My Suit Saga
largely based on recommendations on YD I ordered a suit from Richard and co which they made very well last June, sice then I have had intermittent problems with leaks occuring on some dives and not others (always in the same area around the chest), it was bugger to track down what was causing it but appeared to be the inflator valve which was sucking in water and spraying my chest. But there didn't seem to be any reason why I might have 4 dry dives and then 2 wet ones. 1st attempt Richard sent me a new valve and hose, I swapped them and it seemed to work, then back to leaks again. I then posted it back to them they pressure tested it, swapped the valve again and sent it back... exactly the same thing happened again so this time I drove up and talked it over with Richard, we stuck it back in the tank and tested it again with me watching. No leaks at all
we discussed how I dive because by now I was convinced that somehow it was user error but Richard made no attempt to blame me, in fact he even offered to make me a new suit. We agreed not to apply this "final solution" yet so I left it with him for further testing, including changing from Apeks to Sitek valves and either Richard or one of his guys actually diving the suit to see if they could replicate the problem. I got it back on Thursday and took it to wraysbury today to see if there was any difference.
I'm happy to tell you that the suit was absolutely dry, that doesn't mean athat at this stage I'm convinced but I did add a couple more kilos so that I was diving with more air in the suit which I think is the key, I think by diving without enough air somehow the suit was sucking in water (if that makes any sense)
. When I was kitting up I'd found a pair of seaskin badged "boot dryers" in the suit, so this afternoon I phoned Richard to tell him that it was dry and that he'd left some of his kit inside it. He explained that he'd added them to say sorry for all the trouble I'd had and said again that the offer of a new suit was still open if I had another leak.
Frankly the quality of the service I've had from these guys is superb, not once has Richard implied that maybe I'm a muppet and whilst I may not be out of the woods yet I'm sticking with Seaskin.