| Santi Heated Vest |
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Santi heated vest After the 2010 trip to Fou de Bor it was clear I needed to do something to keep me warmer during long decompression dives and began to look around at various heated vest options. The Santi vest instantly appealed for a few reasons. Created specifically for divers it’s made from breathable thinsulate so you don’t get sweaty but even when it’s not plugged in its an extra insulating layer. It is also comfortable and flexible. I was planning to wear it with several other layers but didn’t want to sacrifice the flexibility my membrane suit gives me. Finally Santi have a drysuit inflator with an inbuilt EO wet connector. Generally the two options for getting a connection into your drysuit are a separate port just for the vest or a special adapter which fits underneath your standard inflator. However the Santi inflator meant I didn’t have to make a new hole in my drysuit or slot an adaptor in underneath my current drysuit valve. This would have been a particular issue for me with my chest mounted rebreather and generally for cave diving having a chest inflator twice the height of a normal one doesn’t sound good. I paired up the Santi vest with a battery pack made from lead acid batteries in a rocket tube. Combined these batteries give me a 17Ah pack. The rocket tube is fine at shallow depths and with cave diving I’m usually just going to be leaving it at 6m. The only major downside is the weight of the pack out of the water.
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