Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

The wetsuit/drysuit debate

Forum for kitesurfers
User avatar
tautologies
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 10864
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2004 5:36 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Oahu
Has thanked: 100 times
Been thanked: 156 times
Contact:

Postby tautologies » Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:46 am

ORSales wrote:
This is not true.

1) water is neutrally bouyant and so you will not sink even if your suit totally flooded
yes this is true, it was a not very well thought out statement from my part. I mean it will become very hard to swim, and this is increasingly true if you are in cold water...
2) With the outside pressure of water pressing in on the suit it is natural to burp the excess air out of your suit. This actually helps in the event of a tear in the suit as the suit will be pressed against your body and will only allow small amounts of liquid to be wicked in, you would need to pull the suit away from your body and hold the hole open to start to flood the suit.
3) The material we make our suits from is very durable. It is highly unlikely you would ever tear it when you are on the water...if you did manage to do so the rip would very likely never get bigger than an inch, which would let in only minor amounts of water as you made your way to the shore. (See above)

Seriously, read the referenced threads above, visit our forum on our site and discuss this with other riders not paid to promote the suit, do your homework and you will find Ocean Rodeo's Pyros are the best made, most respected suits on the market and whip the snot out of a wetsuit in any but the most ideal water conditions when it really is nice to get the occasional flush to cool you down.
I will, I don't doubt that the pyro suit is a great one, my intention wasn;t to steer any one away from your product. I just wanted to bring in one of the things I was told when I first started considering one...I haven't really needed one yet, as we have pretty warm water over here...but I'll get some more info.

Btw. at what water temperature do you recommend this suit? If you can please give me a range, not only low end :-)

thx
alex

Jahmi
Frequent Poster
Posts: 253
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 12:15 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Rochester, MI
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Postby Jahmi » Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:49 am

Drysuits are great . It's always nice being dry when you get out of the suit and I love being super warm when I'm on the water on those really cold days. I'm a huge fan of Ocean Rodeo's quality and they are well worth the money.

With that being said I no longer wear my drysuit without a wetsuit underneath. I had a ankle seal failure a couple years ago and barely made it to shore. I was in waist deep water only a 100 ft from shore when it happened. When the water is that cold it does not take much time for hypothermia to set in. I learned this the hard way and have first hand experience with it.

Interesting enough with today's super stretch wetsuits I've discovered I'm much more comfortable with it under my drysuit verses the fleece I was wearing before. So it's a win win situation for me.

User avatar
Tom183
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 3332
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:23 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: The United Mistakes of America
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Postby Tom183 » Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:36 am

windyway wrote:The enemy of the kiter is the wind, that is if you want to stay warm. In the water, the wetsuit does a fine job, but we spend most of our time in a wet wetsuit with the wind making us into an evaporative cooler.

My solution- I wear a tight fitting kayak top over my wetsuit. Its the Rio @ $45 from nrsweb.com. My friend wears a Ronny dry top. We both are now warm for the first time. Kayak tops have room for undergarments and paddling motion so you'll have to consider choosing a smaller than normal size.
Thanks for the link - kayak stuff seems the closest to what we do sometimes, and that looks like an inexpensive way to add wind protection to a wetsuit.

tungsten222
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Postby tungsten222 » Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:32 am

Original message expired.
Last edited by tungsten222 on Wed Feb 03, 2010 10:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
bleighty
Frequent Poster
Posts: 291
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:45 pm
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Postby bleighty » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:07 pm

in southwest florida there are a couple months where a wetsuit is do-able but i picked up a drysuit (Bare - low end model) for those very cold days.

now i know i am no where in the league with those that kite up north but cold is cold. a drysuit will provide you with comfort that you cannot believe. i wear a light sweatsuit under it and take it off after my session and i am warm and toasty for the ride home.

all last year i wore my westuit and was fine.. but for the amount of time i kite i really just decided that 350$ was a good price to pay for comfort.

my suit will get limited use through the years so it should last a long time.
if i kited in cold weather more often i prob would have gone with a more robust suit w/ ventilation or other bells and whistles..

thats my 2 cents.

CTPedro
Rare Poster
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:06 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Connecticut, USA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Postby CTPedro » Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:44 pm

The RipCurl F-Bomb 6/5/4 with the built in hood is THE answer. I've ridden in low 20 air temp and sub 40 water temp and I was fine. Hands and feet got cold but my core was super warm. Went out Saturday with air temp in the 40s and water temp in the 30s and I was hot. The suit is unbelievably comfortable, is super stretchy, and rarely flushes. It insulates so well that ice can accumulate on the outer surface and my body heat doesn't melt it. With this suit water temp is no longer an issue (as long as it remains liquid) and air temp becomes the critical factor. Obviously good gloves and booties are essential. I also recently got a cheapo NRS paddling top that I wear only when its in the 30s and it makes a substantial difference. No more evaporative cooling and what little flushing that did occur when body dragging is totally eliminated.

In my opinion, short of a survival suit, this is the safest option. I would definitely be sketched out in a baggy drysuit, especially considering the shredded state of the backside on my Nitrous shorts.

User avatar
ORSales
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1018
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2005 6:29 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 23 times

Postby ORSales » Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:28 pm

tautologies wrote: I just wanted to bring in one of the things I was told when I first started considering one...
Alex - sorry to have sounded like I took offence to your statement, I was in a rush out the door at the end of the day!
tautologies wrote:Btw. at what water temperature do you recommend this suit? If you can please give me a range, not only low end :-)
Given that everyone's sense of hot and cold varies depending on their body type, etc we tend to say this: If you are wearing a 3mm or thicker wetsuit you should be wearing a drysuit.

Hope this helps!

User avatar
bleighty
Frequent Poster
Posts: 291
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:45 pm
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Postby bleighty » Tue Mar 06, 2007 6:20 pm

CTPedro wrote:I would definitely be sketched out in a baggy drysuit, especially considering the shredded state of the backside on my Nitrous shorts.
it took a session or two to get used to the drysuit.. its def something that seems a bit odd at first, but that goes completely away after a session or so..

i wear some baggy boardshorts over it to protect the backside of the suit.. i had a scare on my first or second time when i got in some shallows and ended up on my butt with some sharp shells below.. no damage at all to the suit but i figured that boardshorts over it would help..
my friend has a seat harness w/ his and it protects the backside perfectly.

User avatar
Tom183
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 3332
Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:23 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: The United Mistakes of America
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Postby Tom183 » Tue Mar 06, 2007 6:50 pm

ORSales wrote:If you are wearing a 3mm or thicker wetsuit you should be wearing a drysuit.
OR doesn't make wetsuits, so I'll have to take that with a few grains of salt...

gobigkahuna
Frequent Poster
Posts: 258
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 3:25 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: SOBX
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Postby gobigkahuna » Tue Mar 06, 2007 6:50 pm

Hey "ORSales",

Check your Messages. I'm moving to the cold north and need some info on your drysuits!

Thanks!


Return to “Kitesurfing”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Azzieo, Bing [Bot], Google [Bot], Majestic-12 [Bot], Steve271, vp and 148 guests