New to surfing and putting on a wetsuit for the first? You’ll not be the first person to put a wetsuit on back-to-front with the zip up your chest instead of the back. So avoid some embarrassment by reading this MySurfBrands article.

Make sure the wetsuit is turned out the correct side out. You won’t want to put on a wetsuit inside out! Undo and unzip the neck entry of your wetusit. Position the wetsuit so that the zip will be on your back once you have it on. Keep your toes pointed down like a ballerina as you put your legs into the wetsuit. Then pull the suit up your legs until the wetsuits tights snuggly up around your pelvic area. Then proceed to put one arm in at a time and pull the zip up and adjust the neck to fit securely. Hey presto, you are now wearing your wetsuit correctly.

So now you have put your wetsuit on, there is a proper way to take it off. Undo the neck velcro with one hand and with your other hand find the zip pull behind your back and pull it down. Now peel the wetsuit off so that it will end up inside out when your done.

Whats next? If you’ve been in salt water you really should now wash it out.

There are 4 simple steps to take when it comes to caring for your new wetsuit.

1 - Heed any good advice given to you from the surf shop you have bought your wetsuit from. Most surf shops are staffed by surfers and they have years of experience - so listen to them.

2 - Read your manufacturers guide. Have a flick through their booklet that is provided with the wetsuit to see if there are any particular things you should do.

3 - Register your product for warranty if possible. This is very important when your wetsuit gets damaged when you graze off the reef or the seams give way. Registering your product will speed up the repair of your wetsuit.

4 - Most importantly and very basic advice is this, after each use rinse out and drip dry in a shady place, somewhere like your garage. This not only protects the neoprene material from being slowly degraded but leaves your wetsuit dry and ready to get into for your next surf.

A wetsuit works by allowing a very thin film of water to be trapped between your skin and the wetsuit. Your body heat then heats up this film of water and this is what keeps you warm. Others wetsuits fit so snuggly that no water is needed to create that film.

Generally, the thicker the wetsuit neoprene then the warmer you stay. Any flushing of water down the neck entry or up the arms or leaking through the seams will drastically reduce the performance of the wetsuit. So a proper fitting wetsuit is so important.

There are many good wetsuits on the market but what do you need to look for in a high performance wetsuit?

First and foremost, a really good fitting wetsuit is the most important thing to achieve before any other factor. A crappy wetsuit that fits your body shape is always going to perform better than a bad fitting high quality wetsuit.

That aside, wetsuit manufacturers really do put a lot of research and to refine their wetsuits year on year. So this years wetsuit will always be better than last years and so on. New paneling layouts, better super stretchy neoprene, improved wetsuit entry, neck seal, hard wearing knee pads to withstand lots of duck dives, key stashs and how the panels are fitted together are what you need to look for.

One of the main features that wetsuit manufacturers love to fiddle with is of course the neoprene itself. The top wetsuit manufacturers improve the stretchiness every year, all of them branding it as their own type of stretchy neoprene - Quiksilver’s Hyperstretch, Xcel’s Ultrastretch, Billabong’s Super Flex, Rip Curl’s elastomax and on they go!

So what you need to look for in a high performance wetsuit are: good fit, high quality stretchy neoprene, seam welded neoprene joining of panels and a secure seal around the neck.

When choosing a wetsuit its fit and tailoring for your body shape is critical. A poor wetsuit that fits your body shape is always going to perform better than a bad fitting high quality wetsuit. So fit is very important. Look for a snugg fit all over your body especially your torso, good length on your arms and legs.

When you try a wetsuit on do a few stretches and squats to see how it follows the contour of your body. If you notice significant room especially on your lower back, in that arch between the top of your bum and your shoulder, then you do not have a good fit. Simply, if your wetsuit doesn’t cling closely to your body shape then water will flush in and you will not stay warm.

Another important area to look for good fit is around the neck, where you enter the wetsuit. Obviously you won’t want it to choke you but you do need it to be secure as can be to prevent water flushing into your wetsuit when duck diving. There are a variety of neck entry systems that different wetsuit brands will offer, the regular back zip and velcro close over or the front zip offered by Xcel or C-Skins. Most people do need to try on a few wetsuits to get one that fits them perfectly.

Back in the day, surfers didn’t wear leashes to attach their board to their leg. If they wiped out, they just swam into the shore, picked up their surfboard and headed back out for another one. Its not like that ever since the urethane legrope was invented. Now surfers are attached to their surfboards via a urethane legrope that makes sure the surfboard and surfer never become separated in the surf.

Follow this rule, make sure for your surfboard that your legrope is generally the same length as your surfboard. This is the optimal length. As for thickness, no less than 3mm will do. The heavier the surf or the bigger the surfboard, go thicker. Only competition surfers or really advanced surfers should use skinny short leashes.

Make you tie the leash good and proper to your surfboard plug. If your surfboard is going to be lost in the surf, its gonna be the wee bit of cord that breaks or wasn’t tied well enough, not the urethane snapping.