Otter Britannics......

[Yorkie gone under]

hi all,

first time on here - moved to Oz 2 years ago, now starting to feel the cold (Victoria has down to 8 celcius in winter)...

so, i took the plunge, and through the fog of Jack Daniels I ordered a Britannic suit system to be delivered to Australia (works out about &#361000 cheaper than buying JUST the suit from a dealer a few kilometres away).

what do people reckon to them - mainly used for deep'ish (45m-50m) deco stuff, and instructing.  Are they as indestructible as they are made out to be ? Also, how warm is the 200g undersuit ?  And finally, i ordered it on friday - how quick are DWH at getting their suits out the door and in the post ?!

down here, the cheapest drysuit is about &#361400 (HotnDry aka ColdnClammy), going up to the Diverite 905 @ &#363000.  The Otter will have cost me &#361500 landed at my front door - so note to anyone moving down here, get your drybag first !

cheers all

[Driftwood]

Erm.... have you considered the effect of Aussie GST on the price of your incoming suit? Customs can soon make things more expensive!

[Yorkie gone under]

GST is 10%, VAT is 17.5%.  Believe me, I have done the WHOLE sum on this, and it works out shitloads cheaper ordering from the other side of the world.  I have even spoken to Customs re: how much i am looking at - less than &#36300AUD to import it, that STILL works out about &#361000 cheaper than buying it here.

[Mr T.]

Drifty mate,

The Aussie Dollar ranges between AUD2.45 to AUD3.25 to the £, so thru'pence-ha'penny and a bag of chips, when all is said and done. Looks like Yorkie got a result mate.

Oh, and welcome aboard squire, look forward to reading your exploits down-under!

[Dr Stevil]

I've got a cheaper model, Otter Hammerhead, very durable. I don't think you'll be disappointed with the Britannic, many guys I know use them, in fact almost everyone from my old club uses some kind of Otter suit.

Mind, I did see the main zip on a Britannic go totally FUBAR at a training weekend in Wastwater, but that's the only one in my personal experience.
HTH
Steve

[Lou]

Hi there

My other half has the Otter Skin, which is the Brittanic without the extra pockets and techie bits.  I have the same suit made out of the flexy skin.  Only a month old so too soon to really tell, but...

They both seem good.  The HD cuffs on the Skin are like car inner tubes and come quite small.  They took some serious stretching treatment to fit girlie wrists, so expect to trim!

I have the 200g undersuit and it is nice and cozy.  The fleecy lining is nice and soft and it seems to wick well by the way it is bone dry on the inside when I take it of, but soaking by the time I have got it home.  I would say you couldn't really go wrong with them.  They are pretty popluar over here.

Where do you dive?  My mum & dad lived in Melbourne for a couple of years and we did a handful of dives out in Port Phillip bay, and just outside.  Really enjoyed it and would love to go back one day.  Have to agree about your prices though.  With the exchange rate we thought we might get a good deal on some dive gear when we were over there but it was hideously expensive.  IIRC computers were about £100/50% more than here.

HTH

Lou

[Yorkie gone under]

thanks for all that guys - winter doesnt strike down here till about May, so wont be able to put it through its paces till then (semidry does quite a good job).  had excellent reviews from what i have read, but down here its mainly Diverite, HotnDry or DUI for membrane, or Apollo / Tusa for neoprene - found an Otter Britannic for just under &#363k down here......yeeuuuuww....!

Lou - i live in Williamstown at the moment, but moving out to Portsea early next year - yeah, Port Philip Bay and Bass Strait are the normal haunts, with trips to the Ships Graveyard and Lonsdale Wall being frequent !  Ever get to do the 26m sub or The Courrier ?

Australian Diving industry is extremely anti-competitive and expensive (internet dealers being hammered closed by retail competition etc etc), so its cheaper to order in from overseas (even with P&P, customs and taxes). only problem is you have to buy tanks and manifolds etc in Australia due to various local legislations (i.e burst disks, no fills over 207bar for K valves etc etc), so no UK tanks over here !

going over to NZ to dive the Poor Knights next week, if anyone interested in hearing about the "cheap" way to dive there (i.e not getting ripped off cos you're from the "dark side" of the world) let me know.  otherwise, will be thinking of you as the Crays go in the Pot for Xmas day dinner !

cheers all

Yorkie

[Lou]

Yorkie

I am envious....it was Portsea we dived out of i think.  My best memory is the smallest - coming face to face with a weedy sea dragon off the pier, what an amazing little guy!

We only had a couple of days diving (and it was the start of the cray season so alot of the boats were doing reefs) so we did 12lb reef where we saw the blue devilfish and met a mahusive bull ray, the pier, the obligatory Pope's Eye to meet the sealions, and we were suppoed to do a wreck that lies in the shipping channel (Lady something?) but 2 ships were due in and the lane was OOB, so we went outside the heads again for another reef.  I will have to check my logbook.  Oh, and the Aquarium Shark tank, of course!

I really enjoyed the diving.  The life was much more than I expected - I was thinking more along the lines of UK diving, it being similar temps, but it was much better.

We will go back one day and see the wrecks...

The chips from Rosebud were the best post-dive grub too!

lou

[TwoTanksTim]

I have an otter brittanic. Best investment I made. It's Warm, hardwearing and flexible. Love it.....

A couple of my friends also bought them round about the same time and swear by them.

I and the one lad went for the Latex seals, whilst the other went for Neoprene. He later changed to Latex, the neoprene was warmer, but slightest movements would cause a leak up his arms, Neck was usually OK.

I hope you enjoy using it.

TTT

[JP]

as per tim, fab suit...tried lots, by far the best.  Not that it will affect you, but the guys in the cutting room are top fellas too. nothing is too much trouble and timing (outside of dive show) is pretty good.  As for diving it.  No problems.  lots of movement thanks to the front zip and shut downs are easy.  Durable and with the bomb proof heavy duty boots good for scrabbling round in the mud.  Big issue in these parts!  Allround a mega suit.  Lots of mates wearing them too.