Rashguard Sizing

[wanghoeby]

Headed to the Keys this summer and was going to try to pick up a cheap rashguard off eBay.

Intuition tells me to go off the sizing charts from the manufactures' websites, which recommend getting essentially the same size as my Under Armour. But the reviews for rashguards are littered with comments about how the shirts are too tight and recommending to buy two sizes up. This sounds just a bit silly to me, that an entire industry would conform to making them too tight.

Just curious if the sizing issue actually has some merit to it, or if these comments are just from d-bags trying get a loose fit from a article designed to be skin tight. And/or do you wear roughly the same size rashguard as you do for other skin tight dry clothing?

Thanks

[supermodel159]

Order the same size as the t-shirt you're currently wearing.

[Hugh Conway]

same size as the t

patagonia silkweight capilene/ other synthetic long underwear works fine as sun/rash protection as well.

[jayfrizzo]

IMO, depends on what you're using it for. I want my rashguard tight if I'm surfing, so I don't slide all over the board. I also have a too-big rashguard I'll wear fishing or when dinking around with the kids. It's tight enough to show off my hulking biceps, but is loose enough to get off and on easily when wet.

Hugh's right, you can use silkweight thermals for sun protection, too. Though I spend a shitload of time on the water on the weekends (up to 10 hours) and sometimes my Marmot silkweight will raw up my nips.

If you want to try something on you can really just go to Target and get a "water shirt" or something.


J-

[Microcosm]

Wiping out and surfacing with a loose rash guard covering your head isn't exactly ideal, which I've learned from experience. Go for tighter if you're swimming or surfing, if not then it's really up to you. Not sure when the general public started to get a hold of these and decided they were too tight, but my guess is those comments are from people who haven't used them surfing very much.

Also, some brands have a loop attached to the front bottom that you can tie your board short's string around to avoid this problem, even if it's a little loose.

Edit in case that made no sense:
http://www.ripcurl.com/index.php?id=522,2865,0,0,1,0
Check out the loop at the bottom. Their description: "Boardshort Connector:
An elastic loop on jackets and rashguards that attaches to your boardshorts."

[wanghoeby]

Thanks everyone for the help, you were all totally right. The people posting those comments were off base. Fitting was the same as my UA.

Also, I would have just used my UA, but it's black, the cold weather version, and a bit itchy. Since we are going to be doing a fair amount of kayaking, I figured it would be nice to get something that I wouldn't overheat in when I was above the surface.

Oh, and Microcosm, I did end up getting one with the board short connector. Seems like a pretty good idea, I was surprised to see that not all of the shirts had them.