Tired of boardshort rash and tramstamp sunburn from my short/rashguard combo, I decided to give the very stylish Seea suits a try. I picked up a Waterstripes Swami’s Playsuit off their site and tossed it in my boardbag bound for mexico.
The short version of my review: I love this suit! 😀
The long version: I love this this suit even though it has a few tiny hangups.
A few stats:
I’m about 5’10 and about 150. I ordered a medium and a large, the large fit perfectly.
The water was around 90° and the sun was about as unforgiving as it gets.
Surfed about 3-5 hours a day. Even bodysurfed in it.
This suit did exactly what I’d hoped. No trampstamp sunburn and no horrible chaffing from my board shorts. (My previous boardies were fancy pants a “no chafe” men’s pro model that shredded my legs. One of my guy friends mentioned that it wasn’t your legs those board shorts are looking out for, but your balls. Great. Gotta love men’s gear.) My upper thighs did get pretty sunburned the first day or two, but it was a huge relief not to have seams cutting into me.
As far as warmth, I was cooking in the 90° water, but I’m sure they’d be fine in water in the 70’s. The shorts are lined and the top has enough coverage that it should keep warm in semi-tropical destinations. I’d still wear a bikini underneath both to make it easier to hop in and out, yay more boob support, and because the top is clingy (like any other rashie.)
Comfort: Totally comfy.
Cuteness: A-freaking-dorable
Style: Tons. I half joked that with the retro superhero style and my retro singlefin shorties, I might just rip a hole space/time and fall into the late 70’s surf scene.
The nitpicks: I only had two tiny little hangups.
One was the zipper. While easy to get in and out of, the zipper isn’t very robust and un-zipped itself while duck diving a shoulder/head high set. When I got outside, I tied the zipper cord to my bikini strap and that seemed to solve the problem. I’m thinking about sewing a little loop or something to it to keep the zipper in place.
The folks at Seea recommended the Hermosa One Piece as it has a tie instead, but I love the look of the Swami’s. I’d prefer the superhero style over the girlie style.
Second: the waterstripes are not exactly colorsafe. The medium I bought had a little bit of color stransfer from the stripes and, as you’ll see from the photo: they faded in the sun.
I’d mentioned it to the Seea folks and they said they’d already addressed the problem with newer fabrics and patterns.
I’m planning to wear this suit till it wears out. It’s a great little suit. I’m not deterred by the zipper or the faded stripes. I’ll probably pick up a second suit if I’m looking at a longer surf trip.
Another plus for Seea, their customer service was just fantastic. I chatted with a few different people in the whole purchasing process and all of them were just lovely. These suits are California made by good peeps.
Thanks, Seea!