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Bill Tuthill
 
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Default Drysuit repair and alteration experience.

Brian Nystrom wrote:

You could glue cuffs one with Aquaseal or a similar adhesive/sealant.


Good advice. Aquaseal is also recommended to glue on neck and wrist
gaskets, plus booties if you choose booties instead of ankle gaskets.
As Pete said, use circular plastic containers of appropriate size
to stretch the latex gaskets before glueing.

Nobody has mentioned it, so I'll add this: after every trip, spray
all latex gaskets with 303 Protectant, especially on the inside where
salt-perspiration degrades the latex. Doing this will prolong latex
by a factor of 3-5x.

Good idea. Latex socks are vastly superior to ankle seals.


And Goretex (or equivalent) socks are vastly superior to latex socks
for longevity, unless you never stand up and don't walk anywhere
with your drysuit on. My latex socks never lasted more than a year,
always failing at the crease, but I walk a lot while boating.

My relief zipper leaks, as I've said here before. One time I had to
stand in armpit-high water to help perform a rescue. Afterwards it
was necessary to remove my entire drysuit, an turn it inside out
to empty about half a liter of water per foot.

If you "burp" your drysuit after putting it on, the amount of water
that comes in isn't really that much. Leaving the relief zipper open
is mainly a problem because the drysuit unburps itself.

That said, a rafter on the Illinois river (Oregon) in flood stage
once died in a long swim, probably owing to torn neck gasket, which
had been repaired with duct tape at put-in.