Repairing a wetsuit

Next to a bike, the wetsuit is the most expensive peice of gear for a new triathlete. In some instances when hand-me-down bikes are available, its THE most expensive peice of gear the new triathlete will purchase during their first few season.

I have been a little frustrated that in the case of wetsuits there really has been no mentor for me. I have a bike guru, a running shoe guru, I even have mentors for my swim form but its routinely the same answer for how to fix a tear in a wetsuit, "That sucks." Sage advice in this area is to send it in for repairs which will take anywhere from two to four weeks.

Forget that.

I don't have that kind of time. So I will give you all the advice you need right now. I will be the guinea pig. I used AquaSeal Urethane Repair Adhesive and Sealent. But don't buy online, call around to your local dive shops and they all seem to carry it. I walked out the door for $5.94 instead of double that plus s/h online.

Here are pictures of my rips and tears just so you can see what is going on here. The rips that did not go all the way through are in the bicep. I am only showing one of the two here for brevity. The tear is from my wetsuit being peeled off and is located on the back of my calf.



Here is my work to fix the damages. I am not a 'maintenence' kinda of guy. If it takes someone ten minutes, it will take me thirty, if I am lucky. But this was simple. Other than the tube of product I used a plastic dinner knife.

For the rips in the arms, I applied a small dollop of sealent to the knife and smeared it over the rip, not in the rip but over it. I made sure to spread evenly and go about a quarter inch around the rip. Then applied masking tape over it and smoothed it out for a flat finish. For the tear, I laid a peice of masking tape inside the suit and over the tear hole. Then applied AquaSeal using the plastic knife, this time working it in a little bit on the tear. I did not cut of the suit out or trim the frays. Again I feathered out a quarter inch then put a piece of tape over the top to smooth it out. The directions state that if a chunk of the suit is missing you can simply tape off the back and fill the entire hole with AquaSeal and your good as new. I saw a demonstration of this at the store on a piece of neophrene.
I let it sit from 3pm Sunday till 6am Monday morning before pulling the tape off. The guy at the store told me about the tape in order to keep a smooth fix. I don't know if I would recommend it. The tear in the calf seems to be completely fixed, though getting in the water is the only test that matters. The tape adhesive bonded with AquaSeal so it noticible. The two arm rips were the same and I may have caused as much damage on one of them pulling the tape off. I reapplied Aquaseal to those areas the next day with a plastic knife and just let it sit. Its shiny like you would expect but did a great job, it looks better than the masking tape stuff stuck to my original work.

MY RECOMMENDATION. I think if the difference is spending $5 for a tube or $400 for a new wetsuit, the AquaSeal is a great first choice. Do not use the tape to smooth things out rather be extra vigilant in the application and let air dry. I will still recommend that you tape inside the suit if the tear is all the way through. I had no problems with that coming off.

Personally I see war wounds like this tape adhesive mess as a badge of honor. This wetsuit has gotten me through some tough personal milestones, I don't want to ditch it just yet. But for the rest of you, I think I can safely say your next patch job will turn out better than mine and thats all that really matters to me.