How to repair your wetsuit

We will explain you in this article how you can repair by your own your wetsuit, easily and quickly. This explanation also works to fix neoprene gloves, neoprene caps and surfing booties. In fact, all neoprene accessories you need for surfing.

The most common damages of our wesuits are usually a seam that opens or a cut in the neoprene. Many of those damages can be easily fixed with a good glue: a neoprene glue specially designed to fix wetsuits.

Before starting, make sure that your wetsuit is perfectly clean and dry.

The first stage consists in placing the wetsuit in such a way that the seam remain opens:

Use your imagination and usual objets to place the wetsuit in such a way. For example, as you can see in the pictures below, by placing this XCEL wetuit on the corner of a table, I have managed to keep the seam open.

In this Rip Curl wetsuit, by introducing a cardboard box inside the sleeve, I have managed to keep the small cut open.

And with those surf gloves, I have used a heavy glue pot to keep the cut open.

The second stage consists of applying the neoprene glue:

For this, you can use a small brush, or any thin object that allows you to access and deposit the glue inside the area to be glued.

Before joining the two parts, you have to wait about 5 minutes, until you see that the glue is not sticky when you touch it with your fingers. It is very important if you want to make the fix properly. Only after that you can join the two parts. Press with your fingers, to keep the two parts in contact for 10-15 seconds. The glue sticks instantly. You can check it by pulling on the glued parts. You will see how they are perfectly glued. However, it is convenient to wait a day before using your neoprene wetsuit in the water.

We recommend that you fix any small cut in your neoprene wetsuit, no matter how small it is. You will avoid that a small cut becomes big, and you will lengthen the life of your wetsuit. The duration of a wetsuit depends a lot on how you take care of it. Also, take a look at our tips to extend the lifetime of your wetsuit.