Surfing in a 4/3

by **scottysagres** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:55 am

yo yo
I am goin surfing at the witterings on sunday, hopefully? is surf
but the sea is 7 degrees ?
Has anyone surfed in a 4/3 with boots and gloves in these conditions

Cheers
Tom

**Sponsor**

by **sweatthesalt** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:28 am

yah, i dont mind it at all. With the booties there is a difference but not enough to really worry over. The one thing that will get to you, or gets to me anyway, is the gloves. Paddling and popping ups becomes a lil harder and it is annoying.

by **phillwilson** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:56 am

i can only talk from the position of having a lovely warm 5/3 but in my limited experiance i find the real key is to take a few extra minutes at the start of your day to reaaaaally baton down those seams...suit to glove, suit to boot...the batwing across the zip as long as these are well tucked in there will be less chance of getting flushed and therfore less chance of getting a volume of cold water that your body dosnt have the heat to warm up , a bit here and there is no prob but I can only take soo many
full flushes before my core body temp lowers to a level that it dosent seem to be able to rewarm the water

I have started putting my gloves on before i pull on my wesuit arms this seems to get the sleeves really far up the cuff of the glove and so far since i have started doing this i have only lost she seal fully once.

when that happened i helf my hand up first to drain the majority of the new cold water before tr tucking it in...less new chilly water meant less ot reheat and i seemed back up to toasty warmth in a minute or so.

as for boots...as long as the ankle seal holds, i could make salt hot chocolate with the water when i get out.

by **Sillysausage** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:10 am

if its 7 degrees then it will be cold. boots and gloves, maybe a hood if there will be a lot of duck diving. would probably be a 5/3 day.

all depends on how you feel the cold

by **libby** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:42 am

I couldn't manage in anything less than A 5/4mm at the moment, even with boots and gloves i struggled with the cold last time I was out.

Saying that its all about how tolerant you personally are to cold, i'm getting more and more lame as I get older.

by **scottysagres** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 3:56 pm

cheers guys.....and women
ill give it a stab
pray for some swell on the weekend!

by **sebastiansurfer** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:13 pm

i love florida:lol:
crappy waves.endless flat spells
but a 3/2 is alllll thats needed!

by **billie_morini** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 5:10 am

scottysagres,
I surf a lot in 10 C water. I use a 4/3, booties, and 0.5mm hood. I will not use gloves. I hate them. When the air temp is really cold, too, I wear a sleeveless rash guard under my wetsuit. When really cold or I'm feeling weak (from too much work), I will also wear a pair of rash guard shorts. Hope this info helps you figure out what to do

by **oldgrom** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 5:40 am

Um I'd be going with the toast 5/3,(5/4) if needed and booties,gloves and a hoodie. HA HA HA your not old yet Libs.

by **themathteacher** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:10 am

I'm a San Diego surfer, with booties and a 4/3 the coldest I've surfed is 54degrees comfortably, roughly 13 C, not sure about going lower. I only use the hoody if there is cold wind along with it.

by **RJD** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:16 am

7? a good 4/3 boots & gloves is enough.

by **drowningbitbybit** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:44 am

It doesnt matter... its the witterings, there wont be any surf anyway :twisted:

by **Hang11** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:31 am

I think it was pumping (for the witts) there last weekend.

This was taken on Sunday...

Anyway, a 4/3 and boots is a summer suit for me these days...

by **turtleroll** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:53 am

haha, I used to wear a 4/3 when I surfed in SoCal, but since I moved to Hawaii, I just surf in my bikini!!

I used to do the wetsuit, gloves, booties thing for several years, the water in CA is COLD!! but not like 7 degrees! If I were you, I'd get a thicker wetsuit!! At least 7mil. My dive wetsuit is 8 mil and its a bitch to get it on & off, and sometimes I have to ask random strangers to help me, but it makes a huuuuge difference as far as overall comfort and the ability to stay in the water longer.

Booties. I still [u]always [/u]wear booties. Got 2 pair in my car ready to go right now. I call them my "kook Boots", but whatever. Cuz in Hawaii, coral cuts suck!! :oops:

by **drowningbitbybit** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:06 am

Hang11 wrote:I think it was pumping (for the witts) there last weekend.

Ooooooh, cold murky water.... :shock:

But I'll admit, thats startlingly good for the Witts! :surfing:

Although a consistent feature of the witts when I used to surf there was that it was good last weekend :bang:

by **RJD** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:02 am

Thats the hey look at me cool pic before he gets smashed though....

His face wont look like that now.

by **Hang11** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:55 am

Good on him for doing that. At a guess that's shore dump high tide Bracklesham Bay. Wouldn't have been warm or soft when the whole lot shut down on him on the shingle.

I surfed the witterings regularly for nearly 15 years, and could count the days with waves like that on one hand. Like DBB is getting at, it's one of those spots that leaves you wondering why you went for the drive.

by Jc » Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:02 pm

6 degree in a 3/2, nothing was gonna stop me

about 15 mins and 3 waves

by **beachcomber** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 4:11 pm

I managed an hour in a 3/2 yesterday at Widemouth - no gloves but I did have two rash vests (one inside, one outside), pair of swimming shorts under the wetsuit and some 5mm boots on. Hands froze and made it difficult getting changed afterwards but the real shock was the first time I got wiped out and the freezing water hit my head. It made my skull hurt (real ice-cream headache) and I thought I was going to be sick!

Managed to catch a few decent waves though at lunchtime and it looked like it was changing when I drove back past there at about 3pm a bit later.

Hate to say it, but I'm now looking for gloves and a cap. Used to be okay with the cold, but I guess I'm getting old at 35 now and just can't hack it! (Still ain't gonna buy a winter suit though!).

by **parrysurf** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:54 am

7 degrees is ok in 4/3...i would be putin on a hood gloves and some boots. I am a so cal wuss..even tho folks around here think I am crazy by wearing a 3/2 in the dead of winter..most switch for the 4/3 we get down to about 14C

Surfing in a 4/3

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