About North Coast Wetsuits. A family run independent business est. 2004. - North Coast Wetsuits

Based in North Cornwall, North Coast Wetsuits are a British original brand. We are fully independent and specialise in wetsuits and associated water sports / surfing products along with a great range of dry bags suitable for outdoor adventurers. We are a small family run business that was started back in 2004. Back then as avid players in the sea, and with a long background in business, we could see a gap in the market for a local brand offering quality at a fair price. We design and import all our own branded stock lines and work with a number of long established outsourced contract manufacturers that are industry leaders. This offers us guaranteed levels of service and quality. Don’t believe all the hype, nearly all the known ‘surf brands’ outsource, they don’t have their own factories.

Our products speak for themselves and we don’t waste huge sums of money on advertising and marketing. Word of mouth has been a big part in our success, and, because we sell direct to the user you are not paying for the retailer markup. We have been selling successfully on Ebay and Amazon for many years.

On Ebay we currently we have over 13,500 99.9% positive feedback scores. We feel that speaks voulmes about our product and customer service. If you don’t want to buy online, or want to try a few things on then pop in to our wetsuit showroom and surf shop, The Rubber Shack, in North Cornwall where we sell direct too.

about North Coast Wetsuits - NCW CORNWALL

Adopt, Adapt, Evolve – our catchphrase….

All our products are manufactured to the highest quality & specification and are developed and tested in the water with the help of our sponsored riders. Proper feedback from proper surfers who put forward their ideas and put their own spin on our prototypes. We use both local riders and also international riders to test and help develop our products. Evolution is a critical part of our design process. Our current riders include Richie Smith, 2011, 12 & 13 UK Knee board surf champion and 2007 World Knee board champ, Polzeath surfer Sam Gill (he’s in the water a lot !!) plus Bill Morris and Matt Gallagher who are both based down under in Aus. See our sponsored riders page for their details and profiles.

Technical Info Our products are designed specifically for frequent use in cold waters like ours here in the UK unlike many other inferior brands which are designed for occasional use in warmer seas. All NCW product is made using high grade, high stretch neoprene. Do not confuse our products with low quality wetsuits made with inferior quality materials.

Warranty We are very confident in the quality of our wetsuits and all products. If you buy any of our products and just decide you just don’t like it we will offer a full refund (excluding postage). However this a very rare thing, customer satisfaction is a big part of what we are about. If you buy something and it’s the wrong size we will exchange it for you no problem. To avoid getting the wrong size please let us help you decide what size you need and make sure give you us accurate information. Because we sell direct, at below retail prices, you will have to cover all additional postage costs on returned items. Note – products cannot be exchanged / refunded if they have been used. You can, of course, try an item on, but please no returned suits that have been used in the sea and have wax on the knees!

Terms of sale All our wetsuits, watersports equipment and dry bags come with a one year return to base guarantee against any manufacturing faults, however all items must be cared for in the appropriate manner. If any item seems faulty return it to us for inspection and replacement.

Our History

A bit more about us : “Small Is Beautiful” an article by Peter Crisp taken from “The Link” magazine (Winter 2014).

North Coast Wetsuits is a small business run in North Cornwall. The business is driven by the passion of Mark Graham and his family for all things aquatic. North Coast Wetsuits was founded in 2004 as a result of Mark discovering the joys of surfing. Until that time Mark had thought surfing for him would be unattainable. “This was mainly due to the fact that I wasn’t in great shape physically as the result of a severe motorcycle accident back in 1994 in France. I’d like to point out the accident was not my fault. I was taken out by another Biker on a FJ1200 who rode right into me. Two big heavy powerfull bikes coming together didn’t end well. The other Guy was fine. I wasn’t and spent 3 months in a drug induced sleep in hospital in France and some time in a central London hospital were I was awoken from that sleep. I had many problems.

Because of the accident I was wheelchair-bound for a number of years. Even after moving to Cornwall in 2003, when I was out of the wheelchair and walking around slowly again, I didn’t think I’d be fit enough to surf. Along with many other ongoing problems the biggest one that I felt would stop me surfing was that I had had all my stomach muscles surgically removed. I had to wear an abdominal support all the time and still do even now twenty years later. My neighbour, Steve, here in Cornwall became a good friend. Steve was then a very keen and experienced surfer, and he was confident that I might be able to surf as a wetsuit is physically quite supportive, as is the water. He was dead right and I found that a snug fitting wetsuit acted in a similar way to my support. Thanks to Steve’s encouragement, I braved the waves and had a great time.”

It was a slow learning curve but Mark eventutally got fitter and slowly got the hang of it. While getting into the surfer’s world, he spotted a business opportunity. “Business is always in the back of my mind. I started my first business when I was seventeen and have been self employed for all but two of my forty six years.

When I went to find my first proper wetsuit I was astounded by the price of a decent suit. No one would do local discounts and even if you had a fistful of dollars, no one would give you a good deal. At that point, I thought, there’s a niche here.” Mark started to investigate the possibilities of supplying good quality kit at a lower price. Again, it was a good friend living in Canada who serendipitously introduced Mark to his local Canadian brand that was attractively priced and the exchange rate at that time was favourable.

“We did a little deal, bought a little stock and boom, we started. We called the company North Coast Wetsuits as a tribute to this area that we have come to love and feel as our home. With a few years we began to realise that the Canadian company’s range of suits and accessories wasn’t big enough or quite right for our needs. So we decided to go into the design business ourselves.”
Continues below image…

Mark’s accident with the Bike in flames (August 1994 just outside Orleans, France)

Gulf Stream 5/3 mini front zip winter steamer

Mark heads out to the water for a surf in his supportive NCW wetsuit (August 2013 at the “Bay of Death” in Brittany, France)

Below Mark has always loved boarding. Aged 10 skateboarding in Greenwich Park (blue helmet) on his Val2000 Ally deck, with tracker trucks, 70mm lime green kryptonics, goldseal bearings. He’s still got another of those decks in use today!

The company’s ethos is summed up: Adopt Adapt Evolve. So they came up with their own range of designs with feedback from other surfers and their sponsored rider at the time, Polzeath based Richie Smith. Through a process of trying different ideas and sampling they were able to create a wide variety of wetsuits and accessories for both adults and children. “After being in business for 9 years with all of the transactions being done online, an opportunity arose at Wadebridge Storage to have a little space where locals and visitors could come in and see our range. We didn’t want the hassles of running a full-time shop, so to have a little showroom and office here where our some of our stock was securley stored, was an ideal solution.

It’s been good to get the business out of our home and a pleasure to meet the people coming in looking for a good deal on a wetsuit. The big advantage to the customers, of course, is that they get to try on the gear and make sure it’s the right fit before they commit to a purchase.”

A final word from Mark: “Don’t let old man winter stop you having fun in the water. With the right gear, you can carry on enjoying your favourite watersports all year long. As Billy Connolly once observed: there’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.”