Hurley wetsuit history

Bob Hurley was in charge of the Billabong licence for the USA from the early days of the company, long before the first Hurley wetsuit existed. He’s a surfer and surfboard builder and I get the feeling that he’s respected within the surf industry as a whole for being pretty true to surfing’s roots.

In 1998 He broke away from Billabong and started the Hurley brand – it performed better than Billabong has done since then and ended up being bought by Nike in 2002.

their official website is now based at nike.com.

Nike are obviously an enormous clothing manufacturer, and they did have a bit of a go at the surf market with their Nike 6.0 range. This led to a bit of an odd situation when they bought Hurley, as they both had a team of high profile surfers.

Around that time you’d have seen people like Julian Wilson sporting garishly coloured Nike 6.0 wetsuits, but the teams were combined together with John John Florence at the head of the Hurley wetsuit roster.

It’s hard to find out when the first Hurley wetsuits were produced but I’ve definitely spoken to people who bought one of the first batch of wetsuits that were available in the shops and they weren’t impressed.

They’ve come a long way since then and now offer some solid wetsuits that are competitively priced.

Hurley wetsuit innovations

Many of the headline features of Hurely wetsuits and sports wear originally appeared in part of the Nike clothing empire. There are Hurley Dri-fit clothes, and they do some fairly gimmicky stuff with stitching on their boardshorts.

They had a silvery reflective layer on the inside of their new winter wetsuits which was supposed to keep you warmer than the thick fluffy lining their competitors were adding, but I’ve never had a chance to try it out.

Hurley wetsuit sponsorship

Hurley wetsuit warranty

If you feel your Hurley wetsuit has an issue which is covered under the warranty you should contact the retailer you purchased the wetsuit from in the first instance.

Interestingly the Nike site says that you’re allowed to wear any item you buy from them and still return it within 30 days if you don’t like it.

It’s not clear if this applies to Hurley wetsuits but if it does that’s a great way to see if one of their wetsuits works for you in the sea before sending it back.

I’d triple check this before you use a wetsuit in the sea though, it might not apply to wetsuits

The Hurley wetsuit warranty:

• 1 year warranty on workmanship
• 6 months warranty on materials
• 3 months on workmanship and materials for Hurley wetsuit Accessories

The Hurley wetsuit warranty does not cover:

• Self repair or alterations to products
• Warranty request without proof of purchase
• Alterations (unless executed by an authorized Hurley repair facility)
• Products classified as seconds, samples, promotional, or used
• Damage caused by sunlight, chlorine, mistreatment, or consequential damage
• Use of direct sunlight and/or clothes dryer for drying purposes
• Requests without valid proof of purchase
• Improper fit caused by incorrect size purchased
• Tears caused by force or finger gouges during entry or exit of wetsuit

Note that “Improper fit caused by incorrect size purchased” could mean your warranty isn’t valid, so take a good look at the size chart on this page to figure out the best fit for you.