Storing a wetsuit for the summer.

I am going to store my wetsuit for the summer and I’d thought I’d share my idea for this:

Bodyglove used to market a ‘wetsuit conditioner’ which I tried about 15-17 years ago.

This wetsuit conditioner was meant to be used in a pail with your wetsuit and to be used

during every rinse/wash.

Basically I never saw much difference between the ‘wetsuit conditioner’ they were marketing

and ‘hair conditioner’. So what I do is rinse my suit in a sutiable ‘hair conditioner’ which coats

the suit at some micro level and keeps oxygen and heat from reacting with the wetsuit during

the hot summer months. Preferably you wrap the wetsuit in a plastic bag also so that fresh

oxygen is not circulating and making chemical reactions with your suit based upon air flow.

Over the years I’ve noticed that wetsuit rubber becomes less pliable , more porous, and in some

cases shrinks as a result of its exposure to the elements of heat and oxygen.

Wayull -

Round here, it’s not a question of storing a wetsuit so much as one of bringing one out of storage and putting another one away. It ranges from winter 6mm suits to dead-of-summer hot day spring suits - and a few tricks I have used…

First off- if you disinfect it and such, it’s a Good Thing. I like industrial or commercial-grade disinfectants, pine scented 'cos I happen to like the smell. Wash in warm, not hot, water with some of that and rinse several times in clean cold fresh water.

You should also rinse your suit in mild soap and clean water, every time you use it, especially if you tend to introduce certasin bilogical end-products into the suit on a regular basis. And don’t dry it in the sun -

Now, lots of things mess with the integrity of neoprene. Ozone does a number on it, as does anything petrochemical based, UV light, heat and so forth. Folding the suit along the same fold lines will give you weak points over time.

So what I do is put it in a Rubbermaid container like this handy little devil, the vaguely rectangular tubs with a lid that I also use to wash 'em in. I just dump it in once it’s dried from the rinse, no specific way of putting it in, so it’ll fold different every time. I don’t store 'em on hangers, or in the garage ( exhaust fumes are bad news) and I get years and years out of the suits, used in seasonal rotation.

hope that’s of use

doc