Dry suits with zips on the back

[BarryNL]

Has anyone managed to find a technique for opening/closing their own drysuit zip when it's on their back? Obviously at some sites you can ask a passer-by but a quiet sites its not always possible and you certainly don't want to come out the water and not be able to escape the suit...

 

[MarkH]

I loop a belt in the zipper loop, attatch it to a tree or sign post and move my back to zip it up.

 

[BarryNL]

I loop a belt in the zipper loop, attatch it to a tree or sign post and move my back to zip it up.

Ah-ha - if the mountain won't come to Mohammed, and all that...

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I pull my suit up as high onto my shoulders as I can get it and zip/unzip as far as I can with one hand, then switch hands. It take a bit of practice, but becomes very easy after a couple tries. If the Sun is shining I will turn sideways and look at my reflection in a car window to see if my undergarments are caught in the zipper.

 

[Rick Inman]

I have a front zip now. But in the past, I would run a rope around the steering wheel of my truck and close it into the top of the door - pulling it as close to the door as possible as I closed the door. Then just slowly turn.

I stopped trusting my zipper to passer-bys. They just don't appreciate the care or cost. The only people qualified to zip or unzip me is my drysuit buddy (zippies are as zippies do), my wife (shares the financial interest in the zipper) or another crusty old drysuit diver (has replace enough zippers to understand).

 

[Stoo]

Most of the time, I dive from a Zodiac Hurricane with a self-righting frame aft. I have a 3' line which I can attach to this, with a clip in the end. I clip this to my zipper and slowly rotate around, closing the zipper. I dive in a Viking Pro, which is fairly baggy, so I don't haven much trouble with catching my undies. Getting undone is even easier....

An old buddy of mine (now retired from diving) had a dock cleat bolted to the side of his dive van which he used for the same purpose...

 

[all4scuba05]

I clip my dog leash and pull for both opening and closing it.

 

[hilti]

I use a heavy rubber bungee hooked to a ring in my pick up box, with a little practice on direction and tension you can feel when it starts to bind, also you can step away and pull the zipper from your back. the rubber flex is pretty polite to the zipper and works well for me, coming out is easier yet, and faster than a human!

 

[dherbman]

I clip my dog leash and pull for both opening and closing it.

Same here. Take it slow and don't try to force it. It take a combination of the right angle of pull and the proper tension to get it closed or open without stressing the zipper. I watched another guy using the same technique and it looked very hard on the zipper.

 

[blatter]

Have a front opening suit now so it is easy to do up my own zip - but when I had a shoulder entry drysuit I used to use a couple of metres of line with a loop in one end and a carabiner at the other to clip onto the zipper tab.

Attach the end with the loop to any convenient object (poles, trees, car etc) and slowly twist body to operate the zip.

I found that it helped to try and get the line more or less parrallel to the zipper.

Undoing the zip this way was very easy, and I did this all the time. Doing the zip up was a bit more problematic as there is a risk of jamming undergarments in the zip or bunching the zip up. Looking in the car side mirror or running fingers along in front of the zipper helped but involved extra contortions. Sometimes I used to get into my suit at home and get someone to do up the zip there and drive to the dive site to avoid the higher risk of damaging the zip.