It may have crossed your mind at some point, "so how does my wetsuit work?" The most common answer we've heard to this question is "your body heat warms the water trapped between your skin and the wetsuit and that keeps you warm." Unfortunately, this couldn't be further from the truth!
True: Water does get between you and your wetsuit.
False: This trapped water heats up and keeps you warm.
In actuality, your body exerts energy to heat that water trapped within your wetsuit, therefore using up precious energy that could be conserved to keep your body warm. This is why it is so important to wear a wetsuit that fits snug. The looser it is, the more space that water has to circulate throughout the suit, bringing fresh, colder water into the suit that your body will need to reheat.
True: The neoprene does all the work.
False: Water gets trapped inside the neoprene, heats up, and keeps you warm.
Here is the actual way your neoprene wetsuit keeps you warm in the water: Neoprene is made up of a type rubber that is injected with zillions of microscopic air bubbles during the manufacturing process. It is these bubbles that create an insulating barrier, making it harder and slower for water to penetrate the wetsuit and for heat to leave it. Therefore, it is this foamy, bubbly barrier that keeps your body insulated and warm. Therefore, the thicker the wetsuit, the thicker the barrier and insulation, and the warmer you will be.
So, the next time your dive buddy tells you that they're going to pee in their wetsuit at the beginning of the dive so they'll heat up their wetsuit quicker and stay warmer, you can laugh to yourself. Because, you know that the only difference it's going to make for them is that they get to swim around in their pee the whole dive. If you want to be kind, tho, you'll share your new found knowledge on how their wetsuit really works.
