The fight against smelly gear

[OzBungy]

I moved to the slide hanger to avoid hanging the wetsuit by the shoulders. A wet 5-6mm suit weighs about 10kg and that weight pulling on the shoulders does serious damage.

I hang the suit on the slide hanger and let it drip for an hour or so. I then squeeze the water out of the legs and sleeves. It is then light enough to hang on a wetsuit dryer.

In winter let it hang and drip then in the morning when the house heating comes on I hang the suit over a duct. I insert tubes made from 50mm plastic pipe into the booties then stand them upright on a vent. The heating dries the suit fully in a couple of hours (by the time we have coffee).

In Spring/Autumn we don't run the heating, but it is cold overnight. Wetsuits don't air dry. I use a Blawesome wetsuit dryer which will get a 6mm suit fully dry in about 2 hours. It has an electric heating element. https://www.thewetsuitdryer.com/

I am in Australia and we can't buy decent boot dryers for a reasonable price. They all have to be imported from Canadia or somewhere. That is no longer a problem since I started turning boots inside out.

[AndersP]

A good dehumidifier solved the problem for me. Washing the suit inside out in the washingmachine if it still gets smelly.
My boots are soft and turning them inside out to dry completely solved the smelly problem.

Everything is dry and ready for use in the morning.

[Jeremey76]

Flush your suit with fresh water especially after salty sessions, salt attracts water and therefore dries up less quick and keeps it damp.

Let it dry out of sun/rain inside out once completely dry turn it back to normal and let the outside dry! No smells here

+1

[knotwindy]

I just try to park next to someone who’s stuff smells worse than mine, then it doesn’t bother me as much.

[Peter_Frank]

All ways dry your gear after each use. I hang up wetsuits, dry suit, impact vest, life vests. My helmet and harness goes on a box fan at low speed to dry those.

Well, life is too short and good for wasting time on this…

Just leave your suits in the car, and SURF

If I should bother drying my gear every day, after being out, there would not be much time left for fun

Maybe you are very "cold" easily?

As if you just use as thin a suit, best thing is of course shorts or shorty when possible, then the water will rinse through and keep it from stinking

Dont use shoes or similar, if not necessary, as these might stink very fast.

Salt water preserves really good, without stink in my experience.

Peter

[TheJoe]

Peter I dry my stuff while I sleep after kiting. Does not take very long. Plus there is no way I'm putting on a wet wetsuit when it's cold. Lol if that was the case I would buy another one before putting a wet one on. I hate the cold.

[Peter_Frank]

Indeed, sometimes I do that too, dry it fully when cold next day.

But if you rinse your suit, then it will be all wet, and take forever to dry...

Much better just to take it off, and dry it fully back home if you prefer a suit the next day which is bone dry.

And mostly it is semi dry or more, when you take it off after a surf day and pack down, so left in the car inside out, most often dry the next day.

When surfing a lot, you can not use time on too much except being on the water IMO

Peter

[plummet]

Side note.

Get yourself a truck. Chuck the stinky, sandy stuff in the back...
All of a sudden the stink fest is not much of a problem anymore!

[dice]

I moved to the slide hanger to avoid hanging the wetsuit by the shoulders. A wet 5-6mm suit weighs about 10kg and that weight pulling on the shoulders does serious damage.

I don't think that's an issue. I've been doing that for years and I notice no difference at the shoulders. The wetsuit is strong enough for that.
Squeezing arms and legs to get the water out probably does more damage. And even that is minimal.

[OzBungy]

....

I don't think that's an issue. I've been doing that for years and I notice no difference at the shoulders. The wetsuit is strong enough for that.
Squeezing arms and legs to get the water out probably does more damage. And even that is minimal.

I know it is an issue. I wore out the shoulders of two wetsuits hanging them to dry on hangers. It only happens on modern super stretch wetsuits. The manufacturers warn about it in the care instructions. So do the instructions for my wetsuit dryer.

The point loading of the tips of the hanger loads up the shoulders and degrades the fabric. You can hold it up to light and see right through it. I always used wide shoulder hangers but the damage still happens.

When said "squeeze" the arms and legs I mean exactly that. Hold the arm or leg in my hand and squeeze it. No wringing or pulling. Just squeezing. I guess about a cupful of water comes out, That's about 250 grams so nearly a kilo of water that would otherwise have to drip or evaporate.