A Second Wetsuit Summer

post by jefftk (jkaufman) · 2024-07-13T02:00:05.412Z · LW · GW · 2 comments

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I often write about things when they're new to me, because that's when I'm most interested in them. Sometimes how I feel after a short time ends up being how I feel long-term; other times I end up with an enthusiastic post about something I ended up abandoning a few months later. So when I remember, it seems valuable to revisit with the benefit of additional experience.

As long as I can remember I've gotten chilled quite rapidly when swimming. It can be summer in Florida, and after 20min I'm needing to get out and warm up. For years I just accepted this, but once I had kids it became pretty frustrating that I couldn't hang out playing with them in the water anywhere near as long as they wanted me to.

Last summer I got a wetsuit and wrote about it after the first time I tried it. How do I feel now that it's been most of a year?

I love it! We're just finishing up a week in NC visiting Julia's family, and we've been swimming most days. It's very hot, hot enough that most people can stay in the water indefinitely, but not me. Or, not me before the wetsuit! I didn't once need to get out of the pool or lake due to feeling cold, and multiple times spent more than an hour in the water. I've really enjoyed being able to play with my kids, help them practice swimming, or just bob around with the toddler.

The main chance since my first post is that I've stopped wearing the vest, and now just wear the pants. It turns out that the pants (1.5mm neoprene) let me retain enough heat, and the vest was much more unpleasant when hanging around not in the water.

Here's my swim attire, with trunks over the pants and a fast-dry shirt on top:

I generally prefer more covering gear so I don't have to deal with sunscreen, so that the wetsuit involves long pants is actually a minor plus for me.

Anyway: I'm very happy! Strongly recommended for anyone else who similarly gets cold easily.

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comment by Orual · 2024-07-14T12:17:31.616Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Can concur, wetsuits are great even if you aren't scuba diving. I got one back when I taught swimming lessons at beaches in Maritime Canada. Even at the height of summer and at some of the warmest beaches, the water is never that warm, and as an instructor teaching more than one class per day I'd usually be in the water for long enough that keeping adequate sunscreen on my body was a Sisyphean task, as was keeping warm. After one busy week where I got a pretty nasty burn all across every exposed part of my torso, which hurt for days, I went and bought the wetsuit. Did not regret it.

comment by Nathan Helm-Burger (nathan-helm-burger) · 2024-07-16T03:09:36.222Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Wetsuits come in a range of thicknesses. Even a thin one can help a lot, and is relatively untroublesome to wear. I love wetsuits.