CH Marine has the latest stylishly cool Typhoon wetsuits and shorties from the budget-friendly Swarm range, designed with the novice in mind.

Choosing Swarm is the way to go if you are new to the sport or just get on the water occasionally. And the new Swarm3 wetsuits are available in adult, child and infant sizes to kit out the whole family.

See the full range of Typhoon wetsuits available on CHMarine.ie

Old wetsuits aren’t recyclable, with thousands dumped in Irish landfills each year — but as RTÉ News reports, one woman has found a way to ‘upcycle’ them into something new.

Lynn Haughton, a designer based in Co Wexford, has been repurposing the durable neoprene fabric wetsuits are made of into a variety of accessories such as bags and pencil cases.

And what’s more, a tenth of the profits from Haughton’s Neo Collection goes to the aid of local marine wildlife charity Seal Rescue Ireland.

For other recent efforts at upcycling marine-related materials, see the outstanding work of two Cork schoolgirls entering this year’s Junk Kouture contest.

What happens to a wetsuit once it’s thrown away? A Wexford based designer says "they are only waste if you waste their potential”. pic.twitter.com/3Ktqe0F1un

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 30, 2019

#SillySeason - If you've been around either of Dublin's canals in the past couple of weeks, you may have seen some excited groups of young people gathered around the locks clad in wetsuits and launching themselves into the water.

The Irish Times has a video report on this latest trend that some city kids are making into a summertime sport - made possible thanks to the ready availability of inexpensive wetsuits from the likes of Aldi and Lidl.

As that paper's Ronan McGreevy writes: "They serve a dual purpose: keeping out the cold of the icy canals and helping to protect against the bugs that inevitably arise in an urban waterway."

Meanwhile, across the border some bathers have been taking things to the other extreme - as the Irish Mirror reports on two men arrested for skinny dipping in Belfast Lough.

The daring duo were reported by officers from Holywood PSNI for indecent exposure and, according to the Belfast Telegraph, they could even face inclusion on the sex offenders' register for their antics.