Tag: gear

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Seea Neoprene and Surf Leggings Review

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Neoprene Jacket and Shorts:
I wanted to do a review of my Seea neorpene after the Hawaii trip last fall, but unfortunately didn’t have any photos of me sporting the goods. Super glad I packed my jacket and shorts for this trip, the water was in the 70’s in southern California and the neoprene was perfect for morning and sunset surfs.

First up on these: the fit.

I’m a large and the jacket fit perfectly. The sleeves fell right at the wrists, even with my long arms. The shorts are high waisted, which was very comfortable (no sunburned lower back, no water flushing down my shorts.) I did wear bikini bottoms under them. My legs might be a little bigger than the intended fit and the cuffs rolled up a bit my first paddle out. It wasn’t immodest or anything, but I thought I’d feel a bit more comfortable with bottoms under, just in case. I do this with the surf-suits, too. It’s just more comfortable for me. Doing so also makes it so I could take the shorts off for the hike back up the cliff once the sun had warmed things up.

People in the water usually ask about the zipper. It’s padded enough by the cut of the neoprene that I don’t feel it paddling. I can unzip it to about the middle of my upper chest before the zipper clacks on the board. I tried it unzipped all the way and it was fine but caught a little extra water. The zipper feels pretty sturdy and is easy to zip even with cold or sunblock covered hands.

Durability:
So far it’s held up to hikes down cliffs (in CA and HI,) it’s held up to drying over the side mirror on the van, it’s even lasted through a really long (sad) six months put away between trips.

Looks:
Love it! It’s pretty classic, not too girly, and not too dude-ish. I’ll admit, my roommate burst out laughing seeing the shorts out of context, but thought it looked super cute all together.

It’s also easy to mix and match the shorts and jacket with other stuff. I wore the jacket with my palm-tree leggings and the shorts with my rashguards no problem. It was especially helpful in Hawaii where the water was so warm I mostly ended up wearing the shorts and a rashie in the morning.

Surf Leggings:
In other gear news: I finally got to try out my surf leggings! Yay!

I got these for Mexico trips and hadn’t gotten a chance to try them out until now. These are GREAT. No sunburn, no board rash, no hiking up or slipping down. I got the Pacifica ones which are very lightweight. It should be perfect for Mexico so I can keep covered without getting overheated.

Fit:
They came to about mid-calf on me which is either because I’m tall or is the older style of cut. The ones on the site now look like they are closer to ankle.

Durability:
They got the same treatment as the neoprene, but with the added challenge of having to charge through brush coming up and down the cliff. No snags!

Definitely getting a pair of the Calaifa leggings when they’re in stock again.

2014-SANOB-06-29

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Shaping Lessons!

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😀

Back when Sunset Shapers opened, I recalled reading on their site about shaping lessons. I filed that bit of info away in the “Oh man, I’d love to do that” archives.

Just before Christmas, they had a coupon for lessons via Facebook. I got one, hoping it would finally get me to move shaping lessons from the “I want to do that” column to the “I’m totally doing that” column.

It did!

I had a little chat with James about what I wanted to make. The options came down to a proper noseriding longboard and a fish. Feeling like I’d get more use out of the fish in local waters (or on trips) I went fish.

The classes are divided up into two 3 hour sessions.

The first session is about the blank, the tools, the shaping room, the process of removing the outer “bark” from the blank, using the surform to smooth everything down, deciding on templates, measuring, measuring again, trimming the extra foam off.

Gordon was great. He answered all my questions. He walked through everything and was happy to share info.

We started here
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A 6’5 blank. Nice and wide for fish.

We measured here:
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Overall board length: 6’4
Width 1ft from the nose: 15 3/4″
Wide point: 21″
Width 1ft from the tail: 16″

We round a combination of templates that made a smooth transition between all the points of measurement.

The act of shaping is all about creating a craft with smooth flowing, lines through smooth, flowing strokes. The template needs to flow so the water can flow, right?

Tim reminded me of this scene:

At the end of the day, we had a square railed, fish shaped block of foam:
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Day 2 was all about the finesse. Bottom contours, rail shape, tail details, nose details, basically everything that gives this board it’s character.

We started with lots and lots of passes with the surform to trim the board down to the thickness we wanted (2 3/4″) I got to do a lot of this work (since it was harder to mess up, ha) and was getting the hang of using the surfom correctly.

Here’s Gordon trimming down the stringer so I can do more surform passes on the bottom:
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Next we worked on the bottom concave. Single to double concave. This took lots of very small movements, checking and rechecking the depth, and plenty of eyeballing.

So much of this is by feel or by sight that Gordon had me look at things in progress so I could see what it looked like if one side was less concave than the other, then showed me how to fix it. We did this with the stringer too, I’d look to see where the stringer was too flat, then Gordon would get it nicely into a smooth shape again.

It was really interesting to see how everything evolves. The board isn’t ruined if there’s a little more foam here, it is still in progress and can be brought back into check (within reason, you obviously can’t add foam back in.) The point being, every stroke or step doesn’t have to be perfect, but the change has to be slow and symmetrical so that the finished board is perfect.

I had so many questions answered. So many thing I thought maybe were aesthetics, actually had real reasons behind them. Like the swallow tail, there rails on the tail are very square on one side and rounded on the top, allowing the water to release under the board for speed and turns, but hold over the top to keep the board in the face nice and snug for more control.

Rail work was super delicate. Gordon did all of that work. I mostly said “yup, that’s even” or “looks a little rounder on this side”

The finished board:
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Next steps: cutting fin boxes, cutting the leash plug, and glassing!

This part’s really exciting. I don’t get to sit in on it, but I’ve done a ton of sketching, holding boards, and talking to James about options. I sketched so many MANY options, dozens at least, before settling on this guy:

OrangeArrow

Now to wait for James to do his magic.

I highly recommend this class to anyone who wants to know more about what goes in to hand shaping a board or anyone who wants to be able to better read how a board will perform. It’s a great class.

I’d love to shape another board. Gordon said the best way to do it is to find a board I want to copy, bring it in, and book some time with him of James to help. They’d leave me to do more of the work myself and help guide in the hard parts.

Very stoked. 😀

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New Car

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Surf: 7.6 ft at 11.4 s from W at 281°

Well, it finally happened. After 15 years and 135,000 miles, my Civic blew a head gasket.

I’d spent the weekend agonizing over wether or not to fix it. It was really hard to let the car go, especially since it was still running. The car had never had a problem before, so it very was unexpected when it started running rough in November.

After a lot of thinking, I decided to trade it in. It was hard, but I picked up a more surf-friendly Honda Fit to replace it. Believe it or not, this 13 and a half ft long car fits a whole 9’4 longboard inside, no problem.

Today was it’s first day at the beach.

Getting my 6’10 in as easy. It’ll take some work to figure out my new routine, especially now that I have a digital key instead of an old school metal key.

The surf was…not so great. I really struggled out there and got straight up skunked. Uff. That hasn’t happened in a while. Ahh well.

At least I had a sturdy new heater to keep my toes warm driving home. 🙂

2013-01-11

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Isurus I-Evade: Durability Review – 2 Years Out

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Wow, I can’t believe it’s been almost two years since I picked up my Isurus wetsuit.

I gave this suit a review at about a year in: Isurus I-Evade: Durability Review

At a year I had a few tears, but overall was plenty toasty. At two years I have bigger tears (didn’t quite get around to fixing them) but still plenty toasty.

Here’s the rundown:
Suit: I-Evade 4-3-4, Hooded. Small-Tall.
Purchased: Feb 2011
Session surfed: ~220-250 (or about $2 a surf)
Care: Almost none. Rinsed if off after surf when I could. Often dried in the sun hanging off my car.

Me:
5’10, 150lb, female. I surf 2-4 times a week, early mornings before work. I just wear one suit rather than rotate suits in and out.

Note for other women: They’ve put the women’s line on hold. If you can fit into a men’s I’d still recommend this suit. If you can’t, well, don’t hold your breath for a women’s line 🙁 Things to watch for with fit: thighs/hips. The chest seems roomy enough but the lower body is less forgiving.

Performance:
Still good! I’m still nice and warm and I can get the suit on and off much easier than when it was new. I usually wear the hood to protect my ears, but I can skip boots most days.

Durability:
Overall, the suit is in decent shape structurally. There are cosmetic things here and there (the chevrons are a bit peeled and the logo has seen better days) but almost all of the seams are in great shape. The shoulders are still in nearly the same shape as when I bought the suit.

Where the suit needs repairs is primarily in the knees and the inner leg seams.

I’d highly suggest pulling the suit up as high as you can in the legs. Too low and the legs shift slightly while you’re surfing. I worn a hole in the neoprene just above my right knee pad and the left inner thigh seam has torn almost completely. I’m not sure if this is because the thighs are cut for men or just all around too tight. The seam along the butt did not degrade any further than it had a year ago, but if I get around to taking this suit in for repairs, I’m certainly going to repair that.

The 3 mil neoprene and the neoprene in the shoulders started to get a little thready. This has reduced the warmth a little bit. Back in October I felt a little chilly sitting in the water for the first time since I first picked up the suit. The suit is meant for you to be moving around a fair amount, but even then, this was the first time where I felt cold.

One of the ankles flushed around that same time, and was also the first time that had happened (at least when I wasn’t doing something completely stupid like going over the falls.) I imagine there’s a little bit of stretching that’s happened in the cuffs, but no tearing.

The suit also stopped drying as fast as it did in its shiny new days. When it was new it’d be dry by lunch, now it occasionally has damp cuffs the next morning.

Wearing a suit every single session is pretty hard on it. I’d say this suit has held up well given the use and abuse I’ve dished out. A cheaper suit might get you 4 years, but no suit I’ve worn has been as light or as warm as this one.

Summary:
I’m still very happy with the Isurus i-evade. In fact, I bought a second back in September. Now that it’s cold, I’m using that as my primary suit and this suit as a backup. I was going to wait till the first suit was in tatters, but with the break in at Aqua, I figured I’d give them my business and get one early.

A few notes about the new suit: they changed the chest entry to make it easier to get on. This lets in a little more water, but not a considerable amount. I noticed it more bodysurfing than stand up surfing. Also, the elastic that cinches the hood pulled out on mine. The hood is tight without it, but I’ve got a full ponytail wedged up under there.

Other than that, it’s warm, it doesn’t flush, it’s light, and it dries lightning fast. Everything I’d expected.

I’m trying to be kinder to the new suit. I rinse it after every session and have not dried it in the sun at all. I’m hoping this will help the suit last longer.

So there you go: Two years in and it’s not too shabby.

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Seea – Swami’s Playsuit Review

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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.

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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!

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Isurus I-Evade: Durability Review

I get questions about my Isurus all the time. “Those guys are local, right?” “Yup, they’re local” “Is it warm?” “Very warm.” “Is it light?” “Very light.” “Yeah, but how well is it gonna hold up?” “I’ll let you know in a year.”

Now, almost a year later, I can tell you with some confidence how well it holds up.

The suit:
I-Evade 4-3-4, Hooded. Small-Tall.

Purchased:
Feb 2011

Worn:
About 110-120 sessions over the last year

Me:
5’10, 150lbs-ish, Female, Longboarder.

I surf:
2-4 times a week, mostly dawn patrols, mostly Linda Mar, occasionally Ocean Beach on small days. I typically surf knee to head high waves.

Care:
I rinse the suit off quickly at the showers or with a jug of fresh water. I roll into work and toss the suit over my surfboard on the roof rack to dry. It doesn’t get much sun. I rarely wash it properly with soap. It only spends a little bit of quality time in a ball in my backpack, the rest of the time it’s hanging up inside out.

Performance:
This suit is toasty. I rarely wear the hood. I am hardly ever cold. I went barefoot all summer and only switched back to boots in November. I’ve occasionally gotten chilly if I’m doing more waiting than surfing. It’s light, it’s flexible, it dries fast. It was tricky to get in and out of in the beginning, now it’s old hat. (The exception being putting it on while it’s sopping wet. More than one double session has begun with me swearing furiously in the parking lot.)

Note: For women thinking about buying an Isurus suit: even though it’s currently only available in men’s sizes, this suit fit me perfectly. They are coming out with a women’s line next fall if you’re willing to wait (or are smaller than their XS: 5’4, 125lbs.)

Durability:

The Good: Amazingly, my wrist and ankle cuffs look brand new. No tearing, no stretching. All of my chest and shoulder seams are watertight. My old RipCurl on its retirement had a half dozen holes along these seams, especially in the back. The plastic fasteners to tighten the hood and the chest are in great shape. I’ve heard other folks say theirs fell off right away. Mine are still attached. The hood itself is also in nearly new shape. Zipper works just fine. The overall quality of the neoprene is still good. Looks good, still stretchy, still warm.

The Busted: The very first thing to break was the little pocket for the key. The loop to attach the key is still there and working fine, but the pocket was ripped open by session 3. Not a big deal, but busted. After carefully checking all the seams for this review, (I’m a little embarrassed to say) I noticed 3 small holes along the seam in the butt/upper leg. These holes look like they might need a little patching. It’s minor, but definitely goes through (and explains why the last few mornings have been a little more brisk than usual.)

The Only Kinda Busted: Kneepads. As a longboarder, I don’t think a wetsuit company can make kneepads strong enough to handle the abuse of kneepaddling on a thickly glassed board. The wear is not terrible, but the pads are getting a little thin and at some point my knees will start to hurt. I replaced my RipCurl partially because it was in tatters at this level of use and partially because it was downright painful to surf in it. Shortboarders probably won’t have this problem.

The Cosmetic: The chevrons on my left arm have started to peel. Right arm is fine. I’ve heard this from more than one person. It seems the first arm you take off shows more wear and tear. I don’t think it effects performance. Some of the 3m neoprene has started getting little threads. I haven’t noticed any other change in the material. There’s a little bit of cracking in the tape around the zipper on the inside from pulling the suit on and off. The seam is still water tight.

The Reported: I didn’t experience this problem, but futuresparky had a few gouges in his neoprene: http://stokereport.com/rant/isurus-wetsuits?feature=_comment#comment-301…

Summary:
This suit is in solid shape after a year of less-than-delicate care. It’s still warm. It’s still flexible. With a little love, I’d say the suit has another 6-8 months worth of sessions before it’ll be time to retire it. When that time comes, I would be happy to replace this suit with another Isurus.

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New Wetsuit!

Surf: 4.3 ft @ 10.8 sec from the NNW

I really can’t resist the opportunity to sneak in a surf before flying cross country. 😀
On top of all that, I had a new wetsuit to try out.

The surf was mellow, small and clean. Got in quite a few fun rides. It was pretty slow, but friendly out there.

The new wetsuit is pretty great. I picked up a 4-3-4 i-Evade from my friends over at Isurus Wetsuits. I’ll admit, after growing up wearing baggy ill-fitting men’s sportsgear because I was too tall for the women’s gear, I was hesitant to try on a men’s suit. Not because I didn’t hink it would fit, but out of principle.

The suit fits so well, I’m almost embarrassed that I had my doubts. Sure, it takes some getting used to. These suits run a bit tighter than usual. I fought like crazy to get into the thing. I don’t normally wear chest zip suits and the neoprene is like butter so I had trouble gripping. I practiced pulling it on and off a few times over the weekend to break it in and had almost no trouble getting it on at the beach. The way the side panels are built, there’s no problem with the whole curviness factor.

In the water, it was nice and warm. I’ve never used a full hood before so I was getting a kick out of being able to dive all over the place and have only my face get wet. It’ll take some getting used to to have my whole head and neck covered up, but the neoprene is actually thinner than my old hood so I can still hear. My ears are going to love staying dry and warm.

Best part, the thing dries lightning fast. I can drape it over my surfboard on top of my car while I’m at work and it’s almost fully dry by the time I head home.

In order to get to the airport for my 9:55 flight, I had to cut the session a little short. Chris very graciously dropped me off at BART and baby sat my gear while I was out of town. I got to fly to Indianapolis salty and happy. Yay!

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Difference a Day Makes

Surf: Waist-Shoulder, clean.

😀

I managed to pull off a lovely little surf before flying home to Indiana. Thanks to Chris’s carpooling, board babysitting assistance I was able to go right from the water to the airport. Wet wetsuit and all.

The waves cooperated nicely. Rather than suiting up to the sound of detonating closeouts, the surf was clean and beaut. I got plenty of nice rides in, including a right with a nice little stall on a slow rolling wave to sneak one in to the beach. Plenty of blind takeoffs into the sun. Plenty of friendly folks hooting.

The new gear bag worked out great. There was a little condensation on the outside of the bag from the temperature change in the baggage hold, but the bag didn’t leak and my suitcase arrived on the Third Coast smelling just fine.

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Desayuno con los desesperados!

Surf: Large and closed out for most of the beach. Waist-Shoulder, soft in the lefties.

Even with the later and later sunrise, it’s pretty easy to see a half beach long closeout. I made a lot of skeptical faces in the parking lot. Stomp stomp stomp in the dark. Paddling out, still skeptical. Sitting in the lineup, skeptical. Few waves later, little less skeptical. I’m trying to get the hang of this whole paddling out when it looks rough and wild in order to find the spot that’s working. Not perfect, but fun after chasing a few sections down.

I got a new gear bag to replace my slowly disintegrating reused plastic pillow cover. It’s a Dakine wetsuit bag. So far it fits my wetsuit, booties, rashguard and swimsuit. It fits in my backpack, it seems sturdy enough, and the lining turns inside out to dry.

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The Jetty Gets Angry

Surf: Shoulder High to Well Overhead waves. Jumbled up, short period surf. Angry.

I’ll admit it, I’m a little out of shape. 20 days between surf session is killer for surfing fitness. I’ve tried to do at least 20 pushups a day (made it to 40! yay!) but there’s no substitute for water time. That said, the Jetty was seriously unruly today. Waves were double and tripple stacked with little time in between sets to paddle out. With most sets being well over head high it was not the day to be on a longboard at the Jetty.

About the third or fourth time I was pushed back I thought to myself “Am I really about to get denied at the JETTY?”
I fought for a while, but I love my board and that pounding break was not looking exciting. I didn’t want to snap my board or fight that hard so I rode some white water like a kook, called it a day. Sigh.

After some pizza, a little surf shop browsing, I headed home. My friend Frankie had a new loaner board waiting for me. Yay! Nothing rounds off a seriously punishing session like having a new board to wax. It’s a 7’4, with a pretty mellow rocker. I’m hoping it will help me get used to riding a shorter board since it does not require the steeper waves my 6’8 requires. It is still plenty thick so I will most likely not be duck diving any time soon, but hopefully will help me get the feel of less float and more turning ability.