Price: €230
Flex/Comfort: 7.5/10
Warmth: 6/10
Overall: 6.5/10

Test date: 24-26/04/14
Tested at: Guethary, France and Seignosse, France.
Air: 15
Water: 15
Dry weight: Dunno. I picked it up from Quik HQ and was paddling out at Parlementia some ten mins later, thank you very much. Nobody in the car park had any scales, except the guy with the dreads… it is light though, I’d guestimate 850g.
Also: The surf was 6ft glassy all fucken day long, cheers.
And: I actually had a dream about this wetsuit last night! In the dream the legs went all baggy. That’s the last time I eat a whole roasted camembert so close to night nights…
Tested by: PE

Brand Overview

Quik suits first come to prominence in the early 90’s with Slater and TC sporting shoulder zips, something of a design cul-de-sac. Since then, they’ve tried all sort of innovations, including copper lining (I had one!), and helped usher in the heated vest. Despite their recent, much publicised financial rocky road, they’re still the biggest brand in surfing overall. That said, in terms of wetsuits, their public image in the surf community is probably somewhere between OK and could-do-better.

The Test

The Quiksilver Ignite was the only zipperless suit in the test. Are zips an issue? Not if done right. I’ll tell you this though, zipperless has come a long wave since Bong’s big velcro shoulder straps of 1998… Anyway I found it easy enough to get into, and comfortable once on. The rubber is super supple and silky, which is kind of standard for 2014.

The very first thing to say is that the knee pad seems leaked quite badly. I felt a cold trickle before I’d even made it across the lagoon to the channel, and it continued all sesh. For a very first surf, that’s disconcerting. This being a chilly, grey spring day, I had pretty cold knees. Luckily at Guethary you don’t really need knees to surf, as turning is very much optional/frivolous. Anyway, it’s not a great start.

The second surf was back in Les Landes and weirdly, I didn’t notice any flush/trickle at all around knees at all. That surf was on a colder day, but with more paddling. Hmmmm.

The only bit taped on the inside of the Ignite was the ‘gusset’ around the groin. Otherwise, no internal taping anywhere, but rather rubber seals on the outside (This is basically the opposite of what Xcel do i.e. nothing on outside, taping on inside).

Overall, the fit was great, rubber felt super soft and light and entry/exit involves a wee bit of contortionism, but posed no major issues. The collar/flap you need to squeeze in and out of will likely give a bit over time, making entry/exit easier, but also in turn might compromise the seal i.e. make it flush.

Otherwsie, the colour is pretty cool. Quik tend towards these graphitey greys, which I like. It says ‘Quiksilver’ once and had four cresting wave snow capped mountains, which, although possibly 3 too many (but I am an ‘older dude’), they are fairly small and low key, which is nice.

In Summary

Again, the Ignite is a respectable wetsuit, but I do have slight hesitations as to, if I had money for just one, if this’d be the one I’d buy. My principal concern would come in the area of longevity. That said, yesterday I picked this one up, over the others, for a sesh, so it can’t be that far off the mark.

Quiksilver Wetsuits