The new camouflage Blend wetsuit by Salvimar goes on top of the NAT and Next models, which remain in the product offer.
Lining, neoprene and camouflage
Much consistency, but no particular revolution on the newborn wetsuit by Salvimar, the Blend, except for the innovative stamping system of the camouflage graphics. The neoprene, 5.5 mm for the jacket and 5 mm for the trousers, in the wetsuit analyzed, but also available in the thicknesses of 3.5 mm (jacket plus trousers), and 7 mm for the jacket, is externally lined and internally open cell. The type is Nam Liong 3D, with medium hardness, a first quality neoprene among the ones used for spearfishing wetsuits. 3D stands to indicate it is guaranteed to resist squeezing down to –30 meters (4 atm) and return elastically to its original shape.
The new camouflage graphic is the most evident novelty and extremely interesting. We leave to the reader the personal evaluation of the result, but the new generation technique of photographic printing is very innovative, with reproduction of the sea floor, rocks, corals, cracks in the rocks showing the blue sea, and even small fish are present.
To obtain such result the lining used is Nylon, certainly less elastic than Lycra (especially the bidirectional one), but able of maintaining, even when stretched, the camouflage coloring. Lycra, instead, when stretched tends to become white.
Construction details
Salvimar philosophy is that the less the cuts of neoprene and the better is the thermal isolation of the wetsuit. In fact, in the Blend you will not find many points of gluing and sewing, where in particular the area of the wrists and ankles will be of one single piece. Also, the face contour is designed with attention to simplicity, even though well preformed as other areas of the wetsuit, like legs and arms. All the edges are designed with double folded neoprene with external lining, in an opposite way respect to other wetsuits, such as the Seac Kama, that has folded edges of wrists, ankles and face contour with the smooth part of the neoprene on the exterior and the lined part in the interior. Salvimar solution protects better the neoprene from decay, while the Seac one offers more water tight effect, especially on the face contour, where there are no socks or gloves to close the seal.
Very interesting and effective is the reinforced cover of elbows, knees, bottom and sternum, named Puffgum, made of spread polyurethane material, separated in parts. The fragmentation is necessary to maintain a good elasticity of the covered neoprene, while the Puffgum has two advantages: the first is that it is very resistant and quite impenetrable by needles of sea urchin, for example, and the second is that it can be well colored, giving the possibility to have a complete and uniform camouflage of the entire wetsuit. The Puffgum cover on the bottom works as protection and anti-slip when, for example, one is seated on the tubular of the rubber dinghy.
The sternal protection is very neat, with a good internal reinforcement through an additional 3.5 neoprene sheet, which protects, but does not stiffen too much the area, and an external anti-slip Puffgum cover.
List prices
Excellent is the possibility to buy separately the jacket and the trousers, in all thicknesses except for the 3.5 mm (a pity!). List price are (VAT included):
- Jacket and trousers 3.5 mm: 269€
- Jacket 5.5 mm: 169€
- Trousers 5.0 mm: 139€
- Jacket 7.0 mm: 199€
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