VISION BZ SEMIDRY 5/4

A necessary preliminary remark before this test of the GunSails semi-dry suit: my wetsuit for winter has always been a 4/3, I live by the sea, I don't use a hood, I don't go out to sea below 10 degrees in northerly winds, but I make exceptions when it comes to going out on waves! And I can't remember suffering particularly from the cold in the last twenty years, despite the many winter outings I go on: for fifteen years I never needed a 5/4! On one of the last outings in early fall, I exchanged a few opinions on the beach and in a wetsuit with my friend Bruno Giordano. who, after years of double-lined, super-stretchy and super-soft wetsuits, regretted the warmth of 'traditional' wetsuits for windsurfing.... With this in mind, this test was born. I asked GunSails if they would be interested in testing one of their winter wetsuits, and within a week the Vision back Zip semydry 5/4 arrived at the editorial office. It's an exceptionally warm, relatively stretchy semi-dry suit with a hybrid construction: double-laminated neoprene for maximum flexibility and comfort in the arms and legs, combined with a smooth skin insert in the torso area to protect against evaporative cooling. If, like me, you are used to the lightness of 4/3 wetsuits with a front zipper, you will be surprised at first by the weight of the suit and then by the thickness of the torso panel, which seems very thick indeed.

In reality, putting it on is quite quick, thanks to the traditional back zipper and especially because this wetsuit is so soft on both the legs and the arms that putting it on and taking it off is very easy compared to other wetsuits (provided you remember to undo the Velcro fasteners attached to the ankles, which I personally eliminated immediately as with all my other wetsuits). The usual flap on the back, which is easy to attach, “covers” the piece and protects it from water ingress.

I used it several times between Noli and Andora, where in a 4.0 south-westerly wind, on a not particularly cold day, but already with winter temperatures and above all with overcast skies... I really enjoyed it, also because the wind only came up in the late afternoon and we used it until almost dark. The “fears” about the thickness and supposed stiffness of the panel on the body... were completely unfounded in the end! In the water, I didn't feel any particular difference in terms of weight and flexibility compared to the 4/3 wetsuits I normally use, but I appreciated the greater thermal coverage, especially when I started taking about 400 photos in the wetsuit at Cael Squires.... you normally get a lot of cold at this point on the shore, which I was able to avoid this time. This Vision back Zip semidry 5/4 pleasantly surprised me and put aside any doubts I had about such a thick wetsuit at first glance.... it is very warm and has just the right amount of flexibility. It's also almost half the price of other wetsuits, and that's for a real Ligurian.