KITTED-UP
Year Two : Dive kit decisions
With advice aimed at Ocean Divers and Sports Divers-in-training , SCUBA ’ s equipment guru Neil Hope sets out some options for building up your own kit
So you ’ ve managed to navigate through your Ocean Diver training , completed your first full season of UK diving and can ’ t get enough of the underwater world . While your mish-mash of begged and borrowed dive gear has done its job so far , you ’ re looking to push onwards and deck yourself out with something shiny and chrome . Hopefully you ’ ll have checked out what your peers are using , listened to their advice or even tried out a few different configurations and got the feel for what ’ s a good match for what you ’ re looking for . Whatever the chatroom experts online may say , remember that there are no hard and fast rules regarding kit and its configuration . The main factors are comfort , familiarity and suitability , allied of course with safety and reliability .
Choosing a drysuit
O ’ Three 90Ninety Web : www . othree . co . uk RRP : £ 2,095
Fourth Element Argonaut 3 Web : www . fourthelement . com RRP : £ 2,425
Northern Diver Divemaster Limited Edition web : www . ndiver . com RRP : £ 875
For UK diving , a drysuit is considered a necessity and is almost universally the number one choice for exposure protection . This is potentially one of the most expensive items a diver will buy and can be purchased offthe-peg if you ’ re a standard size . Made-to-measure is an option if you ’ re not , and many manufacturers offer this service free of charge regardless .
Compressed neoprene or trilaminate drysuits offer similar protection , but in different ways . Neoprene provides excellent exposure protection in itself , requiring a thinner undersuit and is generally considered more hard-wearing . However , it is more buoyant and as a consequence will require a little extra lead .
Trilaminate suits are thinner in their makeup and have little intrinsic warmth . As a result they are used in conjunction with a thicker or more thermally-efficient undersuit . They have a much looser fit and as such they offer a greater range of movement .
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