05/04/2026
Have you ever stopped and thought about what your wetsuit is made from? If you are wearing a Seventhwave wetsuit, here’s some interesting Easter reading. If you’re not — here’s an interesting Easter read for why you should.
Most wetsuits are made from petroleum-based rubber. In a world where oil prices are swinging wildly and supply chains are under pressure, that’s worth thinking about. Ours aren’t.
The limestone in Yamamoto neoprene started life as a coral reef near Hawai’i, formed from volcanic activity on the ocean floor. Tectonic plates carried it to Japan over 80 million years, where it now sits in Mt. Kurohime in Niigata Prefecture — one of the purest limestone deposits on earth. Yamamoto uses only the highest-grade material from here, containing 99.7% calcium carbonate. The lower-grade limestone gets used for cement.
Because it starts with limestone rather than oil, Yamamoto neoprene is largely insulated from petroleum price volatility — a meaningful difference when oil markets are as unpredictable as they are right now.
The performance case is just as strong. The closed cell content sits above 93% — some 22–33% higher than competitor materials, which typically land in the 60–70% range. Each of those cells is sealed and nitrogen-filled, meaning the rubber doesn’t absorb water, doesn’t get heavy in the surf, and dries fast. You can stretch Yamamoto to its maximum over 2000 times without it bagging out — conventional neoprene loses its shape at around 300.
Most of Yamamoto’s production energy comes from hydropower, with solar used in the sewing process. It’s not a zero-footprint material, but it’s a genuinely better starting point than petroleum rubber — and it lasts significantly longer, which counts for something.
We’ve been using it since 1987. Long before the big brands caught on.
More on the material at yamamoto-bio.com and on our blog at seventhwave.co.nz/blogs/library/our-neoprene
📷 Jono Smit
