Glaucus
Registered
Rope and the steering wheel trick works very well for me. And, like most guys, a slow rotation is the key. I have blown out two zippers using this method but I think it's due more to my being too tall for the suit than the actual pulling. Nine feet tall in a five foot suit - not cool, even if neoprene does stretch.
Also, I dive in cold water. And I'm too poor to buy a proper insulation suit. Consequently, I use my old fleece sweatshirts which get sucked into that zipper like a necktie into a papershredder. During my highly scientific experiements I had a good amount of success with this technique: take a piece of fairly rigid plastic, like the kind found in the bottoms of duffel bags, and cut it about five inches tall and as long as your back is wide. Next, apply a generous amount of the hook side of a stick-on hook and loop fastener (that's a tape roll of velcro to those who recognize the difference). Then, to use, get ina you suit, align and stick the plastic under your zipper with the hook side of the velcro toward your clothes and commence zipping stopping short of the end to remove the plastic for the last few inches of closure. The velcro keeps the plastic in place and the plastic always keeps the zipping operation snag free. (As I said, these were highly scientific tests.)
Swimmingly,
Also, I dive in cold water. And I'm too poor to buy a proper insulation suit. Consequently, I use my old fleece sweatshirts which get sucked into that zipper like a necktie into a papershredder. During my highly scientific experiements I had a good amount of success with this technique: take a piece of fairly rigid plastic, like the kind found in the bottoms of duffel bags, and cut it about five inches tall and as long as your back is wide. Next, apply a generous amount of the hook side of a stick-on hook and loop fastener (that's a tape roll of velcro to those who recognize the difference). Then, to use, get ina you suit, align and stick the plastic under your zipper with the hook side of the velcro toward your clothes and commence zipping stopping short of the end to remove the plastic for the last few inches of closure. The velcro keeps the plastic in place and the plastic always keeps the zipping operation snag free. (As I said, these were highly scientific tests.)
Swimmingly,
