Wetsuits are made from panels of foamed rubber that are usually covered in a knitted fabric for protection and durability. That foamed rubber has traditionally been neoprene, the trade name for a synthetic rubber made from either limestone or oil. Natural rubber, on the other hand, comes from trees.

Read on to find out about how natural rubber is produced and why it’s a better alternative to neoprene...

At C-Skins, wetsuit design and development is an on-going process, to ensure that each season we offer the best wetsuits to help surfers perform in cold water. That means researching and considering new materials, construction techniques, technologies and cuts, sampling and testing, and creating a combination that best meets our criteria for performance, price and planet.

The design process creates a natural progression, and for us the latest step in that is natural rubber.

NuWave, our range of natural rubber wetsuits, launches in Spring 2024, but it’s a development that’s been years in the making. . .

We’ve been designing and making wetsuits for long enough to know that the proof of a new design, material, or feature is in the surfing; no testing comes close to just putting a wetsuit on a good surfer’s back and getting them to paddle out and perform in it. Surfers can be the most critical and helpful test pilots. Therefore, as soon as we had samples of the NuWave range in our hands and had completed our in-house evaluations, we sent them out to some of our team riders for some out-of-house testing. Find out how they got on here. . .

At C-Skins we are proud of our long-standing relationships with surf shops around the world. Having developed the NuWave range of natural rubber wetsuits and tested them with our team riders we knew that we had a great product, but the next moment of truth was sharing the news and the sample wetsuits with our network of retailers. . . tap on to read responses from a core bunch of UK stores who will all be stocking the full NuWave range from mid-March 2024.

As part of the development of the NuWave range, we worked with several of our surf school and activity centre clients who tested both the natural rubber surf school model over the course of a season as well as having their instructors wear a NuWave wetsuit to work in.   

NuWave is about more than natural rubber; it’s about designing and making wetsuits and watersports kit with the most positive impact possible. Naturally, that covers more than just one material. So what are NuWave’s rash vests and UV skins products made from, and why and how are they a better choice?

After six months of being put through their paces, NuWave wearers have reached a verdict, and judging by feedback from our core stores and supporting surf schools, it appears that the collection has been a success!