Wintermission: Xcel

Three surfers, ten wetsuits, one cold water testing ground. Welcome to Wintermission, the ultimate examination of new season rubber.

This Is The Wetsuit For Those Marathon Super Sessions This Winter

At ease on high seas.

Or Xcel’s Drylock 3/2 (Shop now)

A warm suit is your best defense against premature sessions.

Of course if conditions appeal and you’re desperate to satiate, your tolerance for resisting the elements elevates.

However, when you’re cold, your body’s burning more fuel to stay warm. Enter dehydration and exhaustion, and the simplest of roll-ins can become monumental challenges. Eventually, you can no longer take the humiliating beatings, the shivering chills, and the towel is thrown.

Jack Lynch and Mitch Crews both gave Xcel’s Drylock steamer a spin during our stay down under the land down under. It was, after all, Tasmania, Australia’s coldest reaches, and according to our intel, Xcel’s rubber candidate had emphasised heat retention in its design.

It was a shock to the system facing colder waters and chilly winds, coming straight from Antarctica – not to mention our talent had been surfing in boardshorts days before around their balmy Byron Bay and Gold Coast homelands.

The suit’s debut was in textbook winter conditions. We needed to bank clips early in the trip. What we didn’t need was cold, exhausted talent. The sun barely broke through the rain. Our test subjects we’re satisfied their core temp remained unaltered.

Jack noted a lack of water entry, praising the tightly-taped sleeves and Drylock chest zip system, that his chest felt noticeably toasty blanketed in their so-called ‘Hollow Fiber Internal Thermal’ lining. Mitch got a kick out of the magnetic zip seal.