Weezle Dive underwear

Michael Jensen

Hi Rob

I can share my experience with the Weezle Extreme + with you


I have dived with this undersuit for almost 4 years now, and I am also diving in a trilaminate suit.

And I must admit, that I absolutely love this undersuit!

I have used it on all my dives in that period, shallow diving, deep technical diving, icediving.


I have used it in minus 2 degrees celsius with a runtime of an hour, without any chilly feeling on my body. I wore on this dive a Xerotherm baselayer from Fourth Element underneath. This baselayer works outstanding under the suit, but that is my oppinion.

The undersuit is extremely tolerant if you should be unlucky to flood your suit.
I did 118 minutes runtime, in 8 degrees celsius, and had only a little feeling of cold on my right hip and knee, and later when I got back onboard the boat, I discovered that my right leg was almost totally flooded. But I honestly did not feel that during the dive!
So the materialdoes not collapse, when it is soak wet.
I also found the reason to the problem... The "friendly" fellow who gave me a hand with closing my zipper, did not zip it all the way!

But the undersuit dries very quickly...

Especially when you are sweatting a lot, the suit really helps you.
In the Baltic Sea where I normally dive, we often have a airtemperature on 25-30 degrees celsius during the summer, but the watertemperature seldom gets higher than 10 degrees cesius on the bottom. So when I dive in the summer I don't wear any baselayer, just my bare skin. And I have many times felt the sweat running inside before entering the water, but I have not been cold during the dive.
But I have sometimes thought that I had a serious leak on my suit, because of all the moist on the outside on my undersuit. But the inside has been nearly dry. So the material is very capable of getting the sweat away from your skin.

In the summer/autumn I don't wear anything else than boxershorts underneath.
In the winter/spring I use Xerotherm Baselayer from Fourth Element underneath.

The only thing bad I have experienced with Weezle Extreme +
Is that it require more space in your drysuit.
If you want to get the maximum insulation, the undersuit must have a bit more amount of air, to "inflate" it self with the suitgas. That requires of couse more lead, and more loose fit on your drysuit, than other undersuits.

The feel of the Weezle is actually like a sleeping bag!

Hope this might help you.

Best Regards

Michael

decoweenie

Thanks for the info, I must say that I am surprised at the results posted from looking at the pictures of the Artic as they look so thin.

Got to call John up and order a set for this Winter... Or may be from Europe if someone knows which store has them in stock at decent prices...

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Russ

The claim is that if you layer the thicker artic with the thinner xerotherm its equivalent to 500 to 600 grams of insulation. Been told that its true but for now I'm just going to use the artic as a baselayer

Russ

Mark Chase

I have read all these replies with great interest. I purchased a Weasel extreme in January 04 and sold it a couple of months later. I was diving in 6-8c water and I thought it was useless.

I got a 400g DUI under suit in 05 and frankly was astonished at how good it was both dry and flooded. I just bought a MTM 200g Santi which is extremely good value and I was pleasantly surprised to be comfortable on a 95min dive in 11c last week.

The DUI needs a lot of lead to sink it +4KG compared with diving in just a base layer but it works well with minimal suit inflation which is how i like to dive. I am told the Weasel didn't work for me because i dived the suit too tight. It needs air to work. If this is true i cant understand how it works well if the suit is flooded?


Still as always there is a flood of positive feedback on the Weasel. It is just this type of feedback that made me get one in 2004. I don't know why my experience was so drastically different from theirs but all i can say is the 400G type C thinsulate works even for people like me

ATB

Mark Chase

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pattimegdiver

I agree with Dave, I had the same experience with not being able to dump air from my drysuit dump valve which is located on my forearm. Putting the sock over my forearm alleviated the problem. I also found that less undergarments the better. I tend to get cold so I use multi layers, which is not recommended with the weezle - less is better than more. I love it.
I would like to try the 4th element but seems to be a little spendy. Anyone try the 4th element yet?

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Patti Meg Diver


Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk

Johnny Christensen

Same here. I testdived the extreme version a couple of years back, and was thought it was way too cold for my diving style. If you have lots of air in the suit, it works. If not...brrrrrrrrr

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atomik

I agree. I use a Weezle+ and CF200 or a classic trilaminate and I normaly do 60/90min in cave/lake at 7/8°C. You need more argon/air gas to have a good isulation that DUI400gr, you need more space in your suit but it's very lovely also in case of flood the suit

pattimegdiver

I dive in the PNW and the water here is pretty cold. the extreme is to be used with skins and no other garments, you feel the cold but you do not get cold. What are you using now?

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Patti Meg Diver


Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk

DaveC

Used both the Weezle Compact and the Extreem. While diving OC I found these to be very warm comfortable to use. Putting them on was a bit of the PITA due to feet getting caught in the legs because of the multiple layers of the Extreem. Another challage was to over come the material not venting correctly when damp but that was overcome by a few small holes burnt through the layers where the drysuit vent met the faberic.

When diving the Rebreather, and learning to finite my gas, I found that the underwear didn't work as welll for me mainly because I wasn't putting as much gas in the suit. I didn't like riding the bubble in the shallow waters during deco. Since I've switched to the Forth Eliment, Artic and really have found this to be greatest thing since slice bread. However; I do think the Weezle is warmer but only when you have the air in the suit to loft.

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Dave

Any day in the water is better then any day in the office.

Johnny Christensen

I'm currently using 4 layers.
Patagonia base layer to keep me dry, for when overheating during kit-up or heavy swimming.
4th. Element Xerotherm
A cheap no-name flece full body suit.
As a former owner of a Northern Diver drysuit, I discovered that ND had a HUGE knowhow in suits that was not dry. So they made the Flectalon style of undersuits, I can testify that they work really well when wet. Had to use that feature many times.
I'm using the 300 gr version. Nice and warm when compressed, as they work by reflecting the bodyheat back to you, more than the airpocket principle.

All this in combination has worked very well over the past 5 years. I tend to do longer dives than the norm around here. And I try to have less physical activity while down there, than the average diver.

I dive with very little air in the suit, as I have an interest in very careful body control. Can't really give co-divers a hard time for ruining the viz, if I'm doing the very same thing myself

The Xerotherm and the no-name fleece suit is on the list to be exchanged by the 4th. Element Artic version.

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Wreckphotography from the cold north