color to paint smoothskin wetsuit ?

[WISR]

hi underwater creatures,

we often dive in a very dark lake, where you often dont see your hands before the face, which is terrible especially when it comes to being a safety-diver. you dont see a diver in a black suit in black water !
Thats why I d like to colour my suit. Do you know what kind of color can be used, that would be waterresistant thus not destroying the wetsuit ?? ( wearing an eliossub smoothskin) thanks in advance,

dani w

 

[shaneshac]

Get some two part "clear" Neoprene glue. Aquaseal is a good one to use. Into the actual glue mix in some acrylic gold paint. Add the second part (not sure what its called) and than apply over the smoothskin.

The gold will turn a greenish brown at depth and will be excellent camo, and you'll sparkle on the surface.

Gold is the colour used by the great Giorgio Dapiran to camo his suits when fishing Dentex.

Hope this helps.

 

[CEngelbrecht]

Come again? You mix Aquaseal with acrylic paint, is that it? Will the suit still maintain a smoothskin effect, even if you'd paint the whole suit the color?

Can you use this method with any kind of color? I mean, can I take a black smoothskin suit and paint it bright red or white, etc.? Will the suit turn actual red or will it be like 'black-red'? (I'm looking for a way to make a suit that looks like the Danish flag...)

Chris Engelbrecht, Copenhagen

 

[shaneshac]

In thery you could paint it red but if the suit has a black background it would be quite dark. The suit will lose a bit of elasticity thats why we only use it to paint small parts to comuflage your shape.

Probably better to talk to Elios or another custom suit designer for some proper advice.

 

[CEngelbrecht]

Actually I asked Elios a while ago and they say that red smoothskin neoprene is possible, but in order for it to be rentable for them they have to purchase at least 60 sheets of the color. Don't know how big a sheet is in this case, but I don't think it'll be to my purse alone, so I sort of gave up on the idea.

My idea was to make a competition suit for like national freediving teams and to give the athletes a suit that would have the benefits of the best suits available as well as a nice color choice. (That would sell the game on TV, wouldn't it?) But there are just these terrible technical details I can't figure out.

You can't use car polish, can you? Would that wreck the suit?

 

[shaneshac]

How many athletes in the team? How many sheets are required to make one suit?

Maybe another team can use the same idea and make it rentable for Elios to buy the red sheets.

Painting the whole wetsuit in the method I explained would ruin it I think.

 

[CEngelbrecht]

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How many athletes in the team? How many sheets are required to make one suit?
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That's the thing I don't know, either. Either way, I don't think that some 10 Danish freedivers a year ordering a similar suit would cover their expenses (probable market pt.).

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Maybe another team can use the same idea and make it rentable for Elios to buy the red sheets.
----

I actually suggested to Elios that if they should consider offering colored suits for freediving competitors (as upposed to spear fishers that need camouflage, Elios is offering a range of colors for them pt.), the best option would be to purchase sheets in five different colors, ie. the five olympic colors black (exists), red, blue, green & yellow. The thing is that every nation in the world has one or more of these colors represented in their flag (kinda cool, actually), so offering these five colors would give room for any freediver in the world to get a suit in their national color.
Elios replied that they noted my suggestion. Ok way to respond, I think. I understand their situation, there has to be a market before investments like these are sound.

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Painting the whole wetsuit in the method I explained would ruin it I think.
----

That's what I feared. Anyone knows details about how & who creates these sheets of neoprene used for diving suits? What would it technically take to make colored smoothskin?

Anyway, I thought it would be a cool idea with national colored wetsuits, I'm keep thinking skiing competitions (or Enzo in The Big Blue). That would really sell the game in the media and all that.

Chris Engelbrecht, Copenhagen

 

[shaneshac]

Who else makes custom wetsuits???

Polosub or brands like that might consider it.

Any wetsuit brand sponsors any of the top freedivers? Why not ask them if it is possible.

Just a thought.

 

[CEngelbrecht]

I can try that, but I could imagine that they'd reply something similar.

For kicks, I've attached a jpg pic I made a one point and showed to Elios, so you guys can see what I'm thinking about.

Chris Engelbrecht, Copenhagen

 

[shaneshac]

CAn;t Elios get some of that Superstretch stuff in red and cover the suit. Will affect performance but you'll be the best looking team there

 

[CEngelbrecht]

The idea was to try to get it done so the smoothskin provides the best athletic conditions along with the sexy look The big white cross I can accept is done with print, though.

Run that by me again: What is Superstretch, I've missed out on that...

Chris

 

[Roan]

Chris,

Good job on the Danish National wetsuit; it looks cool!

I have a bunch of Elios neoprene swatches; Superstretch is just that: a very stretchy, flexible nylon lining on the neoprene. They also have a lining they call SuperElastic, it seems to be even more flexible then the Superstretch. The SuperElastic has a distinctive look to the weave, instead of your typical textile pattern of threads running north-south, east-west, the structure of this weave seam to be more like chain mail, or spyder web-like. They've also got others: Kanoko, Neoflex.. an array of choices.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to order SuperElastic interior.

 

[shaneshac]

Its probably cheaper to get a red nylon lining than to produce red coloured neoprene.

How much does it affect performance?