£500 for a wetsuit…Wha??

New RipCurl 2018 suits aim high price-wise & why key pockets are bull sh*t.

OK so it’s not quite £500 yet, the Flashbomb 2018 6/5/4 hooded zip free plus retails for £469. But it’s coming. Oh yes, its coming. The £500 wetsuit.

It used to be a reliable fact of life that surf companies charitably propped up their loss making wetsuit businesses by selling fashion clothing & accessories to regular non-surfing human beings who were attracted to the surf lifestyle brand thingy. I believe it was a stoke thing. They’re all surfers too, right?

But it’s E5!!! don’t you get it? E5? That’s 5 times better in every way than E1, or just ‘E’ as it was known (probably). It has a f*cking key pocket for Christ’s sake. Yeah Yeah, they’re flexible, comfy & probably the best so why does that have to mean that I only get 3 seasons at best & then guess what? Somehow the butt seam splits between last winter & this winter. My arse seal is now a trickle vent for some seriously freezing water. Yes it’s nice & refreshing at first but after a while it’s just cold. Then I begin to seethe. OK I bought my Rip Curl Flashbomb 6/5/4 hooded suit in the sales (thanks Yak Wax, £250) but surely? At close to 500 shots for a new suit I would expect it to score higher up in the ‘rugged’ scale too. Surely? Come on Rip Curl, tell me it ain’t true.

So what went wrong? Is surfing getting more popular? Has Rip Curl somehow evolved into a large corporate business? I’ve no idea. I just can’t afford a new one this year, so its Black Witch ‘you know it won’t last’ repair goo for me until things warm up & I can set my 4/3 free.

Note on key pockets.

What about this key pocket eh? What is it really for? IS it for a fin key? what ever shall I do with a fin key while caught inside in head high waves? Swap out my FCS II’s? No that doesn’t make any sense, far too fiddly. Maybe it’s for your front door house keys then.

Where else are you going to put your house keys while you’re out surfing, right? Persoanlly, I’ll never actually need a key pocket in my wetsuit because, weirdly I don’t wear my wetsuit when popping out for milk. I wear it in the ocean where it gets wet. House keys are definitely safer in the car park, inside the vehicle. Still with me? Stick in a waterproof car key sized pocket & you’ve piqued my interest, Rip Curl. Otherwise lose it & take £30 orf of the price. Sound fair? Oh, and while you’re at it…