By: Blonde Two
I thought buying walking trousers was hard enough (although Cotswold Outdoor and Craghopper did come to my rescue with that one) but it turns out, that for us ‘bigger than average’ girls, wetsuits are the nemesis of the ‘finding Kit to Fit (which should probably be the name of a specialist range of real woman clothing).
Imagine your worst ever trying on experience, jeans probably or maybe a bra and then translate it into a sauna or a steam room, or a tortuous combination of both. Then imagine that the fabric you are trying on is expensive, tight fitting and liable to tear at any second.
Buying a wetsuit was a new experience for me and to be honest I put it off as long as possible because I knew that the trying on bit was going to be traumatic. It arrived and was a thing of beauty… until I tried to get into it. The trying on though did turn out to be a source of great hilarity for me, Not-at-all-Blonde (daughter) and my sister (why I chose the kitchen for this attempt I have no idea). At one point I think all three of us were inside different bits of the wetsuit and we were all definitely crying with laughter. I have a series of photos of the occasion, only one of which is suitable to share with the outside world but you can probably get the picture if I say the words, white bra, white Blonde, white gloves, orange wetsuit and red face!
You would have thought the hardest thing about swimming the Dart 10K would have been the actual swimming…
Why the gloves???
They are magic gloves that make you thinner in order to fit inside your rucksack. This pair just happened to be faulty!
Why do you want to fit inside your rucksack? Is it going to carry you?
Bought my wetsuit (black and turquoise) in Ireland, in a tiny Marina shop. There wasn’t a changing room and other customers were wandering around while I ducked behind various clothing rails to try it on. I’m too fat for it now, worse luck.
Must have created new marine life – a dodecapus?