When taking part in any water-based activity, for a child to really enjoy and appreciate it they have to feel comfortable, whether that’s sailing, surfing, paddleboarding or just running around and playing in the waves at the beach.
More often than not, the primary course of discomfort for kids when they’re out on the water (and for most adults too!) is getting cold. This is where a wetsuit comes in.
Protection against the cold
Physics tells us that heat flows from warmer objects to colder ones. For example, our body temperature hovers somewhere around 36 degrees centigrade, so when the air temperature is 18 degrees outside, we lose body heat and start to feel the cold. This is magnified in kids, especially when they spend a long time in and around the water, even if the water conditions are warm, as they have less muscle and fat than adults to keep them insulated.
In the same way it does for an adult, a wetsuit slows this loss of heat by trapping a thin layer of water between a child’s skin and the suit, which then warms and helps to stop their body heat racing away – keeping them warmer for longer.
Reduction in wind chill
As a physical barrier to the elements, one of the great things about a wetsuit is that it can also reduce wind chill. This is especially useful if the kids are learning to sail or kayak and spending a long time out on the water in a boat of some sort. A wetsuit can help to keep them warm both in and out of the water, and they’re just ideal for protecting them from water splashes and spray as well.
Protection from cuts, scrapes and the sun
Covering the whole body, a full-length wetsuit when used for swimming, splashing around on the beach or snorkelling offers small legs and knees protection against cuts and scrapes from sharp stones or shells, and jelly fish stings. Add a pair of wetsuit boots and you don’t have to worry about a child standing on anything they shouldn’t, not to mention making the walk back to the car park a breeze as well.
The all over coverage of a wetsuit also completely blocks out the sun’s harmful UV rays, creating the ultimate all day long sunscreen without the tiresome and sticky application process!
Additional buoyancy
Wetsuits are primarily made from closed cell foam materials, like neoprene, which is filled with thousands of tiny gas bubbles trapped within the structure of the fabric. These built in air bubbles add to the thermal properties of the wetsuit and assist in maintaining heat, but they also offer the secondary benefit of adding to buoyancy to the wetsuit. This additional buoyancy will help a child to stay afloat more easily on the surface and is a real benefit to them (and a parent’s peace of mind!) if they are not such a confident swimmer.
What to look for when buying a kid’s wetsuit
As kids grow, and sometimes very fast, you’d be forgiven for being tempted into buying a cheap wetsuit. However, it might be a false economy. Cheaper wetsuits often don’t fit well, can be uncomfortable and difficult to get on. Inferior neoprene won’t stretch as well as higher quality wetsuits and can soon get out of shape, causing the suit to ‘flush’ and carry away the heat away rather than keeping it trapped, making the wetsuit less efficient when it comes to thermal insulation.
Look for neutral colours, so if there’s a smaller sibling, they could use the wetsuit when their older brother or sister has grown out of it – this would mitigate the initial outlay as multiple members of the family could use it as a child is more likely to grow out of a decent quality wetsuit before they wear it out.