{"id":1888,"date":"2012-01-11T21:43:29","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T04:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2014-08-02T18:37:30","modified_gmt":"2014-08-03T01:37:30","slug":"isurus-i-evade-durability-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/2012\/01\/isurus-i-evade-durability-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Isurus I-Evade: Durability Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I get questions about my Isurus all the time. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those guys are local, right?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yup, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re local\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is it warm?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Very warm.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is it light?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Very light.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yeah, but how well is it gonna hold up?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll let you know in a year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Now, almost a year later, I can tell you with some confidence how well it holds up.<\/p>\n

The suit:<\/strong>
\nI-Evade 4-3-4, Hooded. Small-Tall.<\/p>\n

Purchased:<\/strong>
\nFeb 2011<\/p>\n

Worn:<\/strong>
\nAbout 110-120 sessions over the last year<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong>
\n5\u00e2\u20ac\u212210, 150lbs-ish, Female, Longboarder.<\/p>\n

I surf:<\/strong>
\n2-4 times a week, mostly dawn patrols, mostly Linda Mar, occasionally Ocean Beach on small days. I typically surf knee to head high waves.<\/p>\n

Care:<\/strong>
\nI rinse the suit off quickly at the showers or with a jug of fresh water. I roll into work and toss the suit over my surfboard on the roof rack to dry. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get much sun. I rarely wash it properly with soap. It only spends a little bit of quality time in a ball in my backpack, the rest of the time it’s hanging up inside out.<\/p>\n

Performance:<\/strong>
\nThis suit is toasty. I rarely wear the hood. I am hardly ever cold. I went barefoot all summer and only switched back to boots in November. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve occasionally gotten chilly if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing more waiting than surfing. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s light, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flexible, it dries fast. It was tricky to get in and out of in the beginning, now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s old hat. (The exception being putting it on while it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sopping wet. More than one double session has begun with me swearing furiously in the parking lot.)<\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> For women thinking about buying an Isurus suit: even though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s currently only available in men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sizes, this suit fit me perfectly. They are coming out with a women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s line next fall if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re willing to wait (or are smaller than their XS: 5\u00e2\u20ac\u21224, 125lbs.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Durability:<\/p>\n

The Good:<\/strong> Amazingly, my wrist and ankle cuffs look brand new. No tearing, no stretching. All of my chest and shoulder seams are watertight. My old RipCurl on its retirement had a half dozen holes along these seams, especially in the back. The plastic fasteners to tighten the hood and the chest are in great shape. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard other folks say theirs fell off right away. Mine are still attached. The hood itself is also in nearly new shape. Zipper works just fine. The overall quality of the neoprene is still good. Looks good, still stretchy, still warm.<\/p>\n

The Busted:<\/strong> The very first thing to break was the little pocket for the key. The loop to attach the key is still there and working fine, but the pocket was ripped open by session 3. Not a big deal, but busted. After carefully checking all the seams for this review, (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a little embarrassed to say) I noticed 3 small holes along the seam in the butt\/upper leg. These holes look like they might need a little patching. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s minor, but definitely goes through (and explains why the last few mornings have been a little more brisk than usual.)<\/p>\n

The Only Kinda Busted:<\/strong> Kneepads. As a longboarder, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think a wetsuit company can make kneepads strong enough to handle the abuse of kneepaddling on a thickly glassed board. The wear is not terrible, but the pads are getting a little thin and at some point my knees will start to hurt. I replaced my RipCurl partially because it was in tatters at this level of use and partially because it was downright painful to surf in it. Shortboarders probably won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have this problem.<\/p>\n

The Cosmetic:<\/strong> The chevrons on my left arm have started to peel. Right arm is fine. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard this from more than one person. It seems the first arm you take off shows more wear and tear. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it effects performance. Some of the 3m neoprene has started getting little threads. I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t noticed any other change in the material. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little bit of cracking in the tape around the zipper on the inside from pulling the suit on and off. The seam is still water tight.<\/p>\n

The Reported:<\/strong> I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t experience this problem, but futuresparky had a few gouges in his neoprene: http:\/\/stokereport.com\/rant\/isurus-wetsuits?feature=_comment#comment-301…<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong>
\nThis suit is in solid shape after a year of less-than-delicate care. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still warm. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still flexible. With a little love, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say the suit has another 6-8 months worth of sessions before it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be time to retire it. When that time comes, I would be happy to replace this suit with another Isurus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I get questions about my Isurus all the time. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those guys are local, right?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yup, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re local\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is it warm?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Very warm.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is it light?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Very light.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yeah, but how well is it gonna hold up?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll let you know in a year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Now, almost a year later, I can tell you with some confidence … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Isurus I-Evade: Durability Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[12,103,23],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YKrJ-us","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3882,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traceythompson.com\/surfing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}