Hoodies for Swimming and Watersports

In tropical countries local people often wear light cotton clothes or hoodies when swimming outdoors to avoid a tan or sunburn and keep cool.

Hoodies are warm and cosy sweatshirts with a hood and a hand warming pouch on the front, useful to carry food or whatever. Cotton feels soft on the skin in and out of the water, which makes it so popular for swimming. It keeps you cool in hot weather, but can feel rather cold in windy weather.

A cotton hoodie can soak up several litres of water. That's good for resistance swimming exercise to build strength. If you choose to wear cotton hoodies for your watersports, we recommend you do regular swim training in a hoodie to remain able to cope with the added weight of the water is soaks up.

Matching jogging pants or jeans complete your cool outfit and swimming make even more challenging. They add extra weight when wet and feel great great as they slop around your legs.

Sun Protection

For fun on the beach or watersports hoodies are a good choice. A cotton hoodie is comfortable when swimming in hot weather and darker colours provide adequate sun protection. This is good for fitness training and keeps you cool on hot days as the wet cotton has a cooling effect while the water evaporates. Combine a long sleeve hoodie with long pants for better sun protection.

The hood covers your head against sunburn and can be draped as a more stylish collar. There is an extensive range of hooded shirts that are available in different colors, patterns and designs to suit your personality.

Fabrics

Most hoodies are made from thick and heavy cotton for warmth and take a while to dry. They get very heavy when wet, which is useful for aquatic weight training. It's huge fun to splash around in soaking wet hoodies. Great for beach games in hot weather.

Sports hoodies come in nylon fleece, or polyester fabrics of different weights and dry faster than cotton hoodies. The fabrics are better for immersion sports, as the don't soak up as much water and won't chill you out like cotton. Sometimes they are sold as a complete swim training suit with matching bottoms.

Some hoodies are thin, like hooded T-shirts, specially designed for easy swimming. Made from cotton or swimwear fabric, they feel good in the water and dry soon in warm weather. Enjoy them on holidays in and around the water, protect youself from sunburn and keep cool.

Keep Warm

Please note that cotton hoodies can chill you out in the wind. Wear a hoodie from man-made fibres if you plan to get wet and stay warm. We lose about 1/3 of our heat through the head as the blood vessels can't constrict like they can do elsewhere. The hood helps reduce this heat loss, thus keeping you warmer. It feels soft and comfy and provides good cover for your head.

Cotton hoodies can add warmth and comfort when worn under a waterproof top that reduces evaporation cooling. Depending on the climate you can wear them on their own or underneath waterproof clothes. T-shirt and jeans complete the outfit.

Our readers report that they often wear hooded jogging suits underneath their waterproof clothes for rock hopping on the beach, canoeing, sailing, or just messing around in the water. This will keep them warm and provide padding if thet slip or bump into something.

When you go snorkeling, hoodies protect you against sunburn, jellyfish stings and other marine hazards. Many divers wear them over their wetsuits to protect the Neoprene from the reef, rocks or such.

Keep Cool

Cotton hoodies are quite popular in Thailand and other tropical Asian countries. You may wonder why they wear a hoodie in such hot weather. One reason is modesty, the other is that they don't want a tan.

On sunny days, when they get too hot, they simply wet their clothes with water from a bottle or go for a quick swim. Wet cotton keeps them cool when out of the water, so it's good for warm days or hot climates. It's like air conditioning you can wear.

Reader Story

by Ooli, Brighton, England

At our university we often go swimming after lessons. I just watched them from the beach. The sea is too cold for me to swim only in shorts. Some of the students were wearing some clothes which made me curious.

Then my university friends talked me into swimming with tee shirt, jeans and hoodie to stay warm. First I thought it was a prank, but when I saw them swimming in clothes, I gave it a try and realised that clothes keep me much warmer, even in the water. It is also quite good fun and feels good, which is probably the main reason my friends swim fully clothed.