Wetsuits are made for the cold waters, but the suit is not waterproofed. In fact, these suits are designed to let water in between the body and the suit.

The synthetic material that wetsuits are made from is waterproofed and even the seams and the zipper are made to ensure that no water can seep in. Ironically, the entire suit is not waterproofed.

Wetsuits are designed to make the wearer warm and protect him from losing body heat when submerged in the water. They are not designed to make the wearer dry, thus they are not made waterproofed.

Wetsuits have openings on the legs, arms and neck to allow a small amount of water to get through. Except from these openings, the rest of the suit are kept tight and waterproofed to avoid more water coming inside the suit.

This trapped water which will eventually be warmed by the body will then serve as an ‘insulator’ between the body and the water outside the suit, preserving the body heat of the wearer.

The seams and the zipper of the wetsuit are made almost waterproofed to ensure that no water can seep through the garment aside from the water coming from the openings on the neck, the ankles and the arms. In this way, the trapped layer of water will not be replaced by cold water that will enter the seams or through the zippers if these are not sealed tightly. If this happens, the wetsuit may not work effectively.

There are however other types of wetsuit that are close to being waterproofed. These are called semi-dry wetsuits, which are commonly worn, in temperatures ranging from 10 to 20 degrees Celsius.

In semi-dry wetsuits, the water that enters the suit from the openings on the neck, ankles and the arms are limited and slowed down by rubber seals in the openings. Water may enter into the suit but are limited. This enables the wetsuit to maintain body heat longer and make you stay in a cold water longer.

Semi-dry wetsuits however, do not make you dry either, but at times, there may be instances when you see wearers who get out of the water with some portion of their shirts underneath their wetsuits being dry.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 7:09 am and is filed under water sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.