Out of 11, the Best Choice Spearfishing Wetsuits category is the first and only to have an ex equo among the winners. So many great competitors have led to a final with not 3 but 4 contenders: Seac Snake, Mares Illusion Brown, Cressi Seppia and Beuchat Espadon Prestige. In the end, it was not easy to decide for an ex-equo, but there was no other solution. The Beuchat Epsadon Prestige & Cressi Seppia win the Best Choice by Apneapassion 2023 thanks to their such high level qualities, and it was not possible to choose between one of the two. Let’s see why.
Beuchat Espadon Prestige and Cressi Seppia: the best but not the same
The two wetsuits, one by the French Company Beuchat, the Espadon Prestige, and one by the Italian Company Cressi, the Seppia, excel in so many characteristics, but they are not equal in all of them. Still, the final evaluation of the two winners of the Best Choice is the same. Both the wetsuits have an amazing cut which adapts, thanks to the excellent know how of the two companies, in a great way on almost all bodies, considering the two products are not tailor made.
Cressi Seppia
Indeed the Cressi Seppia is a top of the line product. All top quality details, like the borders of face, wrists, ankles and waist are with folded externally smooth neoprene. The Cressi Seppia puts together a camouflage solution which slightly changes colour when wet, united with the image breakdown system. The comfort of the Cressi Seppia is amazing, with also an excellent softness, but just slightly below the Beuchat Espadon Prestige. On the other hand the resistance of the external lining of the Italian wetsuit seems to be ahead the French. The Aqua Stop System by Cressi is a nice system to regulate the thermal insulation. The cut follows evidently the Italian traditional design. Here a nice video presentation of the Cressi Seppia.
Beuchat Espadon Prestige
The Beuchat Espadon Prestige deserves to win the Best Choice together with the Cressi Seppia. First of all the French wetsuit is by all means the softest externally lined internally open cell neoprene standard wetsuit. The softness of the neoprene and the Ultra-soft Elaskin X 8.8 external lining is unbeatable and makes such wetsuit as soft as smooth-open cell neoprene solutions. All the possible details of this French cut wetsuit are top level, with the borders of the face, wrists and ankles folded with externally smooth neoprene.
The Long John pants can be easily cut thanks to the Precut System (Beuchat exclusive), while the Braca Concept (also Beuchat Exclusive) is a simpler alternative to the pissette. All details of such an amazing wetsuit, which has no equals for what regards comfort, but is slightly more delicate than the Cressi Seppia. The cut follows evidently the French traditional design. All details can be found on our X-Rays article.
The other two contenders
Two excellent alternatives to the winners of the Best Choice in the Spearfishing Wetsuits category are the Seac Snake and the Mares Illusion Brown. The first is a real excellence on the market, where all high level details are in place, together with the great camouflage. The cut and comfort are great, but do not adapt to all bodies as well as the Cressi Seppia and Beuchat Espadon Prestige. Still, the Seac Snake apparently is the toughest among the finalists. With this wetsuit Seac has made an incredible step forward in the direction of quality and comfort and has entered, once more, the temple of the best spearfishing wetsuits producers.
Mares has such a long history and experience in the spearfishing wetsuits sector that it needs no presentation. With the Mares Illusion Brown the company offers a simple but extremely comfortable solution that adapts to the large quantity of spearos. The Mares Illusion Brown does not have top end finishes of the borders of face, ankles, wrists and waist as the other three Best Choice Finalists, but net cuts. In the end though the final result is extremely good. Some more details can be read in our X-Rays article, where we must though specify that today the Mares Illusion Brown has two buttons to close the inferior part of the jacket. The price of the Mares wetsuit could be slightly lower considering these less refined solutions, but with a special offer by Mares Pure Passion the Illusion Brown is worth a good thought.
The Best Choice by Apneapassion prize evaluation
“Apneapassion underlines that the Best Choice is a fully independent prize, assigned after deep testing by the 9 athletes of the Apneapassion International Official team. The result of the Best Choice does not want to be an indisputable opinion, as personal preferences and adaptations to each product can determine different opinions and likes. Still, the use of a large number of independent athletes (who’s sponsor is only Apneapassion) permits to give spearfishing and freediving enthusiasts our best possible evaluation of each winner. We are open to any company who would want to participate with its most competitive products to the Best Choice by Apneapassion yearly prize. For any additional information contact carlo.forni@apneapassion.com.“
