Tested to Destruction- Alpkit Lotic Wetsuit

It's been a while since I actually had some gear that I broke. All the running stuff that is being used at the moment has been in service since around 2016 when I ran the Spine Challenger. In fact, the only things that have changed have been the rucksack- which was replaced with exactly the same model, and the shoes, which have been replaced by some Arctic claws, which are still going strong.

Cycling-wise I have a new bike, and there has been a little blog about that, but otherwise, nothing got broke.
Til now.

Sorry- there aren't many photos of me in a wetsuit. I didn't realise this until I came to find some suitable photos... they simply don't exist.

This is about swimming, and you will not be surprised to learn that I'm about to talk about the wetsuit I have been using for the last year. The Alpkit Lotic.

Note- I'm not a triathlete. I'm not a swim racer. I'm not particularly fast- this is more of a review of a wetsuit for just getting out there and doing the outdoor swimming thing. 

Lynne got me into the whole swimming outdoors thing, and it was not until she bought a wetsuit (an Alpkit Silvertip) that I eventually headed along the same lines. Not really thinking that this was going to be something that was going to be a major sport, I was looking for a suit that was going to be hardy, good for swimming in, and not something that is particularly fast.

The wetsuits on the market tend to be focused a lot towards triathletes and competitive swimmers, looking to be the most hydrodynamically aligned versions of themselves, with panelling for speed and all kinds of exciting tech which, to be totally honest, I don't actually care about.
Something that keeps me warm - but something that is optimised for swimming, as opposed to a repurposed surf wetsuit... that was the brief.

For our money, Alpkit was the way forward. We have had a lot of years of buying stuff from Alpkit, and they have a strong pedigree in creating inexpensive, yet good quality stuff. They started doing wetsuits about a year before and were marketed as a wildswimming wetsuit. There were areas of glide skin so that you had a bit of glide in the water, but there were also bits of "normal" neoprene around the arms and legs so that if you were walking through undergrowth (as you may well do, doing the whole wildswimming thing) then you would not shred the skin.
Cunning plan. Lynne already had the Silvertip- the warmer version, so I was going to have a look at a Lotic.

So I went and got fitted out for a Lotic- coming out as a fairly normal Medium. Brill. Along with the suit, I also picked up a tube of Black Witch, which is neoprene repair glue, which I was absolutely expecting to use in case I put fingernail tears in the skin. I know what I'm like- it wasn't like this was going to be a wetsuit that was going to be gliding me into the record books, or even into a triathlon. It was going to be used, accidents were likely to happen, and we wanted to make sure that we had the right stuff to fix it with.

The Lotic: What was it like?

Yep- comfy, the sizing was good, the zip worked every time. I could get it on and off easily. We dried it out everytime it got used, inside and out, and it never stunk. Brilliant.
Yes, I put a few half-moon cuts in the skin as I was putting it on, but hey, that was always going to happen, Black witch was there to make it good, and so we went on.

(sorry, I don't have any photos of the normal cuts- you just don't when it's normal, do you?!). 

Most of the swimming (as in every single time except twice) was done in fresh water. Reservoirs or lakes. I have 2 friends with whom I tend to swim- they wear Lotics as well- they are also much much faster than me- so no, the wetsuit was not about to give me super powers and enable me to keep up with them. (this was not a reason for buying it anyway, so that was fine).
However, as the year progressed, I noticed that the neoprene under the right arm was degrading and tearing with alarming regularity.

I put my suit on the same way each time, and occasionally I have got a fingernail hole in the skin - never in the same place twice- yet the right armpit was tearing again and again- in pretty much the same area. So I Black Witched it, and then, a couple of mm away, it would tear. I'd repair it, and so on and so forth.
Now, you might think- ah yes, it's because that is the side you breathe... nope. I breathe every 3 strokes- yet the left arm pit is nowhere near as scarred. Odd.

As for the other 2 swimmers in Lotics- one of them had much the same problem. The other- none at all! Interesting. The one who was having an arm pretty much fall off, got his replaced. Now, I wasn't totally cool with getting a replacement, after all, wetsuits are made with neoprene, which I *think* I'm right in saying is made of oil, so getting a new one is not high on my agenda. That being said, if there is something faulty going on with this suit, maybe Alpkit should know.

Ah man. These are NOT gouges.

By this time, I've had the wetsuit for about a year and 4 months. I've swum in it less than 40 times and have swum just over 40km. I don't know if this is standard "lifespan" for a wetsuit, but I would really hope not. Buying a new suit every year is not only going to be quite hard on the wallet- but also hard on the environment. Not cool.
So I sent a few photos to Alpkit.

Who promptly said that these are gouge marks from fingernails.

Unfortunately they are not. I know what gouge marks look like. I make enough of them. These are stress marks that seem to be gradually creeping down through the armpit of the suit as I fix each one.
So I told them that.

The response was to ask if I have used adhesive on it (I had- Black Witch- the recommended one)- and where I had swum...(fresh water).
The response was to say yes, there appeared to be degradation of the skin below where the breaks were, and maybe that was the issue, could I send it in... but then there was a comment that kind of stopped me in my tracks-

" i have a Silvertip wetsuit and i must say having used it maybe 20 times in lakes and a handful of times in the Sea mine looks pretty much the same as yours".

Ah shit.
So the customer service reps don't expect *their* suits to last long either?
That puts a whole new complexion on things.

So the long story in a short amount of time:

Loved the Lotic, it was a great suit- but after about 8 months the skin under the armpit started to degrade, ultimately meaning that the arm/body interface developed consistent tears, despite being used perfectly normally.
It appears that not all Lotics have done this- but some customer service members appear to see this as normal wear and tear, and have seen it in their own suits, even after only 20 wears.
To me, this indicates that there might be something wrong with the skin of the suit, or the way it is worn, or something... to get only a year, or even less than that much wear from a wetsuit is surely not right?
I don't think that 40 swims in a year is a lot. In fact, for a regular outdoors swimmer it is not a lot at all- (I daren't think how many times my Dad swims in the sea every year).

So the question is this... do I go ahead and get another Lotic (as and when they come into stock- which might not be a while)- or do I go for a more expensive wetsuit made by either the company that *makes* the Lotic for Alpkit (Huub), or someone else- like Orca, 2XU, or someone else?
Ideally I want to swim through the winter, so I'm going to need *something*, but there aren't a whole lot of options for wildswimming wetsuits at this pricepoint in the market.

Am I a klutz? Do I simply break wetsuits for no apparent reason after I've had them for a year? No idea.