Akona 5mm Women’s Full Wetsuit

Akona 5mm Women's Full Wetsuit: Flexible, Eco-Conscious Neoprene for Recreational Diving

The Akona 5mm Women's Full Wetsuit is a full-coverage scuba wetsuit built around a limestone-based neoprene that stretches in four directions. It is aimed squarely at recreational women divers who want a suit that moves with them underwater, holds warmth reliably, and is made with a lower environmental footprint than conventional petroleum-based neoprene.

If you dive regularly in moderate-temperature water and have been frustrated by stiff, restrictive suits that fight you every time you gear up, this one is worth a serious look.

The Material: Why Limestone Neoprene Matters

Most wetsuits are made from petroleum-derived neoprene. Akona uses a different base material: limestone that is over 99.7% calcium carbonate. The result is a neoprene rubber that is lighter than the conventional kind and requires significantly less oil to produce.

If reducing your environmental impact matters to you, this is a meaningful difference, not just a marketing angle.

The material is branded as Quantum Stretch, and the stretch claim is specific: the neoprene in this version has been upgraded to deliver 25% more stretch than the previous iteration.

Four-Way Stretch: What It Actually Means for You

Standard wetsuits use laminated nylon that stretches reasonably well in one direction but resists the other. You feel this most when you reach forward, kick hard, or try to bend your knees deeply. The suit pulls back against you.

Akona engineered a four-way stretch nylon weave that works with your body regardless of which direction you move. The lamination process that makes this possible is proprietary, and the pattern is cut specifically to take advantage of how the fabric moves.

In practical terms, this means less effort when finning, easier arm movement during buoyancy adjustments, and less fatigue over a long dive. It also makes donning and doffing considerably easier than with a stiffer suit.

Construction Details

A wetsuit's warmth depends not just on thickness but on how well the seams seal. The Akona 5mm uses glued and blind-stitched seams throughout. Gluing bonds the panels so water cannot seep through the seam channel. Blind stitching means the needle never passes all the way through the neoprene, so there is no row of holes on the inside face for cold water to enter. Together, these two techniques give you significantly better thermal performance than flatlock-stitched seams at the same thickness.

The back closure is a YKK #10 brass zipper with a pull-tab leash. YKK is a reliable, widely trusted zipper standard in quality wetsuits. The leash means you can reach back and zip yourself in without a dive buddy, which matters on a busy boat deck.

The shoulders are textured for two reasons: to resist abrasion from your BCD (buoyancy control device) harness, which constantly rubs that area, and to keep the BCD from shifting around on top of the suit. The knees have reinforced laminated pads, protecting the area most likely to wear through from kneeling on entries, boat ladders, or rocky shore dives.

Thermal Range and Activity

At 5mm thickness, this suit is designed for moderate to warm water temperatures. As a general guide, 5mm neoprene is comfortable for most divers in water roughly in the mid-60s°F (around 18°C) and above, though your personal cold tolerance will shift that range. Below that, you would typically want a thicker suit, a drysuit, or additional underlayers.

This suit is rated for scuba diving, not freediving or surfing. The construction priorities, seam type, and material choices all reflect the needs of a diver who is gearing up, descending, staying at depth for a full recreational dive, and surfacing repeatedly over a dive trip.

Fit and Sizing

The suit is available in multiple sizes and comes in black. Because a wetsuit's thermal performance depends entirely on a close, consistent seal against your skin, getting the size right matters as much as any other feature. A suit that is too loose will flush cold water through constantly; one that is too tight will restrict breathing and fatigue you quickly.

Use Akona's size chart carefully before ordering, and pay attention to both your height and your torso measurements, not just your weight.

Who This Suit Is Not For

If you dive primarily in cold water, a 5mm suit alone will not be enough. You would need a thicker suit or a drysuit for sustained comfort in colder conditions.

If you are a freediver or spearfisher, this suit's construction is optimized for scuba use. The back zip and BCD-specific features are not relevant to those disciplines, and you would likely want an open-cell interior for better thermal efficiency.

And if environmental considerations are not important to you and you are simply comparing stretch and warmth, there are other suits at this thickness worth comparing. The Akona's limestone neoprene and four-way stretch are its clearest points of difference.