First rule about changing in and out of your suit is never drive in your wetsuit. Photo: Instagram/Surf Grass Mats
My friend didn’t authorize the telling of this story (sorry in advance, dude!). But several years ago in college when I met Jake (not his real name) I had a car on campus and he didn’t. I invited him to surf one morning, and when I came down the stairs with my board under my arm, wetsuit and towel slung over it, he was waiting for me with his wetsuit already halfway on. The details of our exchange escape me, I can’t remember if I just gave him a look or if we talked about it later on, but the next time we surfed he had realized his faux pas and was waiting again, this time with his suit and towel slung over his board like me.
Jake hailed from New York, and a few months later explained his embarrassment in that first meeting, but also explained that during cold mornings back east, arriving to the beach fully suited was less sacrilegious. When it gets cold, it’s more about survival. A year and a half later, I found myself living in New York and learned that lesson myself.
In coastal Southern California, though, where temperatures are never life-threatening, navigating the cultural minefield of when to change into your wetsuit can be difficult for non-natives. A tragic misstep will make you stick out like a sore thumb long before paddling out. So here are a few rules of the road:
Never suit up before driving to the beach*
This is probably the most hard and fast no-no. And really, this goes for wearing a wetsuit performing any activity that isn’t surfing. If you follow Kook of the Day on Instagram, you’ve seen the hidden camera snaps of wetsuit-wearers in line at the grocery store, at the bank, or in the security checkpoint at the airport. Errands in a wetsuit don’t impress anyone – the swamp ass ain’t worth it.
*Exception: biking to the beach
If you live within biking distance of a beach, suited-up biking doesn’t follow the same conventions as the driving/errands rule mentioned above. In some ways it proves just how much of a local you are and gives you more credibility, but it also makes sense because biking down with a backpack leaves your stuff vulnerable on the sand – unlike your rig where you can just lock it up.
Suit-changing protocols depend on the place
Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all order of operations in wetsuit pansement that will help you get by everywhere, nor is there a prevailing logic as to why certain rules exist in some places and not in others. Let’s unpack. At Lowers, local custom dictates skating or walking down to the beach be done sans suit. However, it’s not uncommon to see the bike exception on the trail (see above). Locals are more laissez-faire about leaving their crap on the sand, too – maybe because it’s such a mission to get down to the beach.
At Blacks, on the other hand, most change at their car on the top of the bluff and walk down fully suited – swamp ass be damned. Given the accessibility of most spots in SoCal, though, changing at your car in the parking lot is probably the most common changing technique.
