Wetsuit Tops & Lycra
Wetsuit Tops & Lycra: The Least Rubber That Still Counts
Not every session needs a wetsuit. Some need two millimeters over the chest and the freedom to pretend it is still summer. Wetsuit tops, neoprene jackets, and lycras for the warm half of European surfing: the Mediterranean, the Canaries, Biscay in August.
Sun protection, wind protection, rash protection, in roughly that order of daily usefulness. The lightest rubber Vissla makes, for the days when the water is fine and the wind is the only argument. If the water turns out to be lying, the next step up is a spring suit.
Wetsuit Tops and Lycras: The Warm Water Toolkit
Above 20°C a full suit is punishment, but bare skin has its own costs: a southern Portuguese sun that bites by 10am, an onshore that chills wet shoulders, a waxed deck sanding your chest on a long session. The warm water answer is layers. A lycra handles UV and rash for boardshort sessions in the Mediterranean and the Canaries. A 2mm neoprene jacket or wetsuit top adds real wind protection for marginal mornings, long lulls, and the surfer who runs cold in warm water.
Which One When
Glassy and hot: lycra, for the sun more than anything; a lycra is cheaper than the dermatology. Windy or overcast above 20°C: neoprene top over boardshorts, the classic Canaries uniform. Water dropping toward 18°C: wetsuit top over a spring suit buys another month before the 3/2 comes out. Long travel quiver for a European summer: one lycra, one 2mm jacket, done.
The Fine Print
Fit should be snug; a baggy lycra rashes, which is a sentence worth reading twice. Neoprene tops run the same high stretch rubber as the Vissla wetsuit range, so paddling stays free. When the Atlantic turns serious in October, the full suits are waiting. Until then, stay light. Summer does not last. That is the whole point of summer.
