A Tribe Called K2 Buhl-oog!

Written by X

I’m an independent instructor in Arizona.  I’m keeping my identity cloaked so that I can tell the buying public the truth and keep you informed. Tevis of K2 has the balls to publish this on the K2 blog. . . cheers for his courage!

The below testimonial from DiveMatrix is not an isolated incident, in fact it has been the dirty little secret of that diveshop owners have kept from the buying public.

Dive shop owners have known for years that the Henderson Hyperstretch, the most expensive the wet suit  full suit in the Henderson arsenal, only lasts for a year of cold water dives,  before its fails thermal protection.  When  I asked dive shop owner that I taught classes for, “ . . .  well isn’t this kind of crappy and for such an expensive wetsuit, and aren’t we kinda  fleecing our customers? He replied,  it keeps them coming back, and I can keep selling them the Hyperstrech year after year!”

Incidentally, he was a jerk and eventually went out of business. Good riddance!

So, in other words there is a built in failure/ obsolescence to those amazingly comfortable, mondo stretch, in this form-fitting  type F4 hybrid neoprene material.  What you achieve in comfort you eventually  gives up in the thermal protection. Said a different way, the reason why the suit is so comfortable, is because of the large diameter of the blown nitrogen bubble resident in the neoprene.

You will be able to actually witness  the role that compression plays in this K2 video, you will witness  when neoprene compresses the bubbles burst.

From the first dive, neoprene compresses, and it doesn’t uncompress, it has burst. . . . so each and every time you  descend on your dive,  you lose both thickness as well as thermal protection.

This is part and parcel of the saying that “cheap costs.”  This is a given with most cheap bargain basement wetsuit  (see chapter 9 Cheap Does Cost)  What is an anathema, is that Henderson (a great and solid company) has the one of the most expensive, retailing at $455.00. . . and it has a usability life of one year.

[Editors Note:  Henderson IS a GREAT Company, and K2 IS a Henderson Dealer.  We have included this Chapter to share with you some of the nasty little secrets that Dive shops perpetrate on the buying public.  The Hyperstretch is what it is, and for a non conforming body type diver, it is the ONLY suit that fits comfortably.  But don’t you deserve to know that your wetsuit only has a year or two worth of dives before you will need another one?]

As soon as 20 to 30 dives, you begin to lose both thickness and warmth as the neoprene bubbles burst.  After  40-60 dives,  there has been such a catastrophic loss of the neoprene bubbles that it loses its ability to keep you warm at all.

A Question of Warmth

Please read the testimonial below about the Henderson Hyperstretch 7mm.  Pay close attention to how many dives were completed before the wetsuit failed thermal protection

So, I thought I’d post my thoughts on my Henderson Hyper Stretch wet suit.

Having owned a very warm and extremely durable old neoprene (Rubatex aka N231 neoprene) 1/4 inch farmer john style Blue Water wet suit for many years, I was ready for a new suit. The old suit was built like a tank, but was a real pain to get in and out of.

My number one consideration for a replacement was comfort. I don’t get cold easily, so this was secondary. I was not really looking for durability, but would not have minded finding something durable that was extremely comfortable. I decided that a 7mm full suit would fit my needs and that for me, anything else would be overkill.

I tried many wet suits on one day and left the Henderson for the end since I had been told by quite a few people that this would probably be the most comfortable one. I tried on so many suits that I actually had blood blisters on one finger of each hand. I was exhausted and somewhat over heated. It was now time for the Henderson.

Well it popped on so easily I couldn’t believe is was really a 7mm wet suit. That was enough for me. I had found what I was looking for.

Now I’ll tell you my experience with it up to this point.

I’ve got 180 dives on it.

At about 100 dives it lost a good deal of its thermal protection. That doesn’t really bother me because I don’t get cold very easily. When it was new, I was quite comfortable for an hour long dive down to about 50º. Now it’s fine down to about 55º for about 45 minutes. From about 48º to 52º, I do notice I now get quite a bit colder than when it was new. I have not noticed that it has lost much more of its thermal protection since around 100 dives.

At around 150 dives, the zipper started to come out and I had it sewn back in at about 160 dives.

At 180 dives it’s looking a bit like swiss cheese with the biggest holes under the arms and in the knees above the knee pads. I’ve noticed that above the knee pads seems to be a common place for these to get holes in them when I see other Henderson suits around the area.

I don’t remember exactly what I paid for it, but remember it being a bit over $300.

So, what’s the bottom line? Would I buy another one?

Absolutely! The comfort level and ease of getting in and out of this thing is worth throwing it away around every 200 dives. I think it still beats the cost of ownership for a dry suit, but probably not by much.

Instead of replacing this one anytime soon, I’m going to buy a dry suit instead. Then I’ll probably get another one that I’ll only where occasionally.

Has anyone out there had a similar or very different experience with a Henderson wet suit?

Christian

[Note:  This testimonial and comments can be read in it’s entirety here: http://www.divematrix.com/showthread.php?t=1340]

Putting my flame suit on.  Bring it.  Im sure the whining will come from dive shop owners and reps that want to keep this hidden.