Elios: heiwa vs black shadow?

[hudja]

Hi everybody! I want to order wet-suite from Elios, wrote to them couple of times, they answered, but not to the questions I asked them . May be somebody here can help? I will use this suite in water starting from 12-13C, I am not diving deep, up to 15m, mainly between 7 and 10 meters. I am primarily spearfishing European eels, they sit in mud, thus I won’t use it for doing aspettos laying on the rocks. After reading this forum and asking for help from Elios, I am choosing between two models:

1. Heiwa smoothskin/open cell. I do not want yamamoto (smoothskin or lined); as far as I understood it is too fragile, heiwa is better in that sense. Am I correct? Elios wrote that heiwa medium density could be very tough for me because I am a very shallow diver. How bad is elasticity of smooth heiwa comparing to that of smooth yamamoto, is it still worth to consider yamamoto as one of the options?
2. Black shadow neoprene superstretch outside/open cell. I was asking about that but did not get exact answer. If anybody of you did try this neoprene and could compare it to heiwa? How bad is elasticity and sliding properties of this neoprene assuming it is has superstretch lining outside?

On one hand I want more or less durable suite – black shadow, on the other hand I want camo and fast (smooth) suite – heiwa. How delicate is heiwa smoothskin? Assuming that eels can bite, could they damage it (my fish string is on my belt)?

Thank you for your help!

 

[DivingDane]

considering you are only diving relatively shallow the smoothskin suit will not give you any noticable perfromance improvement over a lined suit. so the "fast" part you speak of will not change.

smooth skin will be better when out of the water but if you are mostly in the water then it wont matter.

for looking for eel and getting a bit dirty not to mention the bites, stringer etc i think that you will be better with opencell inner and superstretch outer. anysuit made opencell inner/smoothouter is VERY delicate and requires alot of maintance and very slow delicate way of putting it on. with the supestretch outeer the suit is still VERY comfortable but not as easy to rip. if you were diving really deep or doing lots of driving in boat then smooth outer is best but for what you are doing you will not notice the advantage and will hate how delicate they are.

as for Heiwa v yamamoto,there is a fare bit of difference in elesticity with yamamoto being much stretchier.

so my vote would be

Yamamoto neoprene, opencell inner, superstretch outer.

DD

 

[hudja]

Thank you for the reply! But what about black shadow? Anybody tried it? I also thought about yamamoto open cell/lining outside, but the only lining they have for yama is nylon, which is not as elastic as others. According to description new black shadow neoprene with superstretch outside should be ideal for us, ...or not?

 

[fflupo]

i use the black shadow and yamamoto for freediving and i think it is to fragile for your needs, you wonna use something that lasts

you will spent a lot of time to repair the suits

 

[hudja]

i use the black shadow and yamamoto for freediving and i think it is to fragile for your needs, you wonna use something that lasts

you will spent a lot of time to repair the suits

Which ones do you have, smoothskin or with lining? I know that yama is too fragile and that is why I am so suspicious even about lined version of it, I am afraid I will tear it inside anyway, despite of soap. Could you please compare black shadow to yama, elasticity, softness, durability, warmness, compressibility? I like its superstretch outside, but did not found any good reviews of neoprene itself.

ps. Both of my current suits is open cell, one is titanium coated effesub and another one is cressi with black coating. I am always using soap for putting them on...

 

[fflupo]

the yamamoto 45 which is more of superstretchy, perfect for max deep dives (50m + )because it follows the shrink of the body like the skin

the black shadow smoothskin is more for colder water and recreational dives, it is def. more durable and i feels stiffer at depth and a 7mm in cold water of 7 C is fine for me for 1hour +
the compressibility ( medium)

i use hair conditioner with water to get in and out, the clued seams last at least 3 times longer on the black shadow

the spearos use mainly sharkskin or forza tres from a different company

 

[hudja]

Thank you! Still final question, I think I will order yamomoto 45 5mm open cell inside / New Camouflage Stone superstrech nylon outside.

Mimetico Eliossub - Yamamto

Do you have any comments on this suite? How long it will last, say spearfishing 2-4 times per week, about 4 months per year and diving around 10mts without aspettos on sharp rocks? It is fine for me if it will last for two spearfishing seasons. This is not my first open cell suite, so I know how to wear it . But it is my first yamomoto. Does it compresses much more at say 10mt depth comparing with more stiffer heiwa or black shadow? Will the loss of warmness due to compression be so large comparing to heiwa and black shadow, that I should go for the different suite? Water here is between 15-21 C during summer, but please do not suggest any 7mm suits .

 

[DivingDane]

at the depths you are diving yuo will not notice suit compression this only really becomes a factor in DEEP dives of 40+m.

and i think that you should definetly get at least 2 seasons but i think that you will be closer to 4 seasons if not bashing around on rocks and looking after the suit well.

DD