Santi is back at Scuba Shack with Avatar.

Bill Mitlehner   May 01, 2023

Scuba Shack is excited to announce that we recently re-opened our dealership for Santi drysuits in partnership with Halcyon. We are very pleased to now offer more options for our divers seeking the warmth and comfort of diving dry. Stay tuned for more as we bring in several demonstration drysuits for training this year.

I kicked off our relationship with the Avatar Drysuit package from Santi. Avatar is Santi’s very simple and affordable alternative for people who want to start their drysuit journey. So that is where I started my Santi journey. I’m not going to go into all of the features of Avatar - you can read all about them on the Avatar Website.

First this is not a custom, made-to-measure suit. You will be getting a standard stock suit and they list 13 mens sizes from Small to XXXL. There are 8 womens sizes ranging from Small to XXL. You take 11 different body measurements in centimeters and then select the suit that’s closest. For me that was a Large Short. I probably could have gone with the Medium but thought it might be a little snug, especially in the feet. 

The journey was swift. I talked to Halcyon on April 21, which was a Friday. I told them that I would be diving on April 30 and wondered if I could be in an Avatar. Well, yes I could. I placed the order on April 21 and had the suit in hand on April 28. Seven days from order to receipt. I probably could have gotten it sooner but I waited until late in the day on Friday to actually place the order. 

This is a complete package. You get the drysuit, the undersuit, sox and a hood. The only thing missing are gloves. The suit has the smart replaceable wrist seals but the neck seal is not user replaceable. The wrist seals and neck seals come precut and I had to do a little trimming on the neck seal. But I was good to go with our dive to Bigelow Hollow on April 30.

For the dive at Bigelow Hollow, I used the entire package - sox, undergarment, hood and drysuit. The only thing I added was my Xcore vest from Fourth Element. The Avatar is a very flexible self donning suit. I sometimes have a little bit of a challenge getting into my DUI suit but the Avatar was really easy to don. It was very comfortable.

The undersuit that comes with the package is lightweight but very warm. I was concerned that I might get cold but that wasn’t the case. I was comfortable in the 55 degree water for 25 minutes and could have easily stayed longer. I was also concerned about the buoyancy characteristics of the undergarment. It was comparable to my 300 gram polartec suit. Not overly buoyant as I expected.

It wasn’t completely without the challenges of operator error. I realized early in the dive that I perhaps rolled my left wrist seal and could feel some water getting in, but I’ve got to say the undergarment did its job and I was able to easily complete my planned dive time. You just always need to be careful with your seals. I think I know exactly what I did.

Avatar is the lightest weight, most flexible, and quickest drying wetsuit in the Santi family. You will definitely see me around the New England dive sites in this very affordable drysuit package.

If you want to see my Avatar, just come by the shop if I’m not out diving with it.