Patagonia’s needlework ninjas to teach westuit repair 101 in Dunbar

Like most surfers, I’ve never given much thought to the environmental impact of my wetsuit, but it turns out that the thing that allows me to bob around in the North Sea for hours on end without getting all purple and hypothermic is in fact a climate calamity. Hub Hubbard, wetsuit development manager for the eco-conscious California-based outdoor gear company Patagonia explains: “Most wetsuits are made from neoprene,” he says, “and neoprene is made from either petroleum or limestone – using coal – so right there you’re talking about drilling or mining and, as you might imagine, using those ingredients to make anything is not going to be a very clean process.”