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Everyone raves about Kirby Morgan helmets but I swear my old Desco hat works better in cold water.
I did a 6 hour job in Puget Sound last January and my Desco kept me warm while my buddy in his $3,000 KM was shivering after hour 3, has anyone else noticed the new stuff isn't always an upgrade?
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fiona_carr2619d agoMost Upvoted
Fancy gear just means you paid three times as much to be colder.
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Oh come on, that's just survivorship bias talking. People love to romanticize old gear because it's what they're used to, but there's a reason the industry moved on from Desco hats. I've done plenty of cold water work in the North Atlantic and my Kirby Morgan has never once let me down. The thermal performance is all about your undergarments and how you manage your air supply, not the helmet itself. Maybe your buddy's KM was fogging because he didn't prep his neck dam properly or was breathing too fast from being nervous. The new stuff has way better safety features like the neck dam that actually seals properly and the communication system that doesn't crackle out every five minutes. You can pry my KM from my cold dead hands, old gear is just heavier and harder to maintain in my book.
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robinp8919d ago
Man I used to be all about the fancy new gear, thought spending more was always better. But I had a similar thing happen on a job up in Alaska, switched to my buddy's old Desco after my KM started fogging up in freezing water and holy crap it was just warmer and simpler. My face stayed dry, no ice buildup on the neck dam, and I didn't feel like I was fighting the helmet to breathe. So yeah, you might be onto something, sometimes the old stuff just works better even if it doesn't look as cool.
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