She dives in the Tropic Pool? (Mares Tropic Shorty)

Member Name: scuba_angel

Product:	Mares Tropic Shorty
Date:	10/11/08 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: comfy, well fitting, warm

Disadvantages: the colour scheme

No surprises here but I like to scuba dive, sadly for me a good 90% of my dives these days are working with students and of those over half are in the local pool when assisting on confined water dives or conducting the Discover Scuba program (try dives to the rest of the world). So for me a good quality wetsuit is essential as in the pool I would look slightly ridiculous in a dry suit and it doesnt look overly professional for me to be bimbling about cellulite on display in my bikini.

My original shorty suit cost me less than £30 over 6 years ago and is currently developing holes in the shoulders so time to invest in a new one. I have to admit my choices of suit to walk in to my LDS to just pick up and walk away with were limited to the Mares range or Cressi, but after trying on several other suits at other shops I settled on the Mares SheDives Tropic, shorty.

The She Dives range is a set of diving equipment desgined to fit those of us with a afew more curvy bits than the average bloke, and currently is all sold in black and baby blue (I dont understand that colour choice but never mind) which looks good but as to its look after heavy usage I wouldnt like to guess - well white where its bleached and grubby from living in a damp dirty bag most likely.

The fit of my suit is good, I have apparently unusually wide shoulders which I tend to find means suits fit me across the shoulders but appear baggy everywhere else, in this case the shoulder fit is good, and still retains the suit shape everywhere else (sadly I do still appear to have a spare tyre or two but I can live with those). The sleeves come to the mid point on my upper arms holding the worst of the bingo wings in place, and is not uncomfortably tight as other suits I tried were, same with the legs, their cut off point in just below mid thigh again controlling the biggest part of my leg and not cutting off circulation.

Across my chest I dont find that it is too tight either another fault with some 'womens suits' they clearly are not designed for those of us with more than a B cup (and wide shoulders). I put this down to the trilastic material which is meant to stretch in all directions.

The arms and legs have what Mares call the Metal Skin Seal, which is a silver/grey coloured smooth seal which creates the restriction on the water flushing through the suit. The zip is on the back with a nice long 'tag' to allow you to zip and unzip it yourself, the neck closure is velcro and can be done up as tight as you want it to be due to the collar section being covered in a soft material the velcro can grip.
In the water I generally dont notice the water getting in to the suit at first, in fact I generally seem to stay dry until I put my head under the water and I notice the water entering though the neck after that I do stay nice and warm, as long as I'm moving around, I do seem to start getting cold after an hour or so but in the pool I'll be spending most of my time knelt on the bottom watching students and even in my old 5mm full length suit I was getting cold. As yet I've not been able to get my suit out in to open water - I suspect the headline 'diver dies in shorty suit' would be bad publicity for all concerned in this country! But I will be taking it and a full length 5mm out to Egypt with me when I travel there in Summer.

In terms of packing, because it is so thin it folds up nice and small so can fit in to most of the small pockets in my dive bag or even my swim bag, it is also very light.
For general suit care as with all dive kit it needs rinsing with clean water after use - preferably not the traditional pool rinse after diving in the sea but lob it in the bath when you have a shower then hang it up to dry somewhere sensible (how you define that I'll leave to your imagination).

At my dive centre the suit costs £53 or for club members £48, the £53 seems to be a fairly standard price from most retailers both on and offline.

My only gripe with the suit is that I cant choose my own colour and am stuck to the blue and black combo which is as standard, other than that it is a near perfect as any off the peg suit can be.

Summary: For a good quality ladies suit this is a winner.