Two semi-dry wetsuits go head to head. Review by Charles Hood
 Cressi-Sub Atlantis £279.30  O'Three 6X5 SD & Deepskin £189/£54.95  O'Three Shortie |
Twenty-one degrees Celsius is an annoying temperature for divers – especially if the topside weather is hot. Water at 21°C is generally too warm to wear a drysuit and too cold for a wetsuit. For the odd dip, you can get away with either type of suit – but it’s a dilemma when you wish to spend several hours underwater. On a recent trip to photograph great white sharks around Guadalupe Island off the Pacific coast of Mexico, 21°C was the precise temperature of the water. With surface temperatures in the high 20s, I opted for the wetsuit. However, I wanted to make sure that the suit I took would keep me warm, so I scoured the market for potential solutions.
Two manufacturers have launched new suits that promise to solve the problem. In the Italian corner was Cressi-sub’s 7mm neoprene Atlantis, and representing Britain was O’Three’s combined 6mm/5mm neoprene 6x5 SD. Both are semi-dry wetsuits, so yes, they will eventually get wet inside, but the makers have tried to keep water ingress to a minimum.
However, the approach taken by either manufacturer to create virtually waterproof suits is different. While both suits have waterproof seams, it’s the seals on the ankles, wrists and neck that differ. Cressi-sub opted for the reversed single-lined neoprene approach: on all openings, you need to invert the seal back on itself, which is a bit fiddly but is highly effective. Furthermore, the Atlantis has a semi- dry zip that is almost – but not quite – as good as a dry zip.
Meanwhile, the O’Three suit employs smoothskin seals on the inside of the lower third of the legs and arms, and has a sort of attached inner vest with smoothskin collar to prevent water ingress at the neck and zip. The leg and wrist seals are so watertight that O’Three includes a bottle of Jollop – a type of soapy liquid that lubricates the seals to make putting on the suit easier.
As I was in a cage, the dives weren’t particularly deep – 12m maximum – but they were typically two hours long, with one morning dive in excess of three and half hours. So which was warmer? Once I eventually got it on, the O’Three suit was fine for about an hour and a half, then I started to get chilly purely due to water seeping in through the neck. The thicker Atlantis suit fared slightly better as it kept me virtually bone-dry for longer, but the fit wasn’t as good as the 6x5 SD – and when water did eventually find its way in, it tended to flush around.
The solution, then, is a combination from both manufacturers. O’Three had also provided a 2mm neoprene Deepskin shortjohn, which, owing to the figure-hugging suit, I hadn’t used. But with the space inside the Atlantis, it made sense to try the combination, which, as it turns out, makes a huge (and I do mean huge) difference. The O’Three Deepskin plus the 7mm semi-dry Atlantis became my combo of choice for the rest of the trip, and after three and half hours underwater, I was still perfectly warm.
In conclusion, 21°C is right at the lower end of the temperature range these suits can cope with for lengthy dives, but when combined with the Deepskin, I’m sure they both could be used instead of a drysuit during the summer months in the UK. At nearly £100 cheaper than the Atlantis, the 6x5 SD is hard to beat for value for money. But the real star of the test was the Deepskin – at just over £50, it’s a must for anyone who feels the cold when wearing a wetsuit.
DIVE says...
Atlantis-Deepskin combo is a winner
Atlantis
Value 7
Performance 9
6x5 SD
Value 8
Performance 8
Deepskin
Value 10
Performance 10
Contact
Cressi-sub • 01484 711113 • http://www.cressi-sub.net
O’Three • 01305 822820 • http://www.othree.co.uk