I had some questions about upgrading to a concept 5 over my 2mm first wave and Emilio and longboarder graciously opined. I got me thinking about another test with a wetsuit. How fast can you get it on? I don’t know about everyone else but I’m always rushing to get ready for the gun. My wife doesn’t help as she can’t get her suit on at all with out my help. I can get into mine alone (except for the dreaded zipper) but she is pretty helpless. This makes for fun times at 7am.
About me, I’m a up frontish MOP, 6’ 215-220, 47-35-41 chest to hip so suit fitting is hard for me, my chest is much larger than my hips proportionally.
So I set up my 2 full suits which brands I will not mention but one is an entry level I got when starting out and for practice. I now use it for surfing, and my high end 39 cell suit which is going on the block for sale. I did the full suits first so I wasn’t sweaty which makes them uber hard to get on and went to it stopwatch in hand. From bags on feet and hands to suit on and shoulders adjusted into position it was 19:45 for the high end and 17:32 for the cheap one (its stretched out, old and looser than the new full suit). So I towel the sweat off got a drink of water and moved on to De Soto 1st wave with size 5 bottoms and 6 top. Time till on not using bags for feet or hands…4:07 and no help with the zipper. Thats huge for me when I’m running late, always running late, before my wave starts.
The big difference for me is all the time I spend getting the legs up as high as I can and getting the arms down and in the right spot for my shoulders be carefull not to rip it. The De Soto just drops into place, easy peisy.
Something else to think about when looking at wetsuits.
I’m not affiliated with De Soto in any way. I just think his suits rock.
This and the comfort/fit of the Desoto is the deceiding factor for me, plus I’m faster in it than my fullsuits in OWS.