Elios coloured shadows camo suit suitable for general freediving?

[ultra-life]

The more I read about ordering an Elios suit, the more confused I get. Saw this News on their site and thought it looked nice. That felt like a much easier way of choosing

I´m a complete beginner now, but planning on diving A LOT the coming 6 months. Currently on Bali and am just going to use a cheap suit here. Going back to Scandinavia in the spring and then I´m going to order a tailor made Elios suit.

So, do you think that a 5mm coloured shadows camo suit would make a decent allround suit for me? Is the SCS skin some kind of nylon?

[ultra-life]

Is this so new that nobody´s tried it? I did a search first, but didn´t find anything.

[Fondueset]

I'm of the opinion that its best to get some kind of nylon on the outside of your first freediving suit. It is simply much sturdier. That said a smoothskin out suit is a little warmer if the air is cold - because nylon wicks heat away in air. But a smoothskin out open cell in suit requires more care when putting it on/taking it off and being careful about rocks etc.

You should email elios about where you will be diving and the conditions there. You will be confused from their first reply but after a while you'll get it figured out

[ultra-life]

I have emailed them, but heard that they´re not super quick to reply. Does anybody have an idea what a 5mm Elios suit weighs?

When they say it´s "20% more slippery than classic smooth", are they referring to plain nylon, then? Kind of hard to desipher...

It should be planty warm, though, with open cell inside and Yamamoto 45 neoprene?

[Fondueset]

I've used a 5 mil open in/nylon out down to 37F (about 2c). It works but I prefer a 6 mil smooth out top below about 50F (10C) I've not used yamamoto neoprene, but I hear it is very fragile. The suit you are looking at is more geared toward competitive freediving - the outside is designed to be more hydrodynamic than regular smooth neoprene. It would not be my choice for recreational diving.

[ultra-life]

It´s the suit below it I´m talking about, the one meant for spearfishing. They´re named almost the same, so it´s easy to get them mixed up.

[Fondueset]

I'd still ask them about durability for your first open cell recreational suit.
They seem to check email once or twice a week so be patient.

[ultra-life]

Yep, but I´m still going to bumb this thread. Surely someone must have tried it.

[ultra-life]

I got a reply from Elios now. And I´m not happy about it.
I asked one (1) question about one (1) specific product. And do you think they answered it? Nope! Instead they sent me 21 (!) variations of camo suits to choose from. Only I never said I wanted to limit myself to camo suits, nor that I wanted a list of suits to choose from at all. If I wanted that, I would have filled out the form. Now I just wanted an answer to my question!

Bit of a rant, I know. But stuff like this really frustrates me. Wasn´t there talk about another good maker of custom suits as well?

[Fondueset]

Elios will help you find the best suit for your conditions. But it is a process of educating yourself and them. If you don't have the patience then just order whatever it is you think you want - all of their suits are excellent.

Heres what I have

My first suit was a 5 mil black shadow/open cell inside superstretch nylon out. It is extremely durable and I dove all winter the first year I had it (2c water temp) I still have it and use the bottoms combined with a 6 mil smooth skin green 'pelagos' camo top for winter diving. (this combination of smoothskin top and nylon out bottoms is very useful if you dive near rocks. I also have a couple of other suits - a smoothskin 5 mil blue pelagos camo and a 3 mil the same (long story). All are Heiwa neoprene because I have heard the yamamoto 45, while very comfortable, is fragile and does not last as long. Since you seem to want the yamamoto suit I would ask elios about its durability. It is also quite expensive.

Factors - where and what kind of diving will you do? Rocks? Reefs? Sharp mussels (I have these here)

Is it your first open cell suit? Getting in and out of an open cell suit requires a learning curve - you are much more likely to damage a suit that does not have nylon on the outside.

What do you want to spend? The most expensive suit is not necessarily the best for your purposes - and is not the sturdiest.

My dive buddy bought a 5 mil, nylon out suit with titanium coating over open cell - much cheaper than my 5 mil black shadow - he dives year round in it and it is extremely sturdy.

Unless you are diving competitively I do not think the relative smoothness of the outside of the suit makes any difference.

[ultra-life]

Thanks for the tips! I haven´t thought about all the details yet, and didn´t want to either, since I´m not bying it for a while still. That´s why I´m angry with Elios. Instead of helping me, they just made it ten times worse.


After reading through and trying to desipher all the 21 variations; i see that they did adress the suit I was asking about. As number 21... Apparently it´s very fragile, which seems a bit strange as it´s meant for spearos. Anyway, it´s probably off the list, then.

Does anyone have experience with the mesh skin?
It seems to be inbetween smoothskin and nylon when it comes to sturdiness. Might be a good choice.

[salibandy]

You got to cut Elios some slack my friend. They're like that. Anyway English isn't their first language, so sometimes it's hard for them too.

I would recommend the open in/nylon out. It's tough, and it's more stretchable, meaning less likely to tear as compared to smoothskin out.

Say, where was it you're going to? I really want to go diving. I'm depressed because I miss the sea. If where you're going sounds nice, I might seriously consider going over for a while.

[chrismar]

I'm in the process of choosing a suit from elios as well at the moment. I'm getting a smoothskin for winter boat diving (v. windy + cold temps), so here's the reply from them asking about the mesh skin, yamamoto 45, coloured shadow and heiwa medium.

Hi,
about your choose, we can give you some percentage of caracteristics:

ELASTICITY:
100% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Mesh skin Pelagos or Benthos outside
Neoprene Nam Liong
100% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin Black outside Neoprene
Yamamoto 45
90% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin black outside Neoprene Heiwa
90% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Superskin Red outside Neoprene Yamamoto 45 Freedown

DURABILITY:
60% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Mesh skin Pelagos or Benthos outside Neoprene Nam Liong
60% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Superskin Red outside Neoprene Yamamoto 45 Freedown
50% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin black outside
Neoprene Heiwa
40% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin Black outside Neoprene
Yamamoto 45

RESISTANCE AGAINST COMPRESSION:
90% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin black outside Neoprene Heiwa
80% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Superskin Red outside Neoprene Yamamoto 45 Freedown
70% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin Black outside Neoprene
Yamamoto 45
60% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Mesh skin Pelagos or Benthos outside Neoprene Nam Liong

LOW WATER RESISTANCE:
100% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Superskin Red outside Neoprene Yamamoto 45 Freedown
90% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin black outside Neoprene Heiwa
90% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin Black outside Neoprene
Yamamoto 45
70% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Mesh skin Pelagos or Benthos outside Neoprene Nam Liong

SOFTNESS RUBBER:
100% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Mesh skin Pelagos or Benthos outside Neoprene Nam Liong
95% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin Black outside Neoprene Yamamoto 45
90% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Superskin Red outside Neoprene Yamamoto 45 Freedown
85% Suit 5mm open cell inside / Smoothskin black outside Neoprene Heiwa

We hope to have helped you for choose your better suit.
About coating cell inside, there is some advantages:
- it's more slippery to get into (just use a little part of water or talkum and some time is possible to wear dry)
- it's little more warmth because have a metal film inside to keep you hot inside!

Wait your news..
Best regards

[fflupo]

i m using a 7mm and 5mm tailor made freedown since years and the fit and performance is incredible never had any problems
even in depth below 50m i feel it stays as a part of me like skin and with the monofin they give my arms enough maneuverability

they still do the job, as well as my colored 3mm superskin red outside neoprene yamamoto 45 freedown for the summer
the colored one is more stretchy but i like the red color on the surface because it is easy to see; safety wise for boats and it is really nice to see the change of color in deeper water
both type of suits are easy to rip if you don t pay attention but always i managed to clue them.. it is part of the game and elios has always been very kind and fixed the bigger problems 4 free + shipping

full recommendation even do it is sometimes hard to wait and deal with their own rhythm

[peacenluv]

just a quick note.. i have the elios 3mm heiwa medium density shaca (camo nylon out, termic lining in) and the 3mm yamamoto 45 (red nylon out, open in) and the yama 45 is warmer and more durable than the heiwa md from my experience.. and that's also what elios told me.. overall, the yama feels softer, but the outside lining is more resistant..

either way, both suits are sweet, but if u have only used nylon in/out suits, be very careful putting the elios suits on..

good luck with it..