Best wetsuit for caving?

[Ian Ball]

Give the spank protect a go from Tony. And elbow pads?

 

[Keris82]

I recently bought a neofleece from Warmbac and wear it under an caving oversuit. It's much more comfortable than a full on wetsuit as it allows movement of your limbs

 

[Pitlamp]

Following advice kindly given by Topcat, I fitted a pee zip from Lomo to one of my Decathlon "Olaian" suits (for which I'm still grateful to pwhole for pointing me at) and tested it yesterday. It works fine and does not leak water into the suit. However, it is vulnerable to damage so I also wore the top part of a cut off 2 mm thick Long John over the wetsuit (think vest with a crutch). This protects the zip and only the Long John needs to come off when the pee zip is used, not the whole suit. The Long John makes no difference to ease of movement in the (stretchy / comfortable) Decathlon suit.

To fit the pee zip I used the proper 2 part glue (also bought from Lomo) and reinforced this with a thin bead of Aquasure all around the edge of the zip tape on the inside of the suit.

This is the best wetsuit combination I've ever used for wet caves and I'm very happy with it. The addition of a thin hood attached jacket over the top allows reasonable length dives in comfort, without the mather of caving to the sump in a proper (restrictive) diving wetsuit.

There is a back zip version of the Decathlon "Olaian" wetsuit, which is considerably cheaper than the chest zip version I have. I'll wager it's also not quite as warm as it lacks the quality neckseal arrangement of the chest zip model. Here's the link to the cheaper option:

Men's Surfing 4/3 mm Neoprene Wetsuit 100 - Black

Men's Surfing 4/3 mm Neoprene Wetsuit 100 - Black null Our team of designers developed a wetsuit that is perfectly suited to surfing and bodyboarding in cold water (12°C to 17°C) for up to 1 hour.

www.decathlon.co.uk

My own preference though is for the more costly chest zip version. Remember, if the back zip version is chosen, you may need to order a size bigger than suggested by the sizing chart. (I'm a 6' 2" giraffe and, like pwhole, I buy "XL".)

 

[Ed]

Who fits pee zips to wetsuits..... That's what puddles and stream ways are for

 

[pwhole]

My own preference though is for the more costly chest zip version. Remember, if the back zip version is chosen, you may need to order a size bigger than suggested by the sizing chart. (I'm a 6' 2" giraffe and, like pwhole, I buy "XL".)

I notice Decathlon have added the following strapline - as clearly there's an issue:

As this is a tight-fitting product, previous customers have recommended purchasing a size up.

It would make more sense to revise their sizing chart! And then you don't have to order the damn thing twice. I'm still amazed that we've both managed to get a comfortable fit from the same size, as you're definitely taller than me, but it is a very stretchy suit to be sure. I did manage to split one of the cuff tensioners recently, after a traumatic freezeathon in the Speedwell outbuilding, but it's still too tight to really be an issue. The best addition was some neoprene gloves to go with it - luxury!