5 things to remember when buying a wetsuit
This is a post I wrote a year ago on an old blog and thought I would post it on here also.
When we need to buy a wetsuit there are a couple of things we have to take into account. We have to ask ourselves questions such as:
- What sport do we want to do with it?
- What temperatures are we going to use it in?
- How long will the sessions be that we use it?
And yes, it should make you look sexy as a baboon 😉
The basic things to look out for are:
Thickness
Depending on the temperature of the air and water that you are going to be in and the length of time that you are going to spend in it you will need a different thickness of wetsuit. It hardly bears mentioning that warmer waters require less thickness than cold waters. Also, you may be in a country where the actual temperature is warm but the water is cold so bear that in mind.
I was surfing in Portugal in July and despite the heat on the shore (and boiling inside the wetsuit) the water was rather cold and only permitted sessions of around an hour with long wetsuits.
Naturally ones body constitution will have an impact on the thickness you need. I have seen guys in the water in board shorts while others needed long suits.
Then again, if you are windsurfing and you are rarely in the water and the air is warm, maybe a thinner one will do.
