Can you surf in your diving gear?
Sara Grady, surfing (and diving) wahine
January 3, 2010
I have a secret. I am also a diver. Chances are, if you see someone wandering around a parking lot in a wetsuit, they're either going surfing (of some variety) or diving, but it seems never the twain shall meet. The diver’s realm is below the waves, the surfer’s realm is on top of the waves. When I imagine a surfer in a wetsuit, even if they're dressed for winter surfing it somehow conjures up a sleek, seal-like image. When I think of a diver, it seems to conjure up something more along the lines of a walrus. It must be the gear.
Because I started my amphibious lifestyle as a diver, all the wetsuits, hoods, gloves, and booties I own that could be used for surfing come from that parallel walrus-world. Logic dictates that, of course, I don't need two of each thickness of suit, especially since each would cost hundreds of dollars. However, as I have been using my dive suits to surf and am hoping I can add a couple more items I already have to equip me for some winter waves, I've been feeling a little bit self-conscious. Maybe it's the vanity I have acquired since winning "Best Dressed" at the 2009 Spring Pa'ina, though I really doubt someone else hoping not to freeze to death cares what logo is on my chest.
So what's the difference? Surfing wetsuits are made for flexibility, while dive suits are generally made for toughness and to survive being compressed and decompressed over and over. This means that it's probably a worse idea to wear one's surfing suit while diving instead of the other way around. Surfing suits are also made assuming you are going to be only partially submerged, while diving suits obviously are made for being totally underwater. Also, when you surf, you're interspersing moments of sitting with bursts of speed and you're there for a couple hours (you hope!), while diving is pretty much meandering around the bottom until it's time to stop (maybe an hour.) This all means that there can be some technical differences in terms of how the neck seals up, how the seams are stitched, and which kind of neoprene goes where, but the general purpose of the wetsuit is pretty consistent - hold water against your skin so it warms up and doesn't let the warm water inside and the cold water outside exchange too often.
Thus far in considering my current equipment, I think I'm really only lacking proper footwear. My dive boots have hard soles, which I suspect would only handicap my popups (and my tendency to push off the wrong part of my foot). Once I get some new boots, I think I'll be ready to go. Sounds like I know what to spend my Christmas money on! So, who knows, maybe you'll see me this winter in the lineup - I'll be the one dressed like a walrus.