Bought for 10 yo son for Winter sailing. Perfect. Material is not at all stiff. Bought size 12 and glad we got a size ‘up’. Still nice close fit that allows under garment. 10 would have fitted as material is stretchy but sleeve and body length would have been borderline short for our longer-armed, tall slim lad. Will definitely be buying the next size up when he grows out of this one. We are snow skiers too and I think this top will be good as underlayer on cold days and solo layer on warmer days.
My 8 year old son has not an ounce of fat on him, and really feels the cold when in the water. We popped a sharkskin underneath his 3/4 wetsuit, it made a huge difference! He's loving being able to spend at least a little bit of time in the water over the winter months.