Tips on Cleaning Your Wetsuit

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Does your wetsuit smell like an angry homeless raccoon has taken up residence inside?

Does chopping onions no longer bother you because the experience is small peanuts in the face of the fumes emanating from your suit?

Does it appear as though you are incessantly weeping while you surf because you ACTUALLY ARE due to the prodigious stench of your trusty wetsuit?

If your wetsuit is starting to smell, these are your prime culprits:

1. Body odors & bacteria – your continued use of the wetsuit has taken its toll. Your natural odors and sweat have built up over time and the result is stank.

2. Peeeeee – you took a whiz in your suit when you were in the water. Now your wetsuit won’t let you forget it.

3. Mold – your wetsuit got left in a plastic bag or somewhere it couldn’t dry off. Now its a living tribute to the wonders of mold.

Thankfully the first two of these are easy to fix with either of the following (we’ll get to mold in a minute):

1.       Wool-Lite
2.       Listerine

Or if you’re feeling especially fancy you can always buy some dedicated wetsuit shampoo from a surf shop and your gear will smell of lemons and sunshine.

Once you’ve got the materials, here’s what you need to do.

1.       Rinse off any sand, seaweed, or dirt from your wetsuit outside. Hose it off.
2.       Fill a bath tub with about 4 inches of warm (not hot!) water
3.       Drop in your wetsuit and a liberal amount of your liquid of choice
4.       Scrub, knead, and soak your suit—give it a little time so the oils dissolve and the bacteria gets killed off.
5.       Drain your tub, fill it with cold, clean water.
6.       Scrub knead, and soak your suit.
7.       Hang it in the shade to dry.

Now back to mold.

If you’re one of the unlucky individuals who is suffering from moldy wetsuit, you’ve got two options.

1. Get a new wetsuit. If it’s really bad and you don’t even want to consider touching it, you may be better off just scrapping it for a new one. Mold is hard to kill, and wetsuits are getting more and more affordable and effective every year.
2. Get some bleach. Dilute it. HEAVILY. Bleach is just about the only thing (short of fire) that will kill mold–soak your suit in your super diluted solution for 5-10 minutes, and scrub/rinse thoroughly afterwards. If you’re really worried about the smell, consider following up with the cleaning procedure above (the one with the Listerine). Once the washing is over with, put your wetsuit somewhere cool , with plenty of circulating air, and you’re all done.

Congratulations. Your wetsuit now smells like minty awesomeness.

Cheers!
-Degree 33 Surfboards

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One response to “Tips on Cleaning Your Wetsuit”

1. Olosurfer writes:
   

   Put the wetsuit by itself in your washing machine on a low water setting with some washpowder (detergent) after *every* surf. If you don’t have a washing machine just put it in the bath with some wash detergent, rinse well, and rinse your hands really well after touching wash powder (or use gloves if possible, that stuff will strip all the good oils out of your skin). The main thing that will make your wetsuit stink is leaving it without washing it out.
   Good post by the way

   [Reply]

   @ December 7th, 2010 at 21:59