Wet or Dry?

[letsflykites]

I know it's probably a matter of personal preference, but should I be picking up a wetsuit (5mm w/hood, booties & 3mm gloves) or drysuit (????) for winter/spring kiting in the Lower Mainland?

Cheers, thanks!
Andrew

[bandito]

I rode 6mm suit and 5mm booties.excell suits are great, better then ripcurl in my opinion as I owned 3 before. I never rode dry, heard they can leak n you cannot take a leak in it lol I also jump n crash a lot. I heard they don't Swim well in. GETt 5 to 7mm booties, good anytime. get a 3/2 for late spring n summer, but 5mm will be good till june easy n Spit colddddddd, flush wt water if too warm. if to cold put fleece under wet suit n booties. MEC sell nice kayak mitts like dakine. cheers.

[letsflykites]

Thanks Bandito. I'm kiting in short & t-shirt right now, so it's going to be an interesting transition. Maybe we'll see you out on the water, or up at Cypress in a few weeks!

[Alton]

Bandito's right about dry suits. They can be very restrictive so if you plan on any freestyle kiting a wetsuit is the way to go. Wetsuits are also much more affordable.

[bandito]

N you can use it to surf n sup. Get a 5 or 6 first

[Slappy]

Outside of summer I use my 6/5/4 hooded suit 90% of the time locally and in Squamish, but I like to be warm. This year our spring was summer conditions though so my 5/4/3 got a lot of use, I dress for the swim though and venture out pretty far.

I also use 7mm booties for about 6 months of the year and 5mm or 1mm the rest of the time. My 7mm booties are Xcel drylock and my feet stay dry which keeps them quite warm, the 5mm are standard and flood with water which makes them not too hot in warmer weather as the drylock ones in warm weather can get too hot.

I use 5mm lobster claw gloves below 8 degrees and open palm mitts above. Make sure to get gloves with a good precurve if you are going to wear gloves. I use these http://www.npsurf.com/products/protecti ... l#color=C1

I also use a polypro top when it's colder which I highly recommend.

I also add on a wind blocking top when it's colder, I have a short sleeve ProMotion Exo Skin and a long sleeve NP Surf Edge wind top (make sure to order it 1-2 sizes up if you want to wear it over your wetsuit)

For summer locally (but not Squamish) I use the Halibut Bank water temp reading to decide between 5/4/3 or 2mm leggings or board shorts and then add one of the wind tops as needed. There are a few days each year where you can go topless too.

[8mdude]

“Some people feel the rain; others just get wet.”

Go for the wet suit. Feel it.

[ezzylover]

Hi

I used to have an ocean rodeo drysuit and they can be restrictive indeed.
But I still liked being dry (except for perspiration) so I bought the Assault Hybrid and I am very happy with it, the bottom is like a wetsuit and the top like a shell.
I only wish it had need pads though (for windsurfing)
https://www.wakemakers.com/oneill-assault-hybrid-drysuit.html

cheers

[bandito]

when we are cold when WE surf, 96% of surfers PISS in wet suit to warm themselves rinse a couple times before you exit waterlol you can hand wash suit n especially booties wt laundry detergent AND OXY POWDER, it remove smell good! redo 2 times if badly "contaminated"

nGO FOR a wet suit, you look ,slimmer n sexy in those, girls n boys wanna check you out all the time, I had to have 4 Court restricted orders (2 windsurfer, 1 surfer n 1 kiter) because they harassed me constantly on the water! now they have to stay 25m away.....S E X Y !!!!