Review of gul vortex wetsuit
First impressions
After receiving this wetsuit, my first impression was “this looks warm!” due to the thickness of the chest panel and the over all quality of its manufacture. If I’m totally honest I wasn’t blown away by it’s looks but I’ve always been a “plain black with a subtle logo” kind of guy , but that’s just my personal preference. The suit comes in a variety of colours, so I’m sure you can find one to suit your own personal taste. Anyway, I’m not so concerned about how a suit looks, more like how it performs.
Real world test
As this is a thick suit (5mm) and designed for very cold water, putting it on was always going to be a bit of a struggle but if you use the old trick of putting a carrier bag on your feet before getting into your suit, you’ll find getting your legs through no problem.
The suit itself once you’ve put it on is a lot more flexible than I thought it would be. I experienced no issues whilst bodyboarding wearing this suit and frankly it felt like I was wearing a lightweight summer suit, except for the obvious comfort factor in the cold water. Which brings me on to the next part: Warmth in the water.
I’ve worn this suit 4 times in various conditions and on each time I’ve been warm enough to manage 2 plus hours without feeling any discomfort. This is down to the Vortex’s liquid seam technology, thermal chest and back panels, quality of the neoprene and decent seals around the neck, wrists and ankles. Flushing wasn’t a problem either. When combined with a hood, gloves,rashvest and boots you should have no problem surfing the UK’s waters all through the winter. The first 3 times I surfed in this suit, I wore a billabong rashvest under it with a seperate full face hood and whilst I was warm enough, I still started getting the dreaded “Ice cream headache”. The forth time I surfed in it I wore a excel thermal rashvest with integrated hood. This combined with the Vortex’s neck seal and I was snug as a bug in a rug. In fact the only reason I got out of the water was because the surf had crapped out – and I was hungry!
Getting out of the suit presented no significant issues – I challenge anyone to look graceful getting out of any wetsuit in car park .
Overall , this is a great suit and I can whole heartedly recommend it.
5 / 5 stars
