Wetsuits for diving / snorkelling / SUP / Surf / Kayak / Beach - Recommendations:

When it comes to water sport activities that are different from open water swimming, some other criteria are needed for the best wetsuits. Where wetsuits for swimming are designed to streamline and create as little draft as possible, wetsuits for other watersports activities are more designed to insulate and provide buoyancy.

Because of this their surface is coarser, since they don’t need to be water-repellent to the same degree, but instead provide a thin layer of water between the skin and the wetsuit which can be heated with body heat. This provides an effective barrier to make it easier to keep warm in cool surroundings.  

As a rule of thumb, you can say that the thicker the neoprene layer, the more buoyancy and heat insulation the wetsuit provides. It does, however, also make the suit less flexible.

On the other hand, it also becomes difficult to SUP for prolonged periods of time, if the neoprene is so thin that you’re freezing the whole trip. For the same reason, it can make a lot of sense to choose a wetsuit in thick neoprene if you’re snorkelling or diving. Here you are in cold water for long periods of the time, and don’t need the same degree of flexibility, because you’re typically using nice and easy movements in these types of watersports.