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In this episode we review a couple of dry suit vests, talk about plastic and chemical pollution and discuss the merits of a dry bag.
The Thermalution Yellow Grade is a battery powered heated vest using two lithium polymer batteries housed in a sleeveless rash guard type vest. It uses a wireless transmitter on the back of the vest controlled by a small controller you wear on your forearm. It has three settings, rated to 300 feet, can be worn wet or dry and has an advertised heating time of 180 – 240 minutes.
The Fourth Element X-Core vest is also sleeveless and is made from post-consumer waste (like plastic bottles or ghost fishing nets) which is part of their Ocean Positive series. It is engineered to retain the body’s own heat. It is described as their answer to the electronically heated vest.
The Thermalution vest heats on your back and not the chest. It does heat up fast and you can definitely feel the different settings. When diving wet, the warmth was felt at shallower depths but when taken deep the warming effect was pretty negligible. The X-Core vest lived up to its description. It really warmed the core and stayed warm the whole dive. The X-Core line also comes with leggings. For price and performance the X-core is the best choice.
Plastic in the ocean by itself is a problem but it also causes additional concerns. A recent blog post on Ocean Conservancy describes how the plastic in the ocean also absorbs chemicals and then transports them great distances thus creating more pollution around the globe. There is nothing good about plastic getting into our water system. Here is a link to the blog post. https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2019/04/23/plastic-pollution-chemical-pollution/
You are about to get on a dive boat and are carrying your backpack with valuable items when suddenly you drop it and it ends up in the water. The crew fish it out but oh no, what a mess. This can be avoided by carrying all the things you want to stay dry in a dry bag. Dry bags are relatively inexpensive and give you the peace of mind when getting on a boat because boats get wet.