The 6 Best Wetsuit Hoods For 2021

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This guide to the best wetsuit hoods in 2021 is a must read if you feel the chill on the ears and the scalp whenever you’re in the water. Let’s keep those lobes warm, eh?

You can keep your coral grazes and fin strikes. Stuff the shark attacks. There’s nothing more painful for a surfer than the shock of cold water to the face. Okay…maybe it’s not as bad as a great white bearing down as you wipeout of the barrel. But, hey, I’m allowed a little hyperbole – I’ve just paddled back in and still can’t feel my nose!.

The point is that most folk agree it’s never pleasant to feel the full thwack of <50-degree water to the head. Whether you’re surfing north California in the cooler months, Tofino when the snows are in, or northern Europe between November and March, this is one darn crucial piece of kit if you ask us.

Cue this list of the best wetsuit hoods for 2021. It runs through just a few of the top products currently on the market, with an eye on showcasing only the creme-de-la-creme. Yep, we won’t waste your time listing any old neoprene head cover here. We’ve gone in search of the hoods that we think outclass the rest in terms of heat retention comfort, and all-round surfing prowess. You’ll be duck diving in comfort in no time…

We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!

This guide to wetsuit hoods is just one part of our bigger guide to wetsuits generally

A quick-jump guide to our best surf booties…

• Manera Magma 2.5mm Surf Hood – Our best surf hood for 2021 [BUY NOW]
• Vissla 3mm 7 Seas Wetsuit Hood – An all-round fantastic option (we’d actually say joint first!) [BUY NOW]
• Rip Curl Dawn Patrol Wetsuit Hood – Very light hood that’s great for surf travelers [BUY NOW]
• Xcel Men’s Axis Cap with Bill 2mm – Best balance between thickness and warmth [BUY NOW]
• R3 Yulex Insertable Hood – The most eco-friendly wetsuit hood [BUY NOW]
• O’Neill Psycho 3mm Hood – All-rounder that’s really durable [BUY NOW]

Manera Magma 2.5mm Surf Hood – **top of our best wetsuit hoods for 2021

We can’t sing the praises of the Manera Magma hood enough. Only a couple of months ago this bad boy wasn’t even on our selection of the best wetsuit hoods in 2021. Then one of us scored one to get through the North Europe winter months and, suffice to say, there’ll be a few more purchases coming from The Surf Atlas offices when the colder months swing around again.

So, what’s all the fuss about. First, this is pretty much the ONLY wetsuit hood we’ve found that goes with a double-flap connection at the neck opening. One flap goes over the wetsuit and the other goes under. It seems so simple but hardly any head rubber does that. The effect is slash the amount of flushing that goes on. In other words, you won’t have so much ice-cold water flowing in and out of the hood whenever you duck dive.

But it doesn’t stop there. Manera have taken the classic hood model and done some serious thinking about where they place those panels. They’ve gone with stretchier rubber with Reflex-skin neoprene – a much lighter and flexier than the stuff that covers the head. Then there’s harder 2.5mm Glide-skin neoprene up top, which is some of the best we’ve used in high-wind conditions (none of that whistling and ear pain).

The Manera might clock a hefty price tag at $70 apiece but it’s the creme-de-la-creme of wetsuit hoods out there today. We’re actually even a little sad it’s been packed for the summer now. Like WHAT?! We never miss hoods.

Vissla 3mm 7 Seas Wetsuit Hood

Vissla have done it again. Yep, this creative surf gear name out of the  San Joaquin Hills comes close the top of our list of the best wetsuit hoods for 2021 by offering something a lot of brands seem unable to comprehend: Simplicity. This 3mm neoprene head cover isn’t about fancy frills or tech that you’d need a NASA scientist to decipher. It’s about one thing and one thing only – protecting your skull from sub-zero water.

It’s made entirely from the trademark Super Stretch neo, so it’s easy on and off, even when you’re fingers are numb following a long session in the Oregon wintertime! You get the same thermal liner that’s in the 7 Seas Wetsuit (regular readers will know that it’s one of our all-time favourites). But there’s also added comfort thanks to the Duramax membrane, which reduces the chance of chaffing against the neck.

The Vissla 3mm 7 Seas Wetsuit Hood also comes with a small peaked front. That helps it deflect head-on rays if you’re surfing on east-facing beaches in the morning or west-facing beaches in the evening. The result is an all-round corker of a cover with enough thickness to warrant use from fall to spring in most surf destinations south of Alaska and Scandinavia.

We did have this as our very top pick for the best wetsuit hoods in 2021. However, there have been super-irritating stock and supply issues in the first quarter, so it’s dropped a spot. We’ll keep an eye on all that, but suffice to say this is actually a joint-first winner.

Rip Curl Dawn Patrol Wetsuit Hood

It should hardly come as a surprise to see the Dawn Patrol up here. This stalwart of the Rip Curl range is always a reliable choice for essential neoprene coverage. It harnesses the same Freeflex Neoprene as the brand’s main suits, which we think is one of the best out there for feeling light and airy in the water. You also get double-stitched seams, something key at thermal flashpoints like the head, which could do with as little inner water flow as possible.

More than anything, the Rip Curl Dawn Patrol hood is the perfect companion for surf travelers who want to hit the road without too many kilos in the baggage. It’s uber-light, 2mm thick (that’s not thick at all), and folds up into storage real easy. The downside there is that you won’t have the same heat retention of a thicker hood. However, this one can double as a summer surf hat, because it rarely cooks up too hot, even in moderate to mild surf conditions.

Xcel Men’s Axis Cap with Bill 2mm

The Xcel Men’s Axis Cap with Bill manages one of the best warmth-to-thickness ratios we’ve ever experienced in a surf cap. That’s a bit of a coup here, because it’s generally accepted that the holy grail of cap design is to achieve as much heat retention as possible without adding weight.

Sure enough, Xcel have managed to keep this one to a rather minimalist 2mm in thickness. It’s feels much more of a surf cap than a full-on hood. But don’t judge a book by its cover. Or, indeed, a cap by its exterior. These guys have cleverly worked in their awesome Thermo Lite membrane. That’s let them shift the focus from bulky hidden seams onto infrared heat tech that utilizes the warmth produced from the blood vessels in the head to keep it balmy up on top.

There’s also a super convenient pully strap with a clinch lock. That helps the hood fix on for harder paddle outs, which we all know are pretty common in the colder months. It’s also a cracking option if you’ve got a strangely shaped head, but we’ll let you be the judge of that!

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We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!