Buying a wetsuit

I needed to join Nicky in wetsuit owners land. This wasn't as easy it as it sounds. I knew i didn't want to spend and arm and a leg, given Nicky got hers for about 50 quid albeit in the sale. So I started to do my research and found lot's of sites about wetsuit buying, but basically it comes down to the thickness and flexibility of the neoprene, the more flexy the better and more expensive and then the quality of the stitching. So I stated looking at Reef, a South African company, price was one my side coming in at about R1200 or about £90 and from inspecting Nicky's I could see the quality was there. So to the surf shops...

Notes: I don't know what it is but i'm not enjoying being in surf shops here. For some reason I'm feeling really uncomfortable, the guys are always super quick to approach you and as soon as they hear an English accent they escort you to the top of the line stuff. I think it must really be down to the commission structure and the fact Wetsuits are a pretty high tag item. The other thing is the lectures. When I bought my board I got the lecture of my life about how it was going to be impossible to ride and that the guy in the shop only just got one like it; "like learning to drive in a Ferrari mate". He didn't seem to understand that the £30 price tag was what I was interested in and I just wanted the simplest most relaxing route to getting into the water, not renting and certainly not spending packet on huge learners boards which again I was ushered neatly to (Ten times the price at £300).

So anyway into the shop. Price seems to vary a lot depending on the shop you're in and the attitude of the guys in there is also pretty mixed. Some were chilled, but mostly quite pushy insisting that a "£160 - £200 suit was a good price and that i'd get the tax back anyway so will it be card or cash?" after checking out the reef suits they didn't come up to the quality of Nicky’s so I was feeling a bit stuck, looking like the £160 options were going to be the ones. So I tried a nice Billabong suit, which was pretty good, it had the good seams I’d be reading about, taped on the inside in the stress areas, but still it was a lot of cash for something I wasn’t really sure how much I’d use.

Then I came across what is probably the best shop in the world. An Aladdins cave of second hand gear, you name it.. Bikes, surfboards, hockey sticks, tents, javelins, diving gear, and luckily wetsuits. I wasn’t holding out much hope, a second hand wetsuit is almost guaranteed to be smelly and torn. There was lots of crap but the guys in the shop were really sound, they knew some of the stuff was crap and helped me dig out some better gear. No pushy salesman, they weren’t bothered about getting me to buy the expensive stuff. They incidentally thought I was German!? Ultimately I ended up trying a Billabong suit and it was perfect for size, nice and flexy and with all the good seams like the one I tried in the proper surf shop. It had some wax marks and was clearly second hand but it looked good, no tears or split seams. It was marked up at R960, but with a wink and a smile I convinced them to give it me for R850 (£65) cash. “Danke”?

A quick check on the web and it turns out I got a top of the line Billabong suit which retails new at £260, no wonder it felt nice on!!.