify, I carry about 46 lbs of total ballast:

Cylinder: 2.5 lbs
Reg & etc: 2 lb
BP: 5 lbs
Weight plates: 8 lbs
Lead (weight belt): 28 lbs


...so that's about exactly the same with similar heights.


All the best, James

 

[carry93]

Hi James and swankenstein,

Millions for your sharing. I have been trying to redistribute my weight and arrangement. Luckily, the lowest temperature here in Hong Kong, Asia, is around 13 degree C (55 Degree F). I don't have a formal undergarment but I put 2 trousers + 3 polyester / fleece tops). I think it's like MK1 or MK2 equivalent.

I think I need more weight when I use single tank. So now, I have put 4 weight pouch on my tanks upper and lower camband with 4lbs each. And I then use weight belt (integrated pockets like what James showed earlier)with another 8 lbs. But the water is not that deep here in Hong Kong, normally the avg depth is around 20Meter (=66 feets) and sometimes it can reach up to 33M (=100 feet). I then use my waist belt of harness of my backplate covering the weight belt.

So far, it is ok for me but I am still learning how to reduce more weight but avoid end of dive uncontrolled ascend and make my waist less loading.

Got many suggestions from others like Weight Harness, V-Weight (but can't use with single tank setup); Weight Plate... etc

Thanks a lot! =)