Scuba Gear Reviews by James Moore

nice suit, note sizing difference from Henderson Instadry where I am a mens large. The Neoskin medium is loose on me in spots and fits a friend with bigger shoulders than mine.

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11 out of 23 people found this review helpful.

I have bought several of this product and they fit women who claim to have size 7 feet

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12 out of 26 people found this review helpful.

these hoods are comparable to the Akona ones and have similar sizing. They seem a little stretchier although this is not so important with the zipper feature

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14 out of 29 people found this review helpful.

At 0.5 mm its like a slightly warmer diveskin but is really stretchy and fits very well

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13 out of 28 people found this review helpful.

these suits fit great (after the required accomodation period) and are warmer than other suits of the same weight. One particular advantage is that the zippers do not leak hardly at all.

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13 out of 24 people found this review helpful.

I had bought this item to go with the matching Mares wetsuit. The combination works great and really doesnt leak at all. All in all Mares products are excellent and I order them with confidence.

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27 out of 57 people found this review helpful.

the other reviews are correct that mention the tight top which might get over the heel of a mens size 10 foot. Otherwise they work great for sliding through seals and into boots (do not get the sock in the seal of a semidry suit or you will be surprisingly wet rather quickly)

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32 out of 73 people found this review helpful.

very good mask, kids love them

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48 out of 95 people found this review helpful.

I have already bought several pairs of these for friends who all like them very much. Im getting some more for guests who happen to be that size which in this case fits two different women who claim to be size 7 even though the Pinnacle designation is mens 5 womens 6.

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21 out of 43 people found this review helpful.

The little girl loves her new outfit and looks forward to being old enough to breathe underwater

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19 out of 39 people found this review helpful.

the Isotherm Semi-dry suits are just about dry if you make up the seals carefully. If you have skinny ankles you must roll the seal in far enough to get up to where you can get a little tension on the material to form the skin to skin seal. The waterproof zipper works perfectly as long as you fully close it. The McNett zipper lube from scuba.com helps a lot. It is remarkably non-greasy but slides pretty well. I tried this suit myself in 40 F and was warm as could be until my lips got too cold.

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35 out of 71 people found this review helpful.

although this suit is not listed as a semi dry it almost is. several minutes in the water (just snorkeling, not at depth) left most of the lining dry. There are secondary seals a little up from the wrists that look effective and probably account for no leaks there.

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41 out of 80 people found this review helpful.

the scuba goops are nice bright colors, hopefully they stick, I imagine precleaning with something like the Cotol solvent would be a good idea

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30 out of 59 people found this review helpful.

This mask brags about its rounded sealing edge. It works and fits very well

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23 out of 46 people found this review helpful.

nice soft edge seals well, pseudo three window design gives wide view without the frame corner

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32 out of 65 people found this review helpful.

I have a number of sets of split fins and the most efficient seem to be the solid rubber ones. They best form the foil sections that the Natures Wing design implements. The Scubapro versions are quite good just behind Apollo and Oceanic. In a plastic composition the TUSA X-pert Zoom are very good. Stiffer blades do not properly form the foil shape and behave more like a straight bladed fin with a leak in the middle

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29 out of 59 people found this review helpful.

Charges four cells at a time but takes a day to do it for the 2450 mah AA cells

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19 out of 41 people found this review helpful.

These batteries were unavailable from scuba.com at the time but I got some elsewhere since they are the brand the charger calls for. The ones i got are the 2450 mah size and seem to work well. The downside of this system is that the charger only holds four batteries and takes a long time to charge them. This is probably better for the batteries than a faster charge, but two days is a long time to recharge the 8 cell set for the Big Blue dive light

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19 out of 38 people found this review helpful.

500 lumens is plenty of light in a fairly wide and uniform beam. I loaded 8 2650 mah (milliamp-hours) nickel metal hydride AA batteries and get over two hours of bright light on the high setting. I think it would go rather longer but I dont want to over-discharge the cells. This light with three five-watt LEDs is disproportionately brighter than the three three-watt LEDs in my somewhat older Princeton Tec Miniwave LED. LED technology is advancing rapidly and it seems the Big Blue is using newer ones. I believe the current efficiency winner is from Cree at over 100 lumens per watt.

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35 out of 68 people found this review helpful.

These are clever disassemblable fins. They do break down and go back together quite easily after a few uses and the latching mechanism seems secure. Enthusiasts for long blade fins can now fit them in shorter suitcases.

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27 out of 47 people found this review helpful.

having started at a medium in a Henderson Instadry, I have moved through large, x-large and now 2x-large in the Akona line with very little increase in size. It would be nice if there were size standards across manufacturers

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27 out of 53 people found this review helpful.

This is a nice product, the fabric is remarkable and has some warmth. Size is peculiar, the large being very little different from the medium (a tiny bit longer) the size chart is completely outlandish

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21 out of 44 people found this review helpful.

The Akona zippered hoods are a good product particularly due to the zipper. Sizing runs tight (prior to any stretching out) and the XL seems no bigger than the L except maybe in the neck. Hood sizing has little to do with the charts showing height and weight, perhaps actual head and neck dimensions would be more informative.

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37 out of 76 people found this review helpful.

I have been waiting for a low dead volume snorkel design to appear since 1972 when I started diving. The Kadence snorkel has separate inhale and exhale passages as well as an exhale pressure controller that encourages increased lung volume (it really does work). Testing reveals the low dead volume feature to be stunningly effective at providing fresh air. Continuous hard finning does not produce the air starvation feeling that all conventional snorkels do. Once you try it you will never go back to your old one

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106 out of 210 people found this review helpful.

The manufacturer is Ultralife Batteries Inc. The part with the "10 year" life was delivered as "best used before 2015" but new in original sealed bag. Voltage upon opening the bag was 9.925v as measured by a Fluke 189 multimeter. Life testing has not begun yet but the $9 price is competitive with other lithium batteries Ive seen. The package shows discharge curves comparing the Ultralife to an alkaline battery at 30 ma drain to 7.5 volts, 31 hrs vs. 7 for the alkaline. There is furious development going on in lithium cells, including rechargeable technologies (THIS BATTERY IS NOT RECHARGEABLE). Energy density is far superior to NiCd and NiMH and there is said to be no "training effect" as with NiCd. They are also starting to appear in high end electric cars as the preferred battery technology. Lithium cells contain no mercury, lead or cadmium and are therefore safer for the environment.

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48 out of 94 people found this review helpful.