I always wear helmet and impact vest (and foil edges somewhat sanded down but i guess i need to take more off). I was even chuckling to myself this week noticing the butt-holes in several friend's wetsuits and thinking how awesome i am to have foiled for 4 years and never got a wetsuit tear! So, of course, this week I joined the butt-hole crew! Nasty 6cm skin scratch (through 3mm wetsuit) right by an artery and very close to the family jewels! (and 2 weeks ago another friend got a ~10cm deeper scratch across his abdomen below his vest)
I'm now on the search for additional protection to cover at least from the bottom of the vest to the thigh. Ideally with an EN388 cut resistant rating or similar. Options include:
- cut-resistant board shorts with a rash guard shirt (for over the wetsuit and/or summer use)
- cut-resistant baselayer underwear (ski racing has this but it's $1k+ for top and bottom)
- DIY: dyneema makes a fabric (dyneema diamond) which i could buy and do a DIY shorts and jacket
For existing products, best i found is Gong sells 'Bodyguard' shorts and shirts which have a high cut resistant rating (EN388 standard 5-stars) for euro $100-150 each. They look like a good option but might be hard to get in the USA.
Has anyone used them, or found other options?
Thanks! And be safe out there :-)
I have the gong stuff (shorts and shirt) but recently "upgraded" the shorts to the ion surf shield. the pants are quite comfortable I must say. Not cheap of course, but if they prevent an injury it's worth it for me.
I wish there would be a few colours other than black. I know gong have the yellow shirt which is a good start, but everything else is black (or black and white which isn't much better).
true, but you could layer it. regarding the yellow gong shirt I must say that it is not very comfortable, the material is quite harsh/abrasive, so it's a bit rough on the elbows and especially on the nipples.
It looks like the Ion surf shield line is made by DISTON (a ski race clothing company) or maybe they supply the fabric. Just ordered a pair of DISTON tights on sale so I'll see how those work. I also ski a lot so they can do double-duty.
