Wearing Boardshorts Under Wetsuit?

[Capt Nemo]

Wearing something under a wetsuit defeats the purpose.

You're wrong there!

Divers wear aqua skins (lycra/polartec bodysuits) under their wetsuits all the time. It adds to the warmth as it restricts water flushing. They also make donning nylon interior suits easier. Skin in style suits are the only suit that doesen't benefit from wearing anything underneath, as they seal to the skin like drysuit neck/wrist seals. With those, shaving arms, legs, chest and back helps the suit seal. My well compressed 5mm (3mm now) skin in suit still gets me about an hour freediving in 35 degree water before I have to call it quits.

As my diving instructor told the class back in 87, "Guys, wear a racing style brief. Gals, wear any one piece that criscrosses or comes together in the center of the back and doesn't tie. Don't wear bikinis or baggies because the suit will yank them off or bunch them." Bike short "jammers" work good, but they can cause compression problems in the legs if the leg elastic is too tight.

[Capt Nemo]

Real kooks wear them over their wetsuits.
Or switch to Rapanui

First time I saw a couple of kite surfers doing it, it had me going WTF!

Stoooooooopid!

[SurfingMonkey]

Please do all of us a favor and don't wear boardies outside of your wetsuit!
I have found a happy medium for wearing a thin speedo like material under my wetsuit. I started doing it because I was in and out of my wetsuit all day working for a scuba dive company and naturally I started doing it for surfing. I can slip in and out in a second and the under shorts don't get rolled up in the wetsuit when putting them on. As far as comfort goes I have been going comando since I first started surfing at the age of super grom, but these offer more support for those stubborn suits that tend to push your man parts up where they shouldn't be. (you know what I mean) The shorts I found fit best are from a company called Original Watermen out of San Diego. They seem to know what is going on and make under-shorts just for this purpose. I also started traveling to warmer destinations and discovered the joys of boardshort rash. These under-shorts seem to be the cure-all for that as well. (and they keep you a tad warmer). You can find them here: http://www.originalwatermen.com/waterme ... iners.html

I guess lifeguards use them when they share the uniform suits at work and they are starting to catch on outside of a work related functionality.