From: ljp@my16.sm.luth.se (Johan Persson)
Newsgroups: rec.scuba
Subject: Re: Viking vs Brooks: dry suit question
Date: 28 Jan 93 10:09:05 GMT

kam@doe.carleton.ca (Kim A. MacDonald) writes:

>I am about to start my PADI divemaster course and every 
>divemaster or former divemaster I have talked to
>here in Ottawa says that I should buy a
>dry suit. The dive store I dive with, Discover Scuba has 
>given me two (really, three) options:
>
>		Viking Sport or Pro dry suits
>		Brooks neoprene dry suit
>
>I am 5'5'', 115lbs and am rather thin. My questions are
>will the suits fit me (seals especially since I have
>very thin wrists) and which one is best for the fresh
>water diving around Ottawa. Insulation is another consideration
>since I don't have very much myself.

Hi Kim,

I will try to give some advice based on my own experience with
both Viking Sport and Pro, and some other dry suits. Since I do
most of my diving in almost arctic climate (my home town lies approx
70 km from the arctic circle here in Sweden) a dry suit comes in
handy.

Pls remember these are just my own personal views, others may
disagree!

Viking
------
Both viking sport (and pro) can be ordered with smaller neck seals
if that's a problem. You also have a choice for neoprene or latex neck
seals and hood. But make sure you get the suit as u want when ordering
it's quite expensive (at least here) to by the hood afterwards and put
on your self.

The only real difference between the sport and the pro is the thickness
of the rubber. If u are going to do a lot of diving I would suggest
u go for the pro. It's quite easy to get holes in the sport, on the
other hand it's very easy to fix. I think that's the best thing with
this suit, that u can fix any holes or leaking seals very easily
yourself.

If the suit is to big for u, they only come in fixed sizes, you may
experience problem with air flowing back and forth. It may also be
that the legs are a little bit to long. So be sure to try it out
fully clothed. You can use either Vikings own underware (which
actually is the same material as could be found in the inner-roof
in old SAAB's, (the car)), or some other thick clothing. Remember
that the underware should be quite thick to put some distance
between your skin and the suit. These underware are very warm.

Up here there are a lot of people using both the sport and the pro
and they have proven themself quit good. They last for a long time
if u take care of them (ecspecially the zipper). The only drawback
I can think of is, as I said before, it's quite easy to get holes
in the sport if u're not careful. They also have the advantage of
quick drying.


Aquion
------

This is an english dry-suit that has become quite popular here.
It's a multi layered nylon dry suit which is _very_ hard to tear apart.
Actually, to my knowledge, not one of the users here has got a
hole in their suit. Furthermore, you can order the suit tailor-made,
there are also a lot more sizes than for the viking.

The problems we had is a couple of cases were the seems (spelling?)
doesn't keep tight. Especially along the legs. We've returned a couple
of suits, and had some small problems with Aguion since they said
that the suits were ok when they apperently wasn't. 

Other problems have been with the neoprene hood where the seem
from the neck to the chin have broken. 

All in all, those who havn't had any problems love this suit.


Neoprene
--------

The advantage of the previous suits are that they are very
easy to get into and that you are very mobile in them. The
disadvantage beeing that you need a lot of cloth if u want.
to stay warm.

If u like to change that, go for a neoprene. They are much
warmer at the beginning so u dont need so much clothing.
It's also a lot harder for the air to wander in the suit which
might be a problem in the viking and aquion suits.

On the other hand, u have to struggle a lot more to get into
the suits and u tend to be quite un-mobile at least on land.

However, under 20m, or so there are very little difference
between the neoprene and the other types of suits, since the
neprene gets so compressed.

There are some variations which are known as pre-compressed
neoprene. These suits are a little bit more mobile but hardly
eny easier to get into. 

Furthermore, the neprene is almost undestructable, and some may
se that as a big advantage.

---

There are also some other variants like the Moby-Dick twin-shell
which has separate inner and outer layers keept together by push
buttons, I think. But I can only see problems with that.
If anyone have any experience with the Moby-Dick please drop me
a note.

If youre interested in more details, or some of the suits
I haven't mentioned, drop me note and I'll try to help.

Cheers,
Johan

---
Johan Persson				E-mail: ljp@sm.luth.se
Dept. of Computer Science
Technical University of Lulea
S-951 63 Lules, Sweden
Newsgroups: rec.scuba,ba.market.misc