How to Care for Your Wetsuit: Rinse, Dry, Store, and Repair Your Neoprene the Right Way

A quality spearfishing or freediving wetsuit is one of your most expensive and essential pieces of dive gear. It keeps you warm in cold water, protects your skin from stings, scrapes, and UV exposure, and directly determines how long you can stay in the water comfortably. But neoprene is surprisingly fragile when it comes to salt, heat, UV light, and improper handling. The same suit that lasts one diver three months can last another diver three years — the difference is entirely how they take care of it after each session.

Here's a complete guide to wetsuit care that covers rinsing, drying, storage, odor control, and repair. Follow these habits and your wetsuit will stay flexible, warm, and functional far longer than you'd expect.

Rinse Your Wetsuit After Every Single Dive Session

Salt is the primary destroyer of neoprene. Salt crystals that dry inside the cell structure of the rubber make it stiff, brittle, and prone to cracking. After every dive session, rinse your wetsuit thoroughly inside and out with cool or lukewarm fresh water. Turn the suit inside out, rinse the interior lining completely, then flip it back and rinse the exterior. Never use hot water on neoprene — heat weakens the adhesive that bonds seams and accelerates the breakdown of the rubber compound itself.

A quick hose-down after each dive handles the daily salt removal, but a deeper clean once or twice a month makes a significant difference. Fill a tub or large bin with cool water, add a wetsuit-specific shampoo or a small amount of baby shampoo, and soak the suit for 15 to 20 minutes. Gently work the fabric with your hands to loosen embedded salt, body oils, and bacteria. Rinse thoroughly and hang to dry. This deep soak is particularly important if your suit has developed any odor, which is almost always caused by bacteria feeding on trapped organic matter.

How to Dry Your Wetsuit Without Causing UV or Heat Damage

How you dry your wetsuit matters as much as how you rinse it. Never hang your suit in direct sunlight. Ultraviolet radiation breaks down neoprene at the molecular level, causing it to lose flexibility, discolor, and develop surface cracks that shorten its lifespan dramatically. Instead, hang your suit inside out on a wide-shouldered wetsuit hanger in a shaded, well-ventilated area. Once the interior is dry, flip it right-side out and let the exterior finish drying.

The hanger you use matters more than most divers realize. Thin wire or plastic clothes hangers create concentrated pressure points at the shoulders that stretch, crease, and permanently deform the neoprene over time. A wide-shouldered wetsuit hanger distributes the suit's weight evenly and preserves its shape. Never leave a wet suit balled up in a gear bag, in the trunk of your car, or draped over a railing in the sun. Trapped moisture breeds mold and bacteria, and heat exposure accelerates rubber breakdown even faster than salt.

Wetsuit Storage: Preventing Creases, Cracks, and Off-Season Damage

Once your wetsuit is completely dry, store it on a wide hanger in a cool, dark closet or gear room. Never fold a neoprene wetsuit flat for storage. Folds create creases that become permanent weak points in the material, and those creases eventually crack and tear with use. If you don't have hanging space, loosely roll the suit starting from the legs up — this distributes pressure more evenly than a flat fold.

Keep your stored wetsuit well away from heat sources including radiators, space heaters, furnaces, and hot water pipes. Heat damage to neoprene is cumulative and irreversible — it doesn't take a single dramatic event, just slow, steady exposure over time. Also keep your suit away from petroleum-based products, aerosol sprays, solvents, and chemical cleaners. These substances break down the neoprene compound and can dissolve seam adhesive, causing delamination you won't notice until you're in the water and cold.

How to Get Rid of Wetsuit Smell: Odor Prevention and Treatment

A smelly wetsuit is a neglected wetsuit. The odor comes from bacteria that thrive in the warm, moist environment inside the suit, feeding on sweat, body oils, and urine residue. The most effective prevention is consistent rinsing and complete drying after every session. If your suit already smells, a deep soak in cool water with wetsuit shampoo or a dedicated wetsuit deodorizer will kill the bacteria and neutralize the odor.

For persistent odor, soak the suit overnight in a dilute solution of water and white vinegar or a product like Sink The Stink. Rinse thoroughly afterward. Avoid bleach and harsh chemical cleaners, which kill bacteria but also damage neoprene fibers and adhesive. Prevention is always better than treatment — a two-minute rinse after each dive prevents the bacterial buildup that creates the smell in the first place.

Wetsuit Repair: Fix Small Tears and Seam Separations Before They Spread

Nicks, small tears, and seam separations are inevitable with regular spearfishing use. Reef contact, spear tips, fish spines, and rough boat entries all take their toll. The key is addressing damage immediately, because a small nick that goes unrepaired will grow into a large tear over subsequent dives as water pressure and stretching pull it open further. A large tear compromises thermal protection and can render an expensive suit useless.

Neoprene cement is inexpensive, widely available, and easy to apply. Clean both sides of the tear, apply a thin layer of cement to each surface, let it become tacky, then press the surfaces together firmly and hold for 30 seconds. For seam separations, apply cement along the open seam and press flat. Larger repairs may require an iron-on neoprene patch for reinforcement. Keep a tube of neoprene cement in your gear bag and inspect your suit after every dive session so you catch damage while it's still small and easy to fix.

A Few Minutes of Care Makes Your Wetsuit Last for Years

Wetsuit care is one of the simplest and highest-return maintenance habits a spearfisher can build. Rinse after every dive, dry in the shade on a proper hanger, store correctly away from heat and chemicals, address odor before it takes hold, and repair damage promptly. These basic practices protect a significant investment and ensure your suit keeps you warm, flexible, and comfortable in the water season after season. For more spearfishing gear care guides and diving tips, visit SpearFactor.com.