As Nick's post suggests, he and I got together today. We were at the NDC for my first dive of the season - the aim was to try out my new Halcyon Evolve, DUI drysuit and the Santi undersuit. I was naturally concerned about diving with so much new kit, so the first dive was to a max of about 10m, and mostly consisted of me checking my bouyancy and trim, but also involved me not being able to get to my valves for a shutdown - I think this can be resolved, I just need to some advice from people who dive similar suits.
I've never dived a membrane suit before so was worried about air migration and keeping warm. For a stock size, the DUI suit fits quite well, and with the undersuit the fit was comfortable - there was not much space for air to be moving around. As a membrane newbie, I had sort of imagined that the air would just be slopping around the suit but this was not the case. In fact it wasn't that much different to my old O'Three suit which was also a well fitting stock size.
For the 2nd dive we jumped off the deep end of the pontoon, down the shot to 35m (40ish for Nick). We then swam across and followed the edge of the quarry round to the shallow end, passing over the training platforms to get out at the other end of the pontoon.
So to warmth, and the purpose of this thread. Under the undersuit I was wearing a Helly Hansen LiFa (thermal trousers and top). With the drysuit on and zipped up I was getting quite hot while getting my kit ready. I had to jump in the water to cool down while Nick was still getting ready. I imagine that it could be quite uncomfortable in the Summer sun on the south coast. Underwater the temp was about 7 degrees at depth (I got to 35m on the 2nd dive) but I was toasty warm throughout the dives (25 mins 1st dive, 35 mins 2nd dive).
So, what can I say about the undersuit so far? Well, I still need to dive it more, but it seems to be more than adequate for water temps as low as 7 degrees. Early indications suggest that it is well worth the £170 I paid for it - a bargain price for a MTM undersuit.
I think I should also comment on the NDC - there have been some negative comments about it recently but I was impressed with what I saw today. The transport to the water is much improved, the staff were friendly and the food was good (for a dive site burger van). I still feel they should do something about the surface of the car park, but at least I didn't need to catch the cross-puddle ferry to get from my car to the shop.
All in all it was a good day, and it felt great to get back in the water
