My boots ruined my wetsuit

[boulderjohn]

think about the natural flow if you are diving in horizontal trim with the knees bent.

 

[uncfnp]

Excellent point about the natural flow of urine within the confines of a wetsuit/bootie combination, I admit that never occurred to me. On my next dive trip I'm going to make it happen and after all these years of intentionally placing the leggings over my booties to avoid such a problem I sure hope I'm not pissed at the results of my little experiment.

I suggest a controlled experiment with three identical sets of new boots. Spend a week diving each pair, one leg in and pee, one leg out and pee and one set no pee. Then do a sniff test of each. This should tell you which option is best.

 

[Altamira]

I have 3 and 5mm Bare Elastek wetsuits, both of which are pretty stretchy, but have have not had any issues with abnormal stretching over the boots. If Henderson will not take care of you, all is not lost because you can have zippers installed in the wetsuit legs, which will not only make donning/doffing a lot easier, but some of the "excess" neoprene can be dealt with during installation of the zippers. Good luck.

 

[DavBuc]

think about the natural flow if you are diving in horizontal trim with the knees bent.

Oh, I totally get your point, the piss will likely stay along the diver's leg rather than traveling between the outside of the boot and inside of the wetsuit leg, regardless of trim position unless of course you happen to be "foot high" in which case the results could be rather unfortunate.

 

[DavBuc]

If this is a serious issue for you, try wearing a shorty.

It's serious. Excessive wetsuit bootie piss volume issues almost ended my diving career and also detracted from the experience of other vacation divers when I emptied them onto the boat deck.

 

[Marie13]

I have a Bare Evoke in 3/5/7mm. I always wear my wetsuit over boots (the 5mm booties from DGX). I'm 5'5" and the legs are 1" or so too long on me. There is no way I'd be able to even put the separate inner seal (on 5 and 7) inside my booties. Bunches up up too much, and I can't get booties zipped up then.

The bit of water that may come in the bottom doesn't bother me. Good to have some water exchange anyway to flush out the pee.

 

[Vicko]

think about the natural flow if you are diving in horizontal trim with the knees bent.

If you have light enough fins the piss will actualy flow trough your hood. Another point for heavy ruber fins I guess.

 

[yle]

It's serious. Excessive wetsuit bootie piss volume issues almost ended my diving career and also detracted from the experience of other vacation divers when I emptied them onto the boat deck.

1. Wear wetsuit over booties.

2. Rinse wetsuit vigorously at the end of the dive, while you're still in the water.

If you're unsure how to accomplish #2, I have good news: I'm developing a Proper In-water Wetsuit Rinsing distinctive specialty that hopefully will be approved soon. I can then officially train you (for a reasonable fee, of course)... and even give you a cert card!

It might be just the kind of card that dive boats will require in the future...

 

[GreggS]

Yes, the 6.5mm boots were a "workaround" for a pair of fins I wanted, the Mares Avanti Quattro's. I have size 7 women's feet, and the thin 3mm ankle booties I had would not work for those fins. As it turns out, even the 6.5mm boots don't work for those fins. And on top of that, they ruined my wetsuit. Now, I have to get a new wetsuit and new boots. My mistakes and lessons learned are costing me a lot of money!

I'm both confused and intrigued by this post. My wife and I both use the Avanti Quartos and we both wear 5mm boots. Neither of us have any problems with the fins and boots not working together. We both use elastic straps and each of use have a snug, but not tight, fit. So I don't know what your issue is that the boots don't work with those fins. Could you elaborate a bit more as what the issue is there?

And while we both use the Henderson Thermaxx wetsuit, ours are 3mm. We were our wetsuit legs over the boots and neither have had issues with the legs stretching.That could be a difference between the 3mm and the 5mm, but I'd be surprised.

I'm very curious as to what is causing this problem for you.

 

[scubadiver888]

I always wear my wetsuit over my boots.

My first wetsuit was an inexpensive Akona wetsuit with Dacor boots. I always wore the wetsuit over the boots. After a while I realized that the wetsuit did not snap back and I had to wear it over boots from now on. After quite a few years the ankle seals just didn't work well at all but the neck and wrist seals are shot too. So I think the entire suit needed to be replaced. It was cheap and now it was old.

My second wetsuit was a Henderson Thermoprene. I stretched it over my boots as well. It did fine. I can wear the Thermoprene without boots and it still had a great seal. I continued to wear it over my boots. So I guess it didn't really matter.

I'm a little surprised the Thermaxx does not keep a good seal at the ankles after being stretched over your Aqualung boots. So long as you wear the Thermaxx wetsuit with the Aqualung boots, does it keep a good seal? If even this does not work after a while, maybe the Thermaxx is defective. Or it isn't really the quality I would have expected from a Henderson wetsuit.