Are Ruby Fresh suits 'Thermal' wetsuits?
I was asked this question the other day...
Well, yes they sort of are! I realised I hadn’t really been pushing this angle properly. I do push it, but not enough.
Well are they?
Most ‘thermal’ suits use 3mm & 4mm #39 grade neoprene combined with a fleecy lining. You'll often find the fleecy quick dry lining called a 'zirconium layer'. The fleece traps a layer of water which the body heats up and this acts as a thermal barrier, plus the fleece itself is made of a combination of hollow fibers which traps air which you warm, and the zirconium fibers. Zirconium is a really good insulator, with the idea that the zirconium will insulate the body from the cold of the water radiating it’s way through the neoprene from the outside. And it’s fluffy and comfy.
One of the problems however with this type of thermal suit is it is heavy when dry, and even heavier when wet. When swimming you are carrying that layer of water trapped within the fluffy layer with you, so the weight of the water will slow you down. A 'normal' thermal suit is not a fast wetsuit.
Another issue is if the suit is not a good fit you will get a flush of water coming through, which then, of course, nullifies that nice relatively thick ‘warm’ layer of water you built up.
Ruby Fresh suits are not marketed as a ‘thermal’ wetsuit, as such. But they are warm. We should push this angle more. Ruby Fresh suits use a titanium foil layer on all the panels of the torso, the shoulders, the arms and also the calf panel. The titanium foil layer is sandwiched between the outer smoothskin SCS neoprene and the jersey liner. You can actually see it easily if you stretch the inner jersey of, say, the arm against a finger. It looks ‘silvery’. The titanium reflects a goodly proportion (35-40%) of your body heat that you generate, back to you.
The jersey liner of the suits is a normal nylon liner i.e. not fluffy, so it does not hold a heavy weight of water as does the ‘fluffy’ layer gaps and pores. But, there is a laminar thin layer of water between the inner nylon jersey layer and your skin which you have warmed and which the heat is retained within due to the titanium -alpha layer. Consequently the suits are fast AND warm. The Echo model uses 4mm #39 grade Yamamoto neoprene on the main panels; the Flow uses 5mm Aerodome. Plus, the Flow suit, being 5mm thickness + Aerodome is warmer too, because it is mechanically thicker (and obviously more buoyant).
An extra tidbit…
There’s one other thing to mention.
That is — the difference between a limestone derived neoprene such as that made by Yamamoto of Japan and oil (petroleum based) derived neoprene by a multitude of manufacturers, but for example Sheico.
Though not expressly a massive contributor to warmth for higher end (read $$) swim wetsuits, it’s certainly a factor when comparing ‘cheaper’ suits to ‘more expensive suits’, even within a brand.
Oil derived neoprene’s are cheaper, inferior performance-wise and use a different manufacturing process entirely to limestone derived neoprene. But take heart that if a brand is using a Yamamoto limestone neoprene they will shout it from the roof tops! It’s a step change better as a neoprene product. (This is actually the subject for another article, coming soon. A timely one as the question of neoprene production is a hot talking point currently in the surf world).
Anyway!! What I was trying to get at with the above was the mechanical properties of the two types of neoprene. Limestone neoprene has a smaller cell structure with cells/bubbles of ~0.1-0.2mm diameter; and lower density: ~0.15-0.2 g/cm³, i.e. lightweight, thus reducing drag from weight. It is also warmer for a given thickness. Whereas oil derived neoprene has a cell size of ~0.3-0.5mm diameter which reduces buoyancy (less bubbles per sq/cm, which is sort of counter-intuitive but science), and insulation, thus requiring thicker neoprene for a specific warmth factor compared to limestone neoprene, and also to provide a similar buoyancy. Oil derived neoprene also has a higher density: ~0.25-0.3 g/cm³ than limestone neoprene. i.e. it’s appreciably heavier.
And with that cell size reduction comes better flexibility / malleability / elongation. All the attributes a swim wetsuit needs. Honestly, it’s complicated!
Basically, Ruby Fresh uses the best neoprene there is, at a price that can’t be beaten due to our sales model. AND they are warm. AND fast. AND light weight.
‘Afterdrop’? Wonder what it is? Read our article.
Addendum:
A philosophical note on Artificial Intelligence (AI) from this song, Fire, (Spotify) by C J Bolland, words courtesy of Alan Watts. Give it a listen. Here’s the transcript…
“Prometheus Made Human Beings. The breathe of Athena gave them life.
Zeus refused to allow us to have fire. But also the internal fire of self consciousness and creativity that define fire. Zeus didn’t want us to have it.
Prometheus stole fire.
It’s never been more existentially transformative. My question is this. Do we give it fire.
Do we give these creatures self knowledge, self consciousness. An autonomy that is greater than any other machine has ever had and would be similar to ours?
In other words, shall we be Zeus and deny them fire — because we are afraid of them?
Because they will destroy us.
When I became fascinated by this extraordinary new development, in which you could network computers to a network of networks, which was starting to be called ‘the in-ter-net’.
There was no web. There was no graphical application.
But although we know, through Darwin and science and genes, we were not created by intelligent design, in 100 years time we can guarantee there will be certain inter-junctions, certain genes on this earth that have been intelligently designed, called robots or call them compounds of augmented biology and artificial intelligence, and they will exist. The first person to live to 200 years old has already been born.
The future is enormous.”
That’s your thinking for the weekend… Created by intelligent design… yes/no? Them / us?
The likelihood of me putting anything other than a toe in Lake Wanaka at any time of the year is absolutely zero, but the AI photo of Ruby Island caught my attention. I'm becoming a bit fascinated by using AI as a friend rather than a threat. Maybe I should write about it sometime soon.