Gotta love a broken zipper a few months shy of almost having this suit 1 whole season. Even better on a morning with waves at 6:45 AM. I heard so much hype about these suits before owning one. "ohhh best suit ever" , "So warm, warmest suit I've ever had" etc.
Have you ever read the book "The Emperors New Clothes"?
I can't back the bullshit. Here's my honest opinion of the 3/2/2 Matuse suit -
I put this suit on for the first time last February 2009 and surfed the Venice breakwall at 2:30 in the afternoon. I was cold within an hour. By June the suit was more or less completely leaking and had torn itself two holes in the chest panels where the smoothie met. Awesome. Alternating between this suit and an Aleeda for another few months (didn't wear it in summer, duh) the suit took it's final blow this morning, December 28 2009, with a busted zipper while suiting up in the parking lot. Feb-June, not wearing everyday because of alternating fullsuits = holes and leakage. Oct-December = Dusted ass suit. Fuck.
Now keep in mind I'm not a fucking retard and know how to put on a suit. I've worked in a surf shop for wayyyyy tooo long and instruct donkey's on the finer points of slipping on rubber daily. For the record, 80% of the time I changed into that Matuse suit I used a plastic bag because it was so damn hard to get into. Even bone dry it was a pain in the ass. The ankles were tighter than junior prom night. I babied the suit, meaning I wasn't a lazy fuck and washed the thing out every time, hung it in the garage out of the sunlight, and even used a super gay changing mat in the parking lot.
So there Ya go, a non bias review of a Matuse suit. Fuck the hype, these suits are mediocre at best. A good afternoon suit, as it's not that warm, but it is awfully flexible and comfortable. Final thoughts - next time you hear some siked yuppie talk up his matuse because he likes talking about how innovative and amazing it is (read, overly expensive and overly hyped) tell him to eat a dick and try a psycho 1.
