Buying a Second Hand Wetsuit: The Checklist
A used wetsuit is the lowest impact suit you can buy, if you pick the right one. Ten checks that separate a bargain from someone else's problem.
The Wetsuit Repair Shack·5 min read
The bench · Ocean Grove
A good second hand wetsuit is the best value in surfing and the lowest impact suit on the market, because nothing new had to be made for you to own it.
A bad one is a cold, leaking $150 mistake sitting in your shed.
The difference is ten minutes of checking. Here is exactly what to look at, in the order that matters.
Before you go: know your numbers
Get your height, weight and chest measurement, and look up the size chart for the specific brand. Wetsuit sizing is not consistent between manufacturers, and an MT in one brand fits nothing like an MT in another.
A suit that is slightly too big is worthless. Loose neoprene lets water move, and water movement is what makes you cold. Slightly snug is correct. It should feel restrictive on land.
The ten checks
1. Pinch the foam. Do this first, because it decides everything else. Squeeze the chest, the upper back and the seat between finger and thumb, then release. Good foam springs back with resistance. Tired foam feels thin and papery and takes a moment to recover. If the torso feels flat, walk away regardless of the price. No repair puts warmth back into compressed neoprene.
2. Hold it up to the light. Translucent patches are thin spots. A few small ones on the seat are normal wear. Widespread thinning across the torso is a finished suit.
3. Check for delamination inside. Turn it inside out and look for the jersey lifting away from the foam in bubbles or patches. One small area near a knee is manageable. Several across different panels means the suit is coming apart structurally and glue will not hold on it.
4. Run every seam. Inside out, in good light, fingertip along every stitch line. Look for lifted tape, cracked liquid seal, loose thread and any point you can see through. Ankles, wrists, underarms and crotch fail first. Open seams are fixable and worth a price reduction, not a walk away.
5. Work the zip. Full travel, both directions, several times. Check the teeth are not spread, the slider is not sloppy, and the pull cord is intact. Then look at the baffle behind the zip on a back zip suit. A torn or unstitched baffle floods the suit. Zips are the most expensive common repair, so factor it in.
6. Check the neck seal. Stretch it out with both hands and let go. It should snap back. A seal that stays stretched has lost its grip and will flush every duck dive. Fixable, but negotiate.
7. Look at the knees. Knee panels wear through first on anyone who kneels. Reinforcement is a straightforward repair. Bare foam showing through is a job that needs doing now, not later.
8. Smell it. Persistent mould or ammonia means the suit was stored wet, repeatedly. That accelerates degradation of the glue and the foam. A rinse and a proper wash fixes surface odour. It will not fix a suit that lived in a boot for two years.
9. Check previous repairs. Patches are fine. Patches that are lifting at the edges are not, because they tell you the material around them has degraded. Ask what was done and when.
10. Try it on. All of it. Get the zip closed, put your arms overhead, do a few paddling motions and squat. Look for gaping at the lower back, bagging behind the knees, folds under the arms. Loose material anywhere is water movement.
What a fair price looks like
A suit two years old with sound foam, good seams and a working zip is worth somewhere around a third to a half of new retail. Anything older, or anything needing a repair, should come down from there.
Work out the repair cost before you buy, not after. A $200 suit needing a $180 zip replacement is not a bargain. A $200 suit needing a $50 seam repair is an excellent one.
Send us photos before you hand over money if you are unsure. We would rather tell you a suit is not worth buying than see it turn up on our bench three weeks later.
Where to look
Boardriders clubs and surf lifesaving clubs move suits constantly as kids grow. Surf schools sell down their hire fleet at season end, and those suits are usually well rinsed and hard wearing. Local buy and swap groups on the Bellarine and the Surf Coast turn over plenty. Marketplace works if you check properly.
Why this is the greenest thing you can do
Nearly all of a wetsuit's environmental footprint is created in the factory. Polychloroprene production is energy hungry, chemically heavy and linked to serious documented health impacts near chloroprene plants. Once the suit exists, running it costs a rinse and a hanger.
Buying second hand means none of that footprint gets spent on your behalf. It also keeps 1.5 kg of neoprene out of landfill, in a country with no neoprene recycling stream at all.
Roughly a million wetsuits a year reach end of life globally and almost all of them get buried. Every one that finds a second owner is one that does not.
After you buy it
Soak it properly in fresh water, inside and out. Dry it in shade on a wide hanger. Then deal with anything you found on the checklist while it is still small, because every tear in neoprene wants to become a bigger tear.
