Extend your paddle boarding into cooler days with a wetsuit! Mens and womens specific one piece suits as well as just tops and bottoms are available at Alpine Accessories. Neoprene wetsuits work by keeping your warm body heat in and not allowing the colder water to lower your body temperature. Any time the water is cold a wetsuit would help keep you warmer and more comfortable. Also the bubbles in the neoprene foam provides buoyancy if you fall in the water.
The wetsuit was developed by Hugh Bradner in 1951 so Navy frogmen and divers could stay warm when in the water for long periods of time. Hugh started with a synthetic neoprene rubber foam that was invented by a DuPont scientist in 1930.
The wetsuit was commercially produced by both Body Glove and O’Neill in the early 1950’s. They made impovements by adding nylon jersey lamination to the neoprene to prevent the foam from tearing and made the wetsuit easier to pull on and off as well as making the seams water tight by various methods.
Be safe and wear a wetsuit on cooler days when Stand Up Paddleboarding to protect you from the cold. Never paddle board alone and tell others where you will be paddling. To find others to paddle with in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago check out the new meet up group the Fox Valley Paddle Boarders.