Its about time I got a new winter wetsuit as its downhill for a while now as far as temperatures are concerned.

In the past I've used Second Skin custom suits which were fine, but I'm very rarely in N. Devon these days to get measured up etc. Last year I had a Gul Extreme, but that was useless, so I need something new.

I want something mainly for windsurfing, probably with a horizontal dry-zip..Warmth is the main factor as I want to stay toastie throughout the winter. Price is then a close second consideration.
Build quality and durability are also top of the list of important factors.

I'm looking towards a Neil Pryde Series 5000 suit, but at £220 they ain't cheap.... Any other suggestions/recommendations?

Al.

At last...ME giving AL advice!!!

Well, chap, I must say that after 2 winters I can't recommend the Maui Magic zipperless 5/3 (Stinger?) highly enough - it's REALLY good. Far easier than my useless Sola summer suit to get on & off, really comfortable, semi-dry, and WARM. Does exactly what it says on the tin, and mine was 150 smackeroonies.

Andrew

Do you really needs a dry zip ? ?

Last winter I got a Rip Curl Ultimate elasto 5:3 it's so flexible it's ridiculous and damn warm too, used it for windsurfing and surfing and not been cold yet.

I'm not sure about the dry zip...

I was looking at the Rip Curl suits the other day...they looked quite nice. I was thinking about the dry zip as last year (and the year before) I had Gul 5/3 Extreme suits and even with a 1mm neoprene rash vest underneath it I was cold... I haven't had problems being cold before I used these Gul suits, so either I'm getting old or the suits were particularly crap!!..For some reason I believe the latter to be the case.
The first suit did actually get replaced by Gul as it wasn't 5mm despite the fact that it was supposed to be, so that could explain the first one, but the second one is no warmer, it does fine as an autumn/spring suit but is getting a lttle worn out now.

Maybe I should give it one more year with a different brand of non dry-zipped suit, and if I'm still cold with that I might have to admit to getting old! Most people around here wear dry-zipped suits for the winter and seem to cope OK which is what made me think about getting one.

Mind you, I was out last year when the air temp was minus 6 and with the wind chill it was minus 16!!... I suppose I can't expect to be warm in such conditions, especially seeing as I can't wear gloves (not even marigolds)

Al.

indeed, I can't deal with gloves either so my hands give in way before the wetsuit covered bits, I also figured the dry zip would be a pain for surfing too.

saying that lots of windsurfers down here seem to have the pryde suits with the dry zip

I've had a Gul winter suit for a couple of winters now and it's the business. It's a 5/3 job specifcally for windsurfing (not surfing) could be called F-Ride? Stretchy ribbed arms mean you dont get cramp and a short vertical zip which keeps you toasty. Does the job for me - I'm surprised you've been cold in your Gul Extreme.

Well, after about a years worth of use, my Gul Extreme suit has finally just about fallen to pieces. All the seams are split and the neoprene on the shoulders has cracked and simply disintegrated. Theres also holes all over it.... So, I've ordered a nice new Sola Concept 6/5/4mm with horizontal dry zip... Now that should keep me warm. A pretty good price too at £149 rather than the RRP of £239.

I'll let you know what its like once I've received it and tried it out.... Lets hope it lasts longer than the Gul suit.

Al.

Hehe...Its just arrived, so I'm gonna try it on... I hope no one comes to the door in the next ten minutes or they'll wonder what I'm up to when I answer the door in a rubber suit!!

Al.

Phew...I'm out. It seems to fit fine and looks OK. I coudln't do the zip up on my own though so I'll have to work something out as far as that is concerned.

What do people use on their dryzips to keep then running smoothely??..Beeswax?

It felt OK, but is nowhere near as flexible as my old Gul suit. Hopefully though the slightly less constrictive fit as its a semi-dry suit will mean that it isn't too restrictive and the thicker neoprene will keep me warmer.

Now, why can't they make a nice thick semi-dry suit out of the more flexible modern neoprenes!!?? Surely then we'd have the best of both worlds. Ultimate flexibilty and warmth.

Al.

no that sounds good....Ultimate flexablility

I just tried out my new Sola Concept suit.... It was just SO much warmer than the crappy Gul suit I've been wearing for the last year (And the Gul suit I had the year before that was even worse and eventually exchanged by Gul because even they admitted that it was sub-standard).

I was beginning to think that maybe I was just getting old, soft and feeling the cold more, but using the Sola suit today suddenly made me feel young and hardy once again.. All you people with decent suits who have been moaning about the cold recently, you don't know how lucky you've been... You should have tried getting out there in the Gul suit I had... You would have given up surfing / windsurfing etc immediately and gone into hibernation!

OK, so the Sola suit is nowhere near as flexible, and is a little difficult to get on and off on your own with its dryzip, but you just can't feel the cold through it. I was even toasty (except for my hands) whilst standing around in the wind derigging.... I'm not getting old after all...hurrah!!

Al.

I can't agree with you more I bought myself a nice pyde suit with dry zip just after xmas body is lovely and toasty now and thats in the freezing water of brogborough made be realise how crap my last suit was.
Still have to put up with cold hands though can't seem to get around that one.

...oO( how much longer am I a grommet)

Haha

You got just a little too overexcited with your 10th post!!

You're gonna have work harder than that to move up to the next rank. But its worth it. The next rank has much more 'forum cred'.

The ranking system is expplained here... I can change it of course, but we woudln't want to make it too easy or you wouldn't get any satisfaction once you get there!! The stars you get are a bit too much like being a MacDonalds employee though.




Al.

I want more stars, you have 7 I have 4, and your scoring system only allows me to go to 5, I think your cheating

It makes him feel 'special'! Even though we all know he's not really!

Still looking at mountain boards Paul. Not much luck yet. You can get the scrub 34 for about £99 but it does say it's for light weight riders so probably isn't suitable......not that I'm inplying anything about you Paul I don't think it would be suitable for use with a kite!

I'll let you know if I find anything

cheers, and your probably right, it's been a while since anyone called me a lightweight rider......

and you only have 6 stars, does that also make Al feel special

I fit keeps him happy I'll put up with only 6 stars.....you know what they say about small things keeping small minds happy!

No luck yet on the Mtn board....maybe I was mistaken! I rekon you could get one for £150 though.

I'll put some links to good shops etc on at some point (today) probably!...if I'm not working too hard

Think yourself lucky Paul...you have more stars than anyone except me Anna and Adam.

I've got the most because of all the hard work I've put in to build this site.

Anna's got 6 coz I'd be in trouble of she didn't have, and Adam's got 6 because he NEEDS to feel special... Once you've made it to five stars (not long to go now), I might one day decide to give you a 6th.. But it takes a special effort to get that extra star!!

If you can come up with some more names for the ranks I could always add more just to add some more fun to the proceedings...

Al.

Anyway, back to the wetsuits... The dryzip suits do seem pretty good for windysurfing, but they wouldn't be any good for surfing as the zip is pretty resticitive for paddling. BTW...I got my 6/5/4mm Sola Concept from a place called kitesurferbetty.co.uk and it was only £149.

My old Second Skin wetsuits were fine, plenty warm enough and lasted well too. I think part of the problem is that the new suits (such as the Guls I've had recently) are so flexible that by the time they've stretched and flexed over your rippling muscles/flab, they are no longer a toasty 5mm thick, but only about 3mm. Besides, the fact that the seams feel apart on my Gul suits didn't help matter either.

Al.

I have a pryde winter suit and would say it is hard to better .
Expensive mind but worth it I think.
J...

I wholeheartedly agree with the flexing over flab theory. I thought I'd try a Rip Curl Elasto - I've had summer suits that were warmer!

Definitely going back to SNUGG next winter. Warm and last for yonks

I had a SNUGG winter suit before my present suit, Spartan 3D Dry.

In terms of warmth the snugg was great but the big plus I found was the flexibilty of the vertical zip and the general the flexibilty of the whole suit.

Now with the Spartan I am soooooo warm, even too warm during last Sats session at times. But there seems to be a trade off between flexibility and warmth as the dry zip isn't that flexibile at all.

At the end you have to ask yourself, warmth or flexibility.