spoolin01
Contributor
After 3 dives with the 2XL/3XL Fusion Tech, the jury is still out. I think the suit works fine, has great mobility, and is not terribly difficult to get into and out of. The overly large inner bag creates some some difficulty on occasion locating the leg and arm holes among the many folds. It also makes for large bubbles in the arms.
My main concern at this point is the nature of a shell suit above the water. Both days, despite tactics designed to minimize the time between fully suited and immersed, I was very over-heated at the time of entry for the first dive. I wore two undergarments, a heavily lined skin (Oztech Diveskins XTR) under the White's MK2. The air was cool both days, with overcast one day and sunlight but stiff breeze the second. The overheating was less of a problem on the second dive of the day, no doubt due to the swamp cooler effect of the outer skin.
My only comparison is the ONeill 7mm uncompressed suit I've been using, where I can pull it down to my waist or thighs and remain comfortable even in direct sunshine, as I wear only either a plain or lightly flocked skin beneath the suit. I may switch to the MK3 undergarment, as I was cold at 30 minutes on all dives. Even with only one insulating undergarment, the time to fully don the upper half of both the undergarment and the suit seems like it's going to be much longer than required for the neoprene suit, and there will be times when the ambient conditions are a lot hotter. I'm pretty intolerant of over-heating - others seemed to be able to wear their garments and suits awhile prior to the dive. One guy even fully suited up in the parking lot prior to boarding the boat. I also just don't recall heating up so quickly with the neoprene suit, even after fully buttoning it up. Maybe the neoprene insulates better against external heating.
On the plus side, I'd say I prefer the silicone seals of the White's suit to the neoprene ones on the ONeill, for both ease of donning/positioning and comfort. I also stayed drier in the White's suit than I ever have in the ONeill. Even when I took a big chunk out of one of the wrist seals while releasing the MK2 thumb loop - all the way beyond the last marking ring - I only got wet about 6 inches up that arm. The ring system made short work of installing the new seal.
My main concern at this point is the nature of a shell suit above the water. Both days, despite tactics designed to minimize the time between fully suited and immersed, I was very over-heated at the time of entry for the first dive. I wore two undergarments, a heavily lined skin (Oztech Diveskins XTR) under the White's MK2. The air was cool both days, with overcast one day and sunlight but stiff breeze the second. The overheating was less of a problem on the second dive of the day, no doubt due to the swamp cooler effect of the outer skin.
My only comparison is the ONeill 7mm uncompressed suit I've been using, where I can pull it down to my waist or thighs and remain comfortable even in direct sunshine, as I wear only either a plain or lightly flocked skin beneath the suit. I may switch to the MK3 undergarment, as I was cold at 30 minutes on all dives. Even with only one insulating undergarment, the time to fully don the upper half of both the undergarment and the suit seems like it's going to be much longer than required for the neoprene suit, and there will be times when the ambient conditions are a lot hotter. I'm pretty intolerant of over-heating - others seemed to be able to wear their garments and suits awhile prior to the dive. One guy even fully suited up in the parking lot prior to boarding the boat. I also just don't recall heating up so quickly with the neoprene suit, even after fully buttoning it up. Maybe the neoprene insulates better against external heating.
On the plus side, I'd say I prefer the silicone seals of the White's suit to the neoprene ones on the ONeill, for both ease of donning/positioning and comfort. I also stayed drier in the White's suit than I ever have in the ONeill. Even when I took a big chunk out of one of the wrist seals while releasing the MK2 thumb loop - all the way beyond the last marking ring - I only got wet about 6 inches up that arm. The ring system made short work of installing the new seal.
