Tag: seea

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.

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!