Kit guide: wetsuits vs skins for UK open water

The debate between wetsuit swimmers and "skins" swimmers (togs, hat, goggles, nothing else) runs hot in cold water communities. Here's the honest version: both are right, for different goals.

The case for the wetsuit

A decent open-water wetsuit adds warmth, buoyancy and confidence. It extends your swim time dramatically — a 40-minute head-down swim in 12°C water is a realistic wetsuit proposition and a hazardous skins one. If your goal is swimming — distance, technique, maybe an event — the wetsuit is the tool.

• Buy open-water specific, not surf: thinner shoulder panels (2–3mm) for stroke mobility, thicker core (4–5mm) for warmth.
• Expect it to feel alarmingly snug dry. It should. It loosens in water.
• Budget £150–£300 for something that will last years. Secondhand is fine; perished seams are not.

The case for skins

Skins swimmers get the full physiological hit — the cold shock, the adaptation, the enormous grin. If your goal is the cold itself (the mood lift, the resilience training, the ritual), neoprene blunts the very thing you came for. Skins is also gloriously simple: you're changed and in the water while the wetsuit crowd are still wrestling with their zips.

The trade-off is time. Skins swims in winter are measured in minutes, and the discipline to get out early is the skill that matters most.

What we actually recommend

Most of our members end up with a hybrid kit bag:

• Neoprene gloves and socks — extremities suffer first and recover slowest, whichever camp you're in. £25 well spent.
• Two swim hats, or one neoprene bobble hat — you lose a lot of comfort (if not quite the mythical "most of your heat") through a wet head.
• A tow float — non-negotiable in our sessions, wetsuit or skins. Visibility to boats and a handy rest point. Some hold your keys and phone.
• A changing robe and a flask — the second half of every winter swim happens on the beach.

Start in a wetsuit if you're new and nervous; strip back to skins as the water warms and your confidence grows. Or do both, depending on the day. Nobody at our sessions is keeping score.