best place to buy cheap gear

littlesurfer

need a new wetsuit but i'm a bit broke! anyone got any good tips for cheap surf joints....

Spastafarian

They have quite a few second hand wetsuits in the lahinch surf shop. Some of them are about 20 years old though..

cue

There is a shop in Bundoran which seems to be pretty good. Always has stuff on discount. Cannot remember the name of it though.

68 lost souls

I think I know the one oyur talking about, its opposite the Tourist Information Centre. Its a nice enough shop, they always have some nice second hand boards aswel. Cant think of the name either.

littlesurfer

oh i have a teeny problem with second hand suits!!! i'l definately be buying a second hand board but the thought of getting into a suit the someone else could have....ew!! Just renting them gives me the creeps so buying one new sets me free from having to do that........

i know this puts me atgreat risk of you guys thinking i'm nutso but i can't hide this part of me anymore!

lightening

A well used wetsuit will be cleaner than most hotel sheets!

Keep an eye out in Lidl and Aldi... or any boat shows coming up, towards the end they sell off the stock.

Sunny_Dublin

I'd check ebay.... tried a few wetsuits on, knew that o'neill in nsize 8 would suits me fine and went and bought it on ebay (bnwt)
also got my board over ebay germany. brand new 7'2 bic with leash and wax for 280 including delivery. the board alone goes in surfdock for 350...

littlesurfer

ebay!?!?!? Cool i'l give that a shot.......and thanks lightening,....are you trying to kill my love of staying in fancy hotels.....i have enough hangups already....don't need any more!:rolleyes:

Crash

missed the aldi (or lidl, cant remember which) wetsuit sale actually - didnt cop that they had 5/3's on sale, thought it was only diving suits

lightening

I work in newspaper advertising. As soon as I know about lidl doing anything remotely neoprene I will warn you all. Dont work on the Aldi stuff...

kjt

Yup I got me a ldl wetsuit. Great for 50 yo yo's.
Keeps ya warm at night too once your in it and in your sleeping bag.

littlesurfer

heading down to easky tomorrow night so hopefully find something there....i hear the shops are cheaper outside dublin.

kjt

And go a little bit further and I'm sure it's cheaper again outside Ireland lol. Best of luck on your shopping spree

littlesurfer

you think??? should i wait till i get to portugal???

kjt

Well I think just in general most things are cheaper outside of Ireland. Food, booze, clothes, snowboards... You could always check a few websites close to where your staying and see if they have an online pricelist

littlesurfer

i got the impression that surf gear was expensive abroad but can't work out why i think that//..............sounds all wrong

kjt

Too much chocolate

cue

It definitely was not cheaper in France when I was there, but Portugal might be different. Check surfworld in Bundoran. I think thats the name of it. They weren't second hand suits, just discounts 50%. c-skins and o'neills

Sunny_Dublin

surfworld in bundoran is good and you might meet the almighty ritchie
if you're heading to portugal anyways in the next few weeks have a look there first before buying a suit here. friend of mine got her gear in spain for a third of what she would have paid in bundo.
where about in portugal are you heading, littlesurfer? am thinking about goping there as well in october.... i need some sun!!

68 lost souls

If you can fit in kids sizes we have a few left in work, jst saw them today, 25 euro in Dunnes stephens green. Dunno how good they are though, worth checking out. We have shorties and long ones too.

lightening

I know this place is expensive, but Great Outdoors are having a sale on now, some of the boards have over 100 Euro off...

littlesurfer

i wouldn't like to try the kids sizes.permanent damage would be caused to either me or the suit....probably the suit! I'm going to ericeira Sunny! never been to that part before...I'l let you know how i get on....will hold out till then for the suit!

neon_glows

Alder stealth is a really good wetsuit,, my club WIT Surf club use them, they were really cheap €169 we picked them up in the tbay surf shop, dunno if they are sold anywhere else though.

neon_glows

ow and aldi andl idl wetsuits are really bad, you cant surf with a zip to the front and theres not much manouverability in them.

lightening

neon_glows wrote:

ow and aldi andl idl wetsuits are really bad, you cant surf with a zip to the front and theres not much manouverability in them.

Yeah, I was thinking that allright, might be allright for snorkelling. Doubt they would last long though.

neon_glows

curious did ya get a suit in the end???? how much? where? brand/type? and a small review on how you are finding it, coul be good information for another beginner in same situation, maybe we could put a sticky together for this.

ThOnda

I have found sale of used wet suits on t-bay web pages. For 50 Euro or so. And there were wet suits for 125 Euro in centre of Cork a month ago.

Rebeller

littlesurfer wrote:

i wouldn't like to try the kids sizes.permanent damage would be caused to either me or the suit....probably the suit! I'm going to ericeira Sunny! never been to that part before...I'l let you know how i get on....will hold out till then for the suit!

Equipment in Portugal is cheaper than here provided you buy your gear outside of the shops in the surf spots themselves. Ericeira has a couple of good shops for gear but prices are not much different from here (that was the case a couple of years ago at least)

Another problem is getting a suit suitable for Irish conditions. Most wetsuits on sale in Portugal are aimed at the Portuguese market and are therefore thinner than you average Irish Winter suit (3-2 instead of your typical 5-3 winter steamer).

That might be fine for the slightly warmer Portuguese waters but isn't much use for you if you're going to be doing most of your surfing at home.

I know some people buy into to seasonal wetsuit thing (i.e. buy one suit for winter and another for the 2 months of summer we get:D )

I think you're better off investing in one good winter suit that you can wear all year around. Water temps in Ireland don't differ an awful lot from winter to summer.

Invest in good suit, look after it (i.e. rinse it out after every use, inside and out) and you should get 3-4 years out of it). It's not much use having a state of the art ultra expensive board if you're so cold that you can barely move in the water.

There's my 2 cents anyway.

While in the Lisbon area you should also check out Carcavelos. While not near Ericeria it has a fun barrelling wave that can get pretty heavy over 2 metres. Get there early though and keep your mouth closed while in the water unless you want a mouthful of "Portuguese chocolate":D

Enjoy the trip!

neon_glows

a little research regarding buying equipment abroad has tuat me some interesting reasons why there isn't a big difference in price, the majority of quality surf products sold on the continent all originate from english companys who are also our main suppliers.

products well known such as escape, o shea, alder, c skins and so on.

krinpit

Heading to California in a month. Should I expect to pay less for a wetsuit out there?

Griff77

Hey, Learnt how to surf in the nice warm waters of Australia last year and am looking to get into surfing here. What type of wetsuit would be best for year round wear? Like thickness etc... Anything else i should look out for in buying a wetsuit? Thanks