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I was on a RIB racing back from my first dive at Elphinstone last year, I’d not had enough dives to go by myself at the time and so was being babysat by a large Egyptian dive guide called Hatam. Hatam was a joker and took great delight in taking the mickey out of everything and everyone, and I mean everyone. Hatam sat on the RIB after the dive, smoking a cigarette, and looked me up and down. “You know, most of your gear is plastic crap, but that wetsuit, that’s a good one”. I was wearing the 5mm version of this suit and it was not the first comment I’d had about the suit. Hardened DIR types with Halycon underpants have given me virtually imperceptible nods of approval (mostly because the 5mm is all black, with black seals and black lettering on black with more black).
I bought the 7mm because I was so very happy with the 5mm. It’s a cinch to get on, keeps you very snug indeed, even when all around you are in drysuits you’ll be splashing around in this feeling as snug as a baby in a romper suit. Some have sneered at the brand, thinking it something of a surfer wannabe casual clothing thing, but forget that O’Neil are first and foremost a wetsuit manufacturer, so know a thing or two about neoprene. It’s a fine wetsuit, a touch expensive perhaps, but you pay for what you get in the end. Peanuts does equal monkeys. You don’t want a wetsuit made by monkeys (It would be full of peanuts).
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