If you have ever wanted to dive into water that was colder than the human body could stand, you are going to need to look at a wetsuit. A wetsuit works through holding and warming a thin layer of water between your body and the neoprene rubber of the suit and this insulation can keep you warm in the coldest of waters. The concept seems simple enough, but it wasn’t until the fifties that people saw the beginning of the wetsuit and its contributions to the world of diving and surfing.

In 1951, it was a UC San Diego physicist named Hugh Bradner who came up with the idea to use a thin layer of water to insulate the body against cold water. He sent the idea on to Lauriston C Marshall of the US navy/National Research Council Panel on Underwater Swimmers, and it came to the attention of Willard Bascom, who was an engineer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to suggest using neoprene as a good material to work with.

Despite the similarity of their concept to what a modern wetsuit would end up being, the design was not successfully marketed to the public at this time. Bascom and Bradner could not even patent their design due to its similarity to the flight suit. Because of the nature of the rubber, even the US Navy turned it down for fear that it would make combat divers visible to sonar. Because of this, the wetsuit was not available to the public until three brothers, Jack, Robert and Bill O’Neill created the wetsuits using neoprene in 1953.

The O’Neill brothers ran a surf shop in San Francisco, and though they were among the first surf shops in the area, they sold more than just boards. The first designs were crude but still much more effective than swimming without. These first wetsuits were made from gluing together pieces of closed cell foam and from there it evolved into a company that is still competitively and effectively selling wetsuits today. Today, they sell all sorts of surf related goods and have gone on to create the O’Neill Sea Odyssey, a free program intended to instruct young people on the marine world.

There have been many different changes to the wetsuit from those beginnings in the fifties. For instance, the wetsuit became much more effective when the technique of blind stitching was created. Instead of simply sewing the suit together with a straight stitch, a curved needle was used instead. The suit could be held together without puncturing through the fabric entirely, allowing the wetsuit to hold water much more effectively. Wetsuits can also come in a number of different styles depending on the need, with shorties being cut off at the arm and leg and full suits covering the body from head to toe.

Considering the history of the wetsuit and how far it has come in just over half a century; exploration and investigation have become much safer and more comfortable and it has made diving and surfing much more accessible!

Author Bio: David Lakins works with the Wetsuit Centre , the UK’s leading Wetsuit supplier. All sizes of O’Neill Wetsuits always in stock. Free next day delivery on UK orders.

Category: Sports
Keywords: wetsuits, summer wetsuits, winter wetsuits, surfing, oneill wetsuits