I used your excellent Ri 2-100 suit on the last day of our National Geographic Pristine Seas Los Estados / Cape Horn expedition.  Wearing it for 9 hours straight, making multiple long dives (65-75 mins) and enduring horrendous weather with katabatic wind gusts to 90mph in-between.  Being 100% warm comfortable and above all totally dry, for me, this was fantastic proof of your products credentials.

Diving in the areas around Cape Horn can be challenging and the Argentinian Islands of Los Estados, to the east of Cabo Hornos, test the endurance of people and equipment.

Late summer Southern Hemisphere expedition for Pristine Seas, the surface water temperatures are not bad at 6 to 8 deg C. We are making multiple long dives every day using closed and open circuit systems for science diving and film work. Everyone is diving dry suits and about half our team are diving dry gloves on this expedition. Over weeks at sea, with aggressive dive profiles, people are getting tired.

On the last day of the trip, our DP cameraman wishes to make 2 underwater time lapse sequences and requests my assistance. The careful setting up of time lapses with lighting underwater normally takes between 50 and 75 minutes underwater. On this occasion it would be two x 75 minutes dives, and at the end of the day, there will be one or two 40 minute dives to recover all the gear, mostly sending it to the surface with lift bags.

After the two x 75 minute dives, we return to the mothership, the science team needs to make a last dive and there is no-one available onboard to drive the science Zodiac. I agree to drive the Zodiac, still comfortably dressed in my O’Three suit. For the 90 min science dive, the surface conditions have deteriorated and katabatic wind gusts are now around 80mph. I go on to make the last two media recovery dives and it is only when I am finally back on the mothership that I realise how many hours I have been wearing my O’Three suit. Not one moment of discomfort, no chafe, no leaks, tough weather and I was feeling strong. For me this was a fantastic test, 9 hours working in the suit I dressed in for the first dive of the day, no rest or changing anything. I have had the privilege of diving and owning many good / high end dry suits. But no other dry suit has looked after me like the O’Three Ri-200.

More details, video and photos of the expedition can be found here:

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/pristine-seas/expeditions/yaganes/

Photo by Enric Sala – https://www.nationalgeographic.org/find-explorers/enric-sala