Hi am about to buy a new steamer for the cooler months for sailing in Sydney.
It has been about a year since I have sailed and am thinking of getting a 4.5/4/3 steamer. Is this overkill? I do remember it getting quite cool. What are people using as their cold water gear?
Cheers,
Owain
Will you mainly sail in the ocean or in a lake in winter? The water temperature between the two in winter can be close to 10 degrees.
In any case I have Neil Pryde wetsuit. I think its a 5x3 or something like that. It keeps me quite warm on the coldest of days when the westerlies are blowing from the cold inland.
In that case a 4.5/4/3 would probably be in the same ball park.
I will mainly sail Botany, Rose Bay and maybe some ocean stuff.
I sail with a 4/3 in Tassie in winter so 3/2 should be fine in NSW
Quiksilver stores are selling last year's suits at 50% at the moment FYI
The ocean will be warmer than a lake but the winter W will be cold coming off the mountains and distant snow.I've got a 3/4/5mm and sail lakes and love it.
Select to expand quoteBFlood said..
I sail with a 4/3 in Tassie in winter so 3/2 should be fine in NSW
Quiksilver stores are selling last year's suits at 50% at the moment FYI
Good call on the Quicksilver sale. There is also a online sale (30% off) I have discovered until the 4th (I think) with the code "THANKYOU" for anyone else interested.
It sounds like a good 3-2 will work fine and anything more will keep you a bit more toasty.
Whatever you get make sure it's a wetsuit designed for windsurfing. Most of the wetsuits by o'neil, rip curl, quicksilver etc are great for surfing but but pretty crap for windsurfing.
Neil Pryde, Flying Objects, Ion all make great dedicated windsurfing wetsuits. A lot them now come with bamboo lining which makes them pretty warm and prevents them from going smelly.
Windsurfing Wetties were initially designed to provide more 'flex' particularly in the lower arms than the average surfing wetsuit but realistically the newer higher class surfing wetties are made of such flexible neoprene it doesn't really matter.
Unless you're going to go out to spend bulk money on a 'windproof' suit I'd argue that a good surfing wetty will give you 90% of the performance for about 50% of the cost.
disclaimer: i wear a flying objects suit so feel free to call me a hypocrite
Going from surfing wetsuits to windsurfing wetsuits there is no way I'd buy another surfing suit for winter windsurfing. Summer it doesn't matter with spring suits however winter is a different story.
4/3 for winter is the go I use Mistick very warm but the 3/2 not good enough in winter
