mildly embarassing

[Shae]

When I'm in the sun all geared up for a dive, and it takes a little while to get everyone off the boat, I sweat like a beast. Even after a dunk in the rinse tank, my wetsuit can take on a bit of a BO funk. Anyone else have this problem? What do you do about it? I don't like getting a lot of antipirspirant residue on my gear, nor do I want the salts/grosses of the sweat eating away at my neoprene. Thoughts?

 

[ptyx]

A couple squirts of simple green in the rinse tank do miracles.

And in case it makes you feel better, think about how bad it can get with drysuits...

 

[phil8diver]

I wash my wetsuit with detergent (Tide). It always has a nice smell on my first, second and up to third dive.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Do you rinse your wetsuit after you get home? Personally, I don't trust the "cleanliness" of the water in an outdoor rinse tank.

I wear a Lycra diveskin underneath my wetsuit. The diveskin helps with donning/doffing the wetsuit and reduces friction behind the knee (at least for me). Any residual anti-perspirant washes off easily from the Lycra material.

After every 10 dives or so (or after a dive vacation), I'll let all of my neoprene gear soak in the tub overnight with a little Woolite, Sink the Stink, or some other wetsuit cleaning solution.

 

[Sas]

I soak my wetsuit in wetsuit wash at home to make it smell nice again. I figure I sweat and pee in it and so does everyone else in their suit so I steer well clear of any rinse tub that other people might be using.

Usually leave it for a few hours at home and hang up to dry, works fine.

 

[RU4SKUBA]

There's a product called MiraZyme by McNett which eliminates odors in wetsuits, drysuits, fishing and marine gear, sports equipment, life vests, BCDs, etc. It seems to work fairly well and may solve your problem.

 

[spectrum]

I doubt that it's truly BO from sweating in the suit.

More likely you have accumulated a bio load form prior dives. If it were just from peeing in the suit you would recognize that. Bio load can make for a very raunchy smelling suit. Unless you get into water with a nasty bio load a good clear water rinse then hanging to dry in the shade of my garage is all I have needed.

To rid your suit of that stench you need to put the organisms to rest. A common dive shop product is sink-the-stink. It's an enzyme rinse that will actually eliminate the stinking critters. Other enzyme products such as those sold for cat pee will also have the desired effect but the dilution is less clear. You want to rinse the gear in the solution and hang it to dry. Do not give it a fresh water rinse or the enzymes won't get to do their thing.

Pete

 

[Hatul]

When suiting up how about pouring some water on your head and inside your wetsuit to cool off.

 

[Doc Harry]

My wetsuit never smells funky, my wetsuit always smells like pee-pee.

But it's a good pee-pee smell.

 

[Garrobo]

Lately I've been limiting my diving to two-dives/two days. Second day after diving I launder all my clothes and stuff. I wash my wetsuit on delicate with about half the soap and dry it on warm.