How To Choose A Wetsuit

Hi, I'm Keith. I've been selling wetsuits for about twenty years, running Princes Shop, you get to know these bits and pieces really well. If you are going to choose a wetsuit, you really take a bit of consideration in where you're going to use it, what time are you going to use it, and how much warmth you need.

Because they vary greatly, you can buy two ml short thick or way up to a six-millimetre thickness. So, if you're skiing up in the North Sea, pretty much every time, you're going to need five or six ml. Skiing on the south coast midsummer, the short is pretty much all you'll need.

The temperature in the sea's around about 15 to 60, the sun's out, what better. We'll probably start with the shorts, that's the easiest one. Various different brands on the market, with the O'Neil here, there's Xcel, Solo, many different choices and pretty much, every suit you might decide to buy, it's always advised that you try out one or two because the cut in each suit is very very different.

O'Neil may fit you really well, you might try on Xcel, baggy around the waist under the arms, and if the suit's baggy, it really doesn't work. It has to be like a second skin which some people find really odd, and sometimes uncomfortable jumping in the water, the suit floats around as your body contracts. Moving on from that one, we then really go into the long sleeved version, same style suit but it's got the extra legs, extra piece of arm so that keeps you much much warmer.

Most suits these days are rear entry zipped. You often see someone who's got a rental suit on with the zipper at the front, it looks very peculiar and it's very uncomfortable. Moving on up then, we move in to the winter suits.

It's basically the same suit but much much thicker material so it's slightly heavier. Most of the materials these days are very stretchy so it really does make life easy. You don't get the fatigue of really struggling to try and move.

If you look inside a winter suit, what we've now got, the zip is a separate section and we've got a barrier inside, so that stops a splash of water coming through. And also in a winter suit, we have what they call a firewall which is like a fleece line material which gives you that little bit of extra warmth plus we're seeing the tape which takes much of the water out. Again, loads of different brands, my advice is to try as many on as you can.

That way, you're going to get the optimum fit. For the ladies, because they have a very different cut to us, nice and tapered in at the waist for the lady shape. So, everything fits as it should do.

As I said earlier, a wetsuit has to fit like a second skin. If it doesn't, you might as well not wear one. You will be cold.

The price of a wetsuit, you can spend anything. Start with 20 pounds, Tesco or Science breathe, I advise not to get those suits. They're great for the beach if you are in the summer, it's going to work really well, warm material, ultra flexible.

Spend around about 50 to 60 pounds on a good short one, spend a hundred pounds on a long suit and if you're really into your sport, then I'd say spend about 180 to 250 pounds. If you want normally a winter suit, top quality is going to keep you warm in the freezing months. Spend around about 350 but that's really for the enthusiast.

You're probably on the sport and want one of those suits. And that's just a little bit of advice on buying a wetsuit. .