Gul Wetsuits are a brain child of Dennis Cross from Great Britain. A passionate surfer who got sick and tired of the cold Atlantic waters and decided that he will find a solution to this problem. His first wetsuit was constructed around 1962/63 in the back of his VW Split Screen Van on Fistral Beach, Newquay, Cornwall. This first Gul wetsuit consisted of 2 pieces – a jacket with a beaver tail and separate trousers.
Demand for Gul wetsuits increased very quickly and production moved to a lock up garage at the back of the Bristol Hotel in Newquay. With the surfing boom in late 1960’s boom also started for Gul Wetsuits. They were one of only a handful of wetsuit manufacturers in Europe and the demand for wetsuits was increasing at an amazing rate.
One of the most important Gul wetsuits moments was the invention of one piece wetsuit named ‘The Steamer’. Name came from the steam that came from your wetsuit when removing it on cold days.
Apart from surfing there was another sport that took off in Holland around the mid ‘70’s – windsurfing. Gul wetsuits were ideal for windsurfing due to their warmth and extra flexibility. And business grew.
Gul expanded further and is today one of the better known wetsuit brands in the world and was/is sponsoring surfers like Christian Fletcher, Todd Prestage and Russell Winter. Today they make over 35,000 wetsuits per year and export them to over 50 different countries.
Gul Makes Wetsuits For
- Surfing
- Windsurfing
For Gul wetsuit size charts go here.
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