Surfing Waves

•Two winter suits is the way forward. It’s good to have a backup for the near-frozen, piss-stinking, muddy wetsuit that you forgot to take out of the car.
•Figure out if you’re a built in hood or not kinda guy/gal when it comes to wetsuits. (I have a regular suit and I’m debating whether to get a hood with a flush guard or a hooded vest)
•Avoid the duckdive. Surfing reefs, points or beaches with defined rip channels will keep you in the brine longer than fighting your way through walls of closed out beachbreak. (I surf a beach break and use the “sea anchor” when it’s really cold)

1. Stay sealed! The smallest of perforations in a winter suit will let in the ice-cold water, preventing the wetsuit from retaining any heat. Regular winter warriors will probably need a replacement suit every other year. However, if the budget is tight, then invest in some neoprene glue and seal up the holes yourself.

2. Drink plenty
The joys of peeing in your wetsuit are plentiful, but in cold water the pleasure reaches new heights. It’s like being plugged into a warm water drip, the heat slowly spreading out from your core to give your cold body a whole new lease on life. In order to experience this indulgence as often as possible, drink plenty before heading into the water. A word of warning though: if your hood is part of your suit, you may want to consider how desperate you are to warm your ears with your own liquid heat. And probably best to expend all fluids in the first half of the session to allow some flushing out to occur.

3. Stay active in the water
Don’t sit in the line-up shivering. Keep moving. Regular paddling keeps the blood circulating and the body warm. Race to make it over the top of those cleanup sets; keeping your head above the water will retain the warmth stored in your suit, and the increased heart rate keeps the body generating heat.

4. Choose your pre-surf meal carefully
As a general rule, the higher the water content of a food, the cooler it will make your body. Fruits and vegetables are mostly water and are easy for your body to digest, causing your body temperature to drop. Fats, proteins and carbohydrates are much harder for the body to break down resulting in a rise in body temperature.

Big H wrote:At the same time it brings to mind the Hawaiian Power Bar WKK put up awhile back.