Seeking experience with NEW SURFING WETSUITS

[Shadepine]

Apologies @willowleaf - I’m not trying to argue. I didn’t dismiss drysuits. I’ve always acknowledged their value for survival in the water. I simply said that in 10-20 years we’ll have something better. Suits that fit better, keep you dry, are lighter weight, and more comfortable. Technology marches forward.

And while there are lots of paddlers who wear drysuits and like them, there is no shortage of paddlers who hate them. Here’s a direct quote from an experienced paddler (in another forum):

The last time I wore my drysuit was on a central coast trip. I hated almost every minute I spent in it. Honestly, every morning I would look at the ^$#% thing with loathing. It was a soggy, salt-stained monster-hide that I had to put on like some skin-changer. The inside was a record of my body’s sweat, oil, and mortal corruption. And it’s a dumb colour, so I looked stupid too.

It’s in the closet now. It irritates me just by lying there quietly. I want to take it out and strangle it. I want to take up smoking just so I can burn holes in it. I want to write a semi-autobiographical novel and make the drysuit the villain — but not a cool villain like Darth Vader. No, it would be a loser villain, like Dr. Evil.

But yeah, I’d probably wear it on a solo central coast trip. I’d spend every day calling it unprintable names. In the evenings, it would hang there in the light of the fire, refusing to get dry, and looking all salty and disgusting. God, I would hate it even more than I do now. In the morning, after I’d put it on, it would give me a little leak in one foot, just to show that it hated me too.

I’ve read many posts from paddlers who said their drysuits are incredibly hot, noisy, uncomfortable, and more. None of this means they don’t work…just that they are an imperfect solution. (And so are wetsuits.) I hope R&D continues to try to come up with something better.

[rstevens15]

If you want something miserable, try putting on sweat soaked wetsuit on a cold morning every day on a multi-day trip. I’ve done it any will never go back to wearing a wetsuit.

Although wetsuits and drysuits may have improved somewhat as far as comfort in the last few years, they really haven’t changed how they work. In my opinion, the improvements have been relatively minor.

To get a significant improvement in the future I think you will need something like a lightweight powered suit that actively heats and cools as needed.

[Shadepine]

I think the biggest takeaway from the Cold Water Boot Camp immersion test video (good video!) is that 36-degree water is about as hostile to human beings as outer space. Period. LOL The only person who wasn’t freezing was the woman in the insulated drysuit (which I’m guessing you couldn’t possibly paddle in).

I wish they had someone in a 6-7mm wetsuit; using one person in a 3mm wetsuit in 36-degree water would have drawn cries of “FOUL!” from any wetsuit manufacturer, since none of them recommend 3mm for water that cold…

[rstevens15]

Our Club usually runs a cold water workshop every winter with a classroom session and then if people wish, they have the opportunity to test out their winter cold water gear under closely monitored conditions.

These people were all wearing their own gear that they used when kayaking. The water was 41F and they stayed in for 15-20 minutes for the most part with no real problems. No one had or wore a wetsuit. We didn’t test to see how long people could stay in the water before major discomfort, swim failure, or hypothermia might become an issue.

I was in the water at another session and discovered a small leak around the knee. Sent it in to Kokatat and they determined that the Gore-Tex was delaminating. Sent me a new updated drysuit for free.

[willowleaf]

I suspect that woman in the insulated dry suit looked as puffy as she did because they didn’t bother to have her burp it, since she was just going to be sitting in the water. Those suits are made for workers like on oil rigs and at polar support stations so they are actually flexible enough for a wide range of movement. I have a Polartec 400 weight bunny suit that fits under my larger drysuit that renders it plenty cozy but still less bulky than downhill ski wear or Full Monty mountaineering garb.

As to why some people may loathe theirs: dry suits used to be made of waterproof non-breathable materials and they were just boggy sweat suits. In fact I have one that somebody consigned to the used gear department of the outdoor shop where I work part time – when nobody would buy it for $10 and we asked him if he wanted to pick it up, he told us to just throw it away. It’s made of coated nylon that is crunchy, stiff and noisy. Must have been miserable to wear. I took it home, figuring I could salvage what looked like one new wrist gasket and possibly the zipper and the knee patches (I sew and repair a lot of my own gear and that of friends). Til then I will use it to outfit my life-sized Krampus dummy that I set up in an old kayak in my front yard from Halloween through Christmas as my contribution to the neighborhood holiday displays.

And there are cheapo “dry suits” from Asia that cost a few hundred bucks that are just as horrid. My experience has been wholly with suits that were high end Goretex and cost between $1500 and $2000 new. You get what you pay for.

The day I put on my first drysuit on at home after I bought it, I thought it felt horribly constricting and dreaded wearing it to the kayak training weekend a few months later, where one was required. I reluctantly donned it when that time came, but within 15 minutes I was barely aware I was wearing it – the latex relaxed from body warmth so I did not feel throttled, the lack of bulk felt freeing, and I spent that whole day doing shoreline practices, including wading repeatedly into 60 degree water up to my chest retrieving a target harpoon and doing self and assisted rescue practices. It was fabulous – never felt damp or chilled except for my hands. Turned it inside out and hung it in my tent overnight and happily put it on the next morning.

Also, there is a wide range in individual metabolism and some people sweat profusely with even the slightest exertion, even in very cold weather, which can make even the best “dry wear” seem pointless. My mountaineer boyfriend in my mid 20’s lost all his toes to frostbite during a climb of the highest peak in the Andes, even though he was young and fit and was wearing the best double insulated boots that were available back then. It was because he sweated so much that his wool socks got soaked and caused his feet to freeze and his insulating layers against his skin also were constantly damp. I’m the opposite – I hardly sweat at all except on my face, neck and scalp. even when working hard on hot days. So that could be why I find wearing them quite comfortable. Experience with dry suits is highly individual.

And any product is likely to improve with time and science, (at least until not enough people want to buy it anymore.)

Bottom line still is, you won’t know if you personally are going to love, hate, like or be “meh” about a drysuit until you get a good one. And if you do hate it, just sell it to the next guy and write yourself your own colorful rant about the thing.