Cold Water Surfing - the exit

this.

wetsuits are sized they way they are for a reason...being able to get out of them easier is not, IMO, worth the lost warmth that a larger suit will result in.

 

my point exactly . Wetsuits should be tight fitting but in to the point where the suit restricts mobility or it feels like it pulling down on your shoulders

 

Winter Surfing is just what it is Winter Surfing. You know at some point your gonna freeze your balls off for a few minutes if you gotta get out of your suit before driving home. If you dwell on it - it will feel worse than it really is. Blast the heat so its 90 inside you car and man up and change outside. I would never consider trying to get out of my wetsuit inside the car. The worst time I had was changing in sleet and wind and I couldn't get my arm free. It wasn't funny then but now it sure is.

 

this sums it up perfectly...just suck it up & have at it!

i'm really looking forward to this winter...i feel like i've been WAAYYY too soft the last couple years. i need to get gnarly again.

 

seems to me like you have a bad case of the vagina, pfff readin about people needin help startin there car and ****, ha, ive surfed when theres been a 0 degree windchill and 32 degree water and snowing, with a ripped 4/3 and a half azz hood boots and gloves, and stayed out for hours, just get the f out of your suit and get in your darn car

 

My method is quick and I can warm in 5 minutes. Normally suit up in the car with heat blasting and a prewarmup and stretch. set up the dry clothes in order so they're ready when i finish the session. Normally 3 or 4 hrs in winter. The hardest part is taking off the gloves. Once that happens i start the car with heat blasting pull out my solar shower and hook it to the roof rack, drop a bamboo mat on the side of the car with the door open away from the wind. pull out my rubbermaid container for the wetsuit. Rinse off any sand and outer wetsuit. Stick the nozel of the shower down my suit to start warming up the skin and wetsuit. Makes it easier to peel off. Step into rubbermaid and start peeling the wetsuit into the rubbermaid so it winds up inside out. I wear patagonia capilene socks so the suit comes off easy. Do a quick rinse of my body or at least legs and Wrap around a mexican blanket while drying off and put on the dry warm clothes including longjohns head first. Of course the cold wind will dry me off in seconds. I normally only surf Chincoteague so I'm mostly alone except the thousands of snow geese. Kowabunga!

 

I either just wear my suit home, since I only like 5 minutes from the beach. Or get changed in some outside shower/alley or another place sheltered by the wind since Cape May is pretty much dead in the winter.

Even when I make a trip up to LBI or another town up north I just do the same thing.

When I get into my suit though I either put it on at my house or just get changed under a towel next to my car.

 

agree fully!!! its def a right of passage to have your hands so cold and cramped you can barely turn the car on to "blast dat heat." take it all in, howling/freezing offshore winds, the frozen pavement under your bare, untanned feet, the already mildly hypothermic state you are in before you enter the water, and the possiblity of a nice frothy/frozen ice cream barrel.

besides that, if you have a pre-keyless entry car (i.e. 1979 buick le sabre) and have to keep your keys outside of your car, it would help to have a spare or two. Had a key break in the ignition after a two plus hour winter session.....with no spare and only a flannel and a beanie. That was funnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. haha

 

why does it have to be a mexican blanket?

 

changing out this afternoon sucked! freaking cold...

 

be grateful you have something to complain about. some of us were warm and comfortable all day (and wishing we weren't!)

 

thought I was the person who rocks long johns in the winter LOL