Question about wet suites?

4/3 is the the most common wetsuit thickness for Santa Cruz. I'd recommend getting some booties too.

 

5/4 winter, 4/3 summer. Hood & booties.

 

Gloves for the coldest months!

 

Depending on what type of neoprene you are using. I have a 3mm yamamoto and I'm plenty warm with water in the 50's.

 

Geoff Phillips you're on a roll brotha!

 

Wetsuite.

 

To tha OP, wet suites are way better than dry suites for the dry suites are simply no fun. You need to get it wet to have fun and in a dry suite, the wahines don't even begin to dampen.

FLY A BANNER FOR WET SUITES WITH JACUZZI/BAR

 

Haven't been through a full SF winter but I can't imagine a 5/4 is ever needed. Water temps don't dip below 50 and 4/3, booties, gloves and hood should be toasty enough. Been surfing the summer with various combinations of 4/3, 3/2, (no) booties depending on air and water temps. People wear strange combinations of rubber out here (e.g. 4/3, no booties + hood), so have the full array of gear and figure out your favorite outfit(s).

 

don't listen to that kook with the 3 mil. You're going to need a 4/3 suit, booties, hood and gloves. If you lived near the beach and surfed couple days a week, you might be able to get away with just the 4/3 and booties, but you'll never be acclimated enough driving all the way from manteca.

If you shave your head or are bald, you might want to wear the hood all year...funny looking at first, but a lot of people do it because it's warmer, keeps the sunburn to a minimum and it's the easiest way to avoid surfer's ear.

 

Yeah at least a 4/3 with booties during the winter/spring. Although the best weather at the beach is oct-nov. The water never warms up like so-cal. I used to use a 6/5/4, built in hoodie, o'neill. But i couldnt stand booties so had to make up for the lack of them somehow (im also thin, and a pu$$y when it comes to being cold). Most people go 5/4 (hooded) and booties.

And M.Rgnar go thru winter/spring and then come back saying a 3/2 will get you by.

 

Oh man, I would get an 8/7 seal skin wet suite.

Wet suites are suite!

 

So f'n suite!

 

Well, seeing that "Manteca" means "lard" in Spanish, it might mean that a bunch of fat people live and surf there so they may not need the extra rubber of a 4/3, so maybe you might only need a 3/2. Or if you're packing a little extra Manteca yourself, you might just trunk it there.

Off topic: I just won $10K playing craps in Vegas, and the hotel comp'd me a Dry Suite. Fkn awesome

 

okay Foamy good first post question. If you haven't figured it out yet from the comments its wetsuit not wetsuite. Now that everybody has had a good chuckle. If you are a relatively new surfer (and it sounds like you are) you will need to use some common sense when listening to this feedback. The guy talking about "yamamoto" is correct. Yamamoto neoprene is closed cell. It's warmer and therefore you can go a full mm thinner than traditional wetsuits. This means less weight but its more expensive. Do your research if you choose to go that route. If you don't buy Yamamoto you will need to go thicker. Now listen closely: If you are not getting to your feet on EVERY wave, and are still missing waves because you don't have enough paddle speed, weight is your enemy. Extra weight in the arms and through your chest will make getting to your feet tough. Also, booties, even good booties make getting to your feet more difficult. On the other side, a hood does not have the weight issues and keeps in a huge amount of your heat. So get a really warm, but not heavy suit and a hood. Forget the gloves and booties until you make every wave.

 

I had a wetsuite once. They made me pay for the damages.

 

wow jealous come on over to jersey and rock 6/5's and 5 mil booties and gloves just to make it bearable...

 

I love how half the posts in this tread are suite jokes while the other half are legit responses to the illiterate OP. Little do the responders know that the search function would give them more previous posts on this topic than any other. What a suite tread.

 

Wonder if they still make wetsuites? Lol original thread dug up from 2008!

 

Stayed at the Embassy Suites once and the toilet overflowed.

Got some of those old hard suite cases from my grandparents that we want to get rid of. Smell like moth balls.

I used to really like Neil Diamond's song "Suite Caroline".

Lame.

Once again, within the past week, I missed the original post date. Really, May 2009?? What's with resurrecting these old threads lately and responding to the OP?

...I wish we'd get some surf around here. ECSC is starting and conditions are flat, the water polluted.