Can My Wetsuit Be Repaired?
Most wetsuits can be repaired, even ones you have written off. What is fixable, what is not, and the five minute check that tells you which.
The Wetsuit Repair Shack·
The bench · Ocean Grove
Short answer: yes, almost certainly.
We open a lot of parcels at the shack that arrive with an apologetic note attached. "Probably too far gone, sorry." Most of the time the suit is back in the water inside a week. A tear that looks catastrophic on the beach is usually 20 minutes of bench time. A zip that has given up completely is a bigger job, but still a job.
The suits that genuinely cannot be saved are rare. In practice they come down to one thing, and it is not the damage you are looking at. It is the condition of the neoprene around it.
The one question that actually decides it
Every repair depends on whether the rubber will hold glue and thread.
Pinch the neoprene about 5cm away from the damage. Stretch it and let it go. Good neoprene snaps back and feels springy. Perished neoprene feels papery, stays stretched, and sometimes crumbles a little between your fingers. If the liner is lifting away from the foam in sheets and you can peel it with a fingernail, that is delamination.
Damage sitting in healthy rubber is repairable. Damage sitting in perished rubber means the patch will hold, but the panel beside it will let go next.
That is the whole diagnosis. Everything below is detail.
What we repair, day in day out
Here is the honest list from our bench, roughly in order of how often it turns up.
| Problem | Repairable? | Typical bench time |
|---|---|---|
| Fin cut or reef cut | Yes | 20 to 40 minutes |
| Tension tear on arm or leg | Yes | 30 minutes |
| Knee blowout | Yes | 1 to 2 hours |
| Split seam | Yes | 1 to 3 hours |
| Failed chest zip or back zip | Yes | 2 to 4 hours |
| Broken zip slider only | Yes | 30 minutes |
| Bootie sole coming away | Yes | 1 hour |
| Neck, wrist or ankle seal stretched out | Yes | 1 to 2 hours |
| Velcro tab worn out | Yes | 30 minutes |
| Liner torn, foam intact | Yes | 30 minutes |
| Small area of delamination | Usually | 1 to 2 hours |
| Whole suit delaminating | No | Not worth your money |
| Neoprene perished through, crumbling | No | Not worth your money |
Two entries on that list say no. Everything else says yes.
Tears and fin cuts
The most common repair we see, by a long way. Someone comes in off a wave, the fin catches the thigh, and there is a clean slice in the panel.
Clean cuts are the easiest repair in the trade. The edges match, so we clean the surfaces, glue the tear closed under tension, then patch it from the inside so the outer face stays smooth. Cured for 24 hours, the repaired line is often stronger than the rubber next to it.
Ragged tears from reef or rocks take longer because the edges do not line up. We trim back to clean rubber and bridge the gap with a patch on both faces.
Length matters more than location for pricing. Anything up to about 5cm is a small tear. Past 20cm you are into panel territory.
Seams
Seams do not usually tear. They separate, which is a different thing.
Wetsuit seams are glued first and stitched second. When a seam opens up, the glue bond has failed and the stitching is holding a joint it was never meant to hold alone. That is why a seam that starts leaking gets worse fast.
A seam repair means opening the run, cleaning both faces back to bare neoprene, regluing under clamp pressure, then restitching. Glued and blind stitched suits get taped inside where the original build had tape. Flatlock suits get a different treatment because the seam construction is different, and flatlock was never fully waterproof to begin with.
If you want the detail on how seam types affect repairability, we wrote a whole piece on wetsuit seam construction.
Zips
Zips are the repair people assume is terminal. It is not, it is just the biggest job on the menu.
A dead slider is a 30 minute fix and costs very little. Replacing a full chest zip means unpicking the zip panel, removing the old track, fitting a new one, then reglueing and restitching the whole run so the entry seals properly again. Three to four hours on the bench.
The one thing that changes the answer: a chest zip system pulls hard on the panels either side. If that neoprene has gone soft, a new zip will tear out of it. That is a genuine no from us, and we will tell you before we start rather than after.
Knees, seats and thin spots
Knee panels wear through from board wax, sand and paddling. By the time a knee blows out, the rubber around it is usually thin too.
We do not just patch the hole. We reinforce the surrounding area, because otherwise you are back in four weeks with a fresh split 3cm away. The same applies to the seat panel on kayak and ski paddlers, and the shoulders on anyone who wears a vest over the top.
Seals and collars
Neck seals stretch out. Wrist and ankle seals do too, and once they are loose your suit flushes cold water every duck dive.
Reseals are straightforward work and a big comfort win for the money. If your suit still fits everywhere else but you are getting cold, check the seals before you blame the thickness. We wrote about the reasons a wetsuit runs cold if you want to work through it yourself.
What we cannot fix
Being straight with you saves everyone time.
Advanced delamination. When the nylon liner has let go from the foam across large areas, there is nothing solid for glue to bond to. We can spot bond a small area. We cannot rebuild a suit that is coming apart everywhere.
Perished neoprene. UV, heat and chlorine break down the foam cell structure. It goes stiff, chalky and brittle. Patching it is like sewing wet paper. Suits stored in a hot car boot or dried on a fence in full sun get here fast.
Suits where the repair costs more than the suit is worth. A twelve year old $200 steamer needing a zip, two seams and a knee is not a good use of your money, and we will say so. That judgment is yours to make, but we will give you the honest numbers first. Our repair versus replace piece walks through how to run that maths.
How to check your own suit in five minutes
Do this before you send anything anywhere.
- Wash and dry it. Salt and sand hide problems and no repairer can work on a wet suit anyway.
- Turn it inside out. Most damage is easier to see from the liner side.
- Hold it up to a window. Light through the panels shows thin spots and pinholes you cannot see in normal light.
- Stretch every seam. Run your thumbs along each seam and pull gently. Anywhere the stitching gaps or you see daylight is a seam that needs work.
- Work the zip end to end. Twice. A slider that catches now will fail in the surf.
- Pinch test the rubber in three or four spots. Springy is good. Papery is not.
Photograph anything you find with a tape measure or a coin next to it for scale. That single habit gets you an accurate quote instead of a guess.
What happens when you send it to us
We inspect the suit properly, photograph every issue we find, and send you a fixed quote. Usually inside 48 hours. Nothing happens until you say yes, and you choose which repairs go ahead. Plenty of people fix the tear and leave the cosmetic stuff.
Repairs are hand stitched, seam glued and pressure tested before they leave the bench. Local pickup at Ocean Grove, or we post it back to you for $15. Every repair carries a 3 month workmanship warranty. If it is not right when it leaves the shack, we redo it.
We repair every brand that comes through the door. Patagonia, O'Neill, Rip Curl, Vissla, Billabong, Xcel, C Skins, Need Essentials and plenty you have never heard of.
Frequently asked questions
Can a wetsuit with a big tear be repaired?
Yes. We regularly repair tears over 20cm, including full knee blowouts. Large tears get patched on both faces and reinforced around the edges. What matters is the condition of the neoprene around the tear, not the size of the tear itself.
Can you repair a wetsuit zip, or do I need a new suit?
Zips are replaceable. A broken slider is a quick fix, and a full chest zip or back zip replacement takes 2 to 4 hours on the bench. The only time we say no is when the neoprene either side of the zip has perished and will not hold a new track.
Is it too late if my wetsuit has been sitting wet in a bag?
Usually not, though it may need a proper clean first. Mould and mildew come off. What does not come back is neoprene that has been stored hot and wet for a long time and gone stiff. Wash it, dry it, and do the pinch test.
How do I know if my wetsuit is beyond repair?
Look for two things: neoprene that feels papery and stays stretched, and liner peeling away from the foam across large areas. One or both across most of the suit means it is done. Damage in one spot on otherwise healthy rubber is repairable.
Can you repair a cheap wetsuit?
Technically yes. Whether you should depends on the numbers. If the repair is $45 and the suit has three seasons left in it, that is easy maths. If the repair list runs to $200 on a $250 suit, we will tell you.
Do you repair suits other than surfing wetsuits?
Yes. Dive suits, Ironman and tri suits, spring suits, vests and booties all come across the bench. Thin skin tri suit neoprene needs a different patching approach, so it is priced separately.
How long will a repair last?
A properly glued and stitched repair in healthy neoprene lasts the life of the suit. We have suits that have been through here three times over several seasons and are still in the water. Every repair carries a 3 month workmanship warranty.
Get it looked at
Send a photo and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth fixing. If it is not, we will say so.
The Wetsuit Repair Shack, 9 to 11 Sinclair Street, Ocean Grove VIC. Open Monday to Friday, 11am to 5pm. Postal repairs Australia wide.
