Hoodies for Swimming and Watersports

In tropical countries local people often wear light cotton clothes or hoodies when swimming outdoors.

They don't want a tan, but protection against sunburn. Cotton feels soft on the skin in and out of the water, which makes it so popular for swimming.

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. Get a long sleeve one 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.

Hoodies are warm and cosy sweatshirts with a hood and a hand warming pouch on the front, useful to carry food or whatever. Just bear in mind the wet hoodies can feel cold in windy weather.

Watersport hoodies come in nylon, fleece, or polyester of different weight. The fabrics are better for immersion sports, as the don't chill you out as much as cotton.

Some hoodies are thin, like hooded T-shirts. They are easy to swim in and dry soon in warm weather. Enjoy them on holidays in and around the water, protect youself from sunburn and keep cool.

Most hoodies are made of thick cotton and get very heavy when wet, which is very useful for resistance swimming and aquatic weight training.

Matching jogging pants complete your cool swimsuit. They add extra weight when wet and feel great great as they slop around your legs. Wear socks and canvas sports shoes with them where possible to avoid foot injury on the beach.

Fabrics

Most hoodies are made from thick and heavy cotton for warmth and take a while to dry. This may be cool in hot weather.

They get very heavy when wet, which is useful for resistance swimming and aquatic weight training. It's great fun to slosh around in soaking wet hoodies. Great for beach games.

Sports hoodies come in nylon or polyester fabrics of different weights and dry faster than cotton hoodies. Often they are sold as a complete swim training suit with matching bottoms.

Some hoodies are thin, like hooded T-shirts. They are easy to swim in and dry fairly quickly. Some are made from swimwear fabric that is specially designed for swimming.

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 on windy days.

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.

A cotton hoodie can soak up around 5 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. Jogging pants make this even more challenging.

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.

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 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.