How to Care for Your Wetsuit: Cleaning, Storage, and Repair

Your Wetsuit Is the Most Abused Gear You Own

Think about what you ask of a wetsuit. You stretch it over wet skin, soak it in salt water, bake it in the sun, fold it into a damp ball in your car, and then expect it to keep you warm and flexible the next morning. No other piece of surf equipment takes this kind of punishment session after session — and almost none gets treated worse.

A quality wetsuit is also one of the most expensive things in your quiver: a good 3/2 or 4/3 runs $200 to $500-plus, and a high-end suit can cost as much as a new board. Yet most surfers burn through a suit in a season or two, watching it go stiff, smelly, and leaky, then blame the manufacturer. The truth is more useful than that — the vast majority of wetsuits die of neglect, not defect.

This guide covers the full lifecycle of wetsuit care: how to rinse and dry it correctly, store it, keep it from smelling like a tide pool, repair the inevitable tears, and know when a suit is genuinely done. None of it is difficult, and all of it adds up to years of extra life.

How a Wetsuit Actually Works (and Why Care Matters)

To care for a wetsuit intelligently, it helps to understand what you're protecting. A wetsuit doesn't keep you dry — it keeps you warm, by trapping a thin layer of water against your skin that your body heats and the neoprene holds in place. The better the suit seals at the wrists, ankles, and neck, and the more intact the neoprene, the warmer you stay. Two things make this possible, and both are vulnerable.

The first is neoprene foam, a synthetic rubber filled with millions of tiny nitrogen gas bubbles. Those bubbles are the insulation. Over time, compression, UV light, and heat collapse them, and the foam gets thinner, stiffer, and less warm — which is why a three-year-old suit feels colder even with no visible damage.

The second is the seam construction. Modern suits are glued and blind-stitched and often taped on the inside to stop water entry. These seams are the structural weak point: salt crystals, hard folds, and yanking the suit on and off all stress them, and a failed seam is the number-one reason a suit starts leaking cold water down your spine.

Almost every care habit below comes down to protecting the foam bubbles and the seams. Keep those two healthy and the suit stays warm and watertight.

After Every Session: The Rinse

This is the single most important habit, and it takes ninety seconds. Rinse your wetsuit in cold or lukewarm fresh water after every surf. Not at the end of the week, not when it starts to smell — every time.

Salt water is the enemy. As it dries, it leaves behind microscopic crystals that lodge in the neoprene and along the seams. Those crystals are abrasive — they grind at the foam and seam tape from the inside, and they attract moisture, keeping the suit damp and feeding the bacteria behind the dreaded wetsuit funk. Sand makes it worse, acting like sandpaper in every fold. Here's how to do it right:

• Use cold or cool fresh water, never hot. Hot water accelerates the breakdown of neoprene and can loosen seam glue. A garden hose or a cool shower is perfect.
• Rinse inside and out. Turn the suit inside out and rinse the interior — the side touching your skin, where sweat and bacteria collect — then flip it back and rinse the exterior.
• Flush the zipper. Salt and sand in the zipper teeth are what cause zippers to seize and fail. Rinse it specifically and work it open and closed a few times under the water.

If you adopt one habit from this entire article, make it this one. A rinsed suit will outlive an unrinsed one by years.

Drying Without Destroying

How you dry your wetsuit matters as much as whether you dry it, and this is where most suits get quietly murdered.

Keep It Out of Direct Sun

UV radiation is brutal on neoprene. It breaks down the foam, fades and cracks the outer lining, and degrades the seam glue. Drying your suit on a sunny fence or a hot car roof feels convenient and is one of the fastest ways to age it. Dry your wetsuit in the shade, in a well-ventilated spot — a garage, covered porch, bathroom, or the shaded side of the house. A little morning sun won't kill it, but a full day baking on a south-facing wall absolutely will.

Hang It the Right Way

Never hang a wetsuit by the shoulders on a thin wire or plastic hanger. The weight of the wet neoprene pulling down on two narrow points stretches and distorts the shoulders permanently and stresses the seams over time.

Instead, fold the suit over a wide, rounded support at the waist — a dedicated wide wetsuit hanger, a thick padded hanger, or a clean railing in a pinch — which distributes the weight across the strongest part of the suit. Hang it inside-out first so the interior dries fully, then flip it and let the outside finish. A suit that's still damp inside when you store it is a suit growing bacteria.

Don't Rush It

Resist the urge to speed-dry. Never put a wetsuit in a dryer, on a radiator, in front of a heater, or near any direct heat source. Heat is the fastest way to ruin neoprene — it shrinks the foam, hardens it, and pops the seams. If you surf daily and need a suit dry by dawn, the answer is owning two suits and rotating them, not cooking one overnight.

Storing Your Wetsuit Between Sessions and Seasons

Short- and long-term storage call for slightly different approaches, but the principle is the same: keep it clean, dry, and unstressed.

Day-to-Day Storage

Between sessions, hang the suit folded at the waist over a wide hanger in a cool, dark, ventilated space, exactly as you'd dry it. The cardinal sin here is the one nearly everyone commits: leaving a wet wetsuit balled up in a bag, bucket, or car trunk. A damp suit crammed into a dark, warm space is a petri dish — within a day or two it starts to smell, and that smell is bacteria actively breaking down the suit. If you must transport it wet, get it out and hung up the moment you're home.

Long-Term and Off-Season Storage

When you're putting a suit away for weeks or months — say, storing your winter 4/3 through the summer — take a few extra steps:

• Make sure it is bone dry, and give it a deeper clean first (see the next section) to clear out accumulated salt, sweat, and bacteria.
• Hang it, or store it loosely folded — but avoid hard, tight creases, which can set a permanent kink and stress the foam along the fold line.
• Keep it cool and out of light. A closet beats a hot attic or a damp basement; extreme heat and cold both shorten neoprene's life.

A suit stored correctly over the off-season comes out in the fall just as flexible as you left it. One stored wet and crumpled in a hot garage comes out stiff, stinking, and sometimes already failing.

Deep Cleaning and Defeating the Funk

Even with diligent rinsing, a wetsuit accumulates sweat, salt, and bacteria over a season and eventually needs a proper wash. And if your suit has already developed the funk — that unmistakable ammonia-and-low-tide smell — a deep clean is how you fight back.

When and How to Deep Clean

Plan on a thorough wash every couple of months of regular use, before long-term storage, and any time the suit smells. The method is simple:

1. Fill a tub or large bucket with cold or lukewarm fresh water — never hot.
2. Add a wetsuit-specific cleaner. This matters: household detergents, especially anything with bleach, enzymes, or harsh surfactants, degrade neoprene and strip its flexibility. Dedicated wetsuit washes are formulated to be neoprene-safe.
3. Submerge the suit and gently work the cleaner through it, inside and out, and let it soak for the time the product recommends — usually 15 to 30 minutes.
4. Rinse thoroughly in clean fresh water, then dry it normally — shade, ventilation, folded over a wide hanger, inside-out first.

What Causes the Smell — and What Actually Kills It

The funk is not the salt water itself; it's bacteria feeding on the sweat and dead skin trapped in the lining, plus — let's be honest — the urine most surfers add to keep warm. Bacteria thrive in damp, dark, warm conditions, which is exactly what a balled-up wet suit provides.

The real fix is prevention: rinse inside-out every time, dry fully before storing, and never leave it wet and crumpled. Once the smell is established, a wetsuit cleaner with a deodorizing formula is your best tool. What you should not reach for is bleach, strong detergent, or boiling water — they may knock back the smell briefly, but they damage the suit far faster than the bacteria do.

Putting It On and Taking It Off Without Wrecking It

A surprising amount of wetsuit damage happens in the parking lot, not the water. Neoprene tears most easily when it's being stretched over skin, and impatient, fingernail-driven yanking is responsible for countless blown seams and gouged panels. A few habits protect the suit during the most dangerous thirty seconds of its day:

• Use the pads of your fingers, not your nails. Fingernails and toenails are the leading cause of internal tears and lining punctures. Spread your hands flat and ease the neoprene up your limbs in stages.
• Take your time at the ankles and wrists. These thin, sealed cuffs are delicate. Gather the material, ease your foot or hand through, then unroll it up the limb.
• A plastic bag over your foot or hand turns a frustrating fight into a smooth slide — cheap and remarkably effective for tight cuffs.
• Keep the zipper straight and unforced, and peel the suit off inside-out rather than wrenching at it while it suctions to your skin.

Slowing down for ten seconds here prevents the kind of damage no amount of rinsing can undo.

Repairing Tears, Seams, and Leaks

Sooner or later, every suit takes damage — a fingernail gouge, a seam that starts to open, a small puncture. The good news is that most of it is repairable at home for a few dollars, and catching it early stops a tiny leak from becoming a season-ending split.

Neoprene Cement (Wetsuit Glue)

For most small tears, separated seams, and surface splits, neoprene cement is your tool — a flexible contact adhesive made specifically for wetsuits, sold under brands like Aquaseal and Black Witch. The basic process:

1. Make sure the suit is completely clean and dry at the repair site.
2. Hold the tear open and apply a thin layer of cement to both sides of the cut.
3. Let it become tacky for a few minutes per the product's instructions.
4. Press the edges together, aligning them carefully, and hold until set.
5. Let it cure fully — usually several hours to overnight — before surfing.

For seams, work the cement into the separation and press it closed. Done well, a glued repair flexes with the suit and lasts a long time.

Knowing When to Repair Yourself vs. Send It Out

Handle these yourself: small punctures, short tears, minor seam separations, and lifting seam tape. A tube of neoprene cement and twenty minutes fixes the vast majority of everyday damage.

Send it to a professional repair service for long structural tears, major seam failures running along a panel, broken or seized zippers, and any leak you can't locate. Zipper replacement in particular is fiddly and best left to someone with the right tools. A pro repair on a $400 suit is almost always cheaper than replacing it, especially if the neoprene is still in good shape.

Catch Leaks Early

If you feel a cold trickle somewhere new, find the source before it grows. Often it's a seam beginning to open or a small tear you can spot by stretching the area in good light. Address it promptly with cement and you'll usually stop it in its tracks; ignore it, and the seam keeps opening until it's a job for a professional.

When a Wetsuit Is Truly Done

Even a perfectly maintained suit doesn't last forever. Neoprene ages, foam compresses, and eventually warmth and flexibility fade past the point of repair. Knowing when to retire a suit saves you from shivering in one that's quietly stopped working. Signs a suit is near the end:

• It's noticeably colder than it used to be, even with intact seams — the foam bubbles have collapsed and lost their insulation.
• The neoprene has gone stiff and board-like, robbing you of paddling flexibility.
• Seams are failing in multiple places faster than you can repair them.
• The outer lining is cracking, flaking, or delaminating across large areas.
• It leaks in several spots that repair no longer fixes.

A well-cared-for suit surfed regularly might give you three to five good seasons or more; a neglected one is finished in one or two. When you do retire a suit, note that neoprene is notoriously hard to recycle — some surf brands and shops run wetsuit take-back programs, and old suits live on as everything from coozies to changing mats. A better end than landfill.

The Five-Minute Routine That Saves You Hundreds

Wetsuit care sounds like a long list, but in practice it collapses into a handful of effortless habits:

1. Rinse it in cool fresh water, inside and out, after every session — including the zipper.
2. Dry it in the shade, folded at the waist over a wide hanger, inside-out first, never in direct sun or near heat.
3. Never leave it balled up wet in a bag, bucket, or car trunk — that's how the funk and the rot begin.
4. Deep clean it with a neoprene-safe wetsuit wash every couple of months and before long-term storage.
5. Get it on and off gently — fingertips not nails, and a plastic bag for tight cuffs.
6. Repair small tears and seams early with neoprene cement; send major damage and zippers to a pro.
7. Store it dry, cool, and out of light, hung or loosely folded, between seasons.

That's it. None of it costs more than a few minutes or a few dollars, and together they can double or triple the life of gear you've already paid good money for. A wetsuit is a tool for spending more time in cold water doing the thing you love, and a suit that stays warm, flexible, and watertight is what makes those winter dawn sessions enjoyable instead of an exercise in endurance.

Treat your suit like the investment it is, and it'll return the favor every time you zip it up and paddle out. Rinse it tonight. Hang it in the shade. Your future, warmer self will thank you.