The Coolest Pieces of Gear We Tested This Week

For a lot of the mid-latitude surf world, a 4mm is a winter suit. For colder climates, it’s a transitional suit between trunks or a 3mm and that full monty of a 5mm. Sometimes it’s hard to prioritize what suit to buy for just a few months of the year. Body Glove has just put forth an amazing candidate for under $300.

A legacy company in the rubber-biz, Body Glove has made some amazing advancements in the past 5-10 years, bringing them right back into the wetsuit tech game, and the Variant is a testament to that, a comfortable suit with Magnaflex exterior and their Evoflex interior taping.

It has minimal seam design and seamless underarm paddling, for real flexibility and no friction. The suit is designed for 51-58 degree water, but I tested it out in even colder temps on a warm air day and it was toasty. In addition, that X-Dry interior is as quick to dry as any suit I’ve worn, enabling you to get back in for a second sesh without the sopping wetsuit feel.—Jon Coen, Men’s Journal Contributor

[$295; bodyglove.com]

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