Anybody have plans or directions to make a diy relief zipper or flap on a wetsuit for easy urination without having to roll down the top of the suit? I use a farmer john wetsuit in winter and early spring, and hate having to take off my PFD and paddle jacket and fleece vest so I can unzip the back of the wetsuit and pull it down far enough to urinate. I should have bought a wetsuit with a relief zipper but I didn’t know they existed. On long paddling trips, I don’t want to go without drinking any water, and I hate getting cold and wet if it is raining and stopping on shore to take a leak. When doing triathlons, I just go in the suit. But I’d rather not do that if I’m going to be wearing it all day. Is there an easy way to add a relief zipper myself? Aesthetics don’t matter so much, although I’d like to still be able to wear the suit in public without anything over the suit on my lower body. Forgot to mention, I’m a man.
Just
Make an incision with a sharp knife where you would want it then you could make a flap with a second piece of Neoprene which you would just glue on with some aquaseal to cover up your relief.
LOL
You are kidding, right? I wonder who will tell him the facts of wetsuits.
You mean…
The beauty of a wetsuit is there is only one correct way to relieve oneself… and stay really warm?
Installing a zipper
on a wetsuit is easy… buy a dry suit. (smiley face j/k)
We have a sewing guru around here
She runs a shop that repairs outdoor goods such as tents, she makes mods to wetsuits, and she is an authorized Gore-tex repair person also. She replaced a zipper on a fuzzy rubber jacket of mine and she repaired a tear on my old drysuit, all at reasonable rates.
Check in your Yellow Pages to see if you have a similar resource.
Next time you buy, maybe buy one with a relief zipper. While I’ve never seen one for men, NRS and Neosport make them for women. Might be worth contacting these companies and asking them if they plan to make a men’s version.Or maybe they can customize a regular men’s suit for you.
The Wetsuit Warehouse (google it) makes custom suits and might be able to retrofit a relief zipper for you.
NRS farmer johns
Come with a two way zipper -that effectively works like a relief zipper. Darn that zipper is cold and other painful issues if you go commando.
MEC
mec.ca
They have a great farmer john wetsuit with 2-way zip for $65. I don’t think it’s listed on there website, but you could order it by calling.
Drink the water!
Never hold back on water because you think you’ll have to pee.
You’ll find something that works. Either a new wet suit, a zipper or duct tape.
modifications
You can order watertight sippers from Seattle Fabrics, but some of them are pretty bulky. If you do so, also order a small piece of neoprene from them to make a comfort flap behind the zipper. Since you are a guy and will mostly be sitting down paddling, I would suggest a short horizonatal zip rather than a vertical one. Look on line at wetsuits with zips to see what kind of placement they use. Many larger cities still have luggage shops that offer repair services – both those and shoe repair shops should be able to stitch in such a heavy duty zipper in neoprene.
Then again, by the time you buy the materials and pay for the tailoring, you could have used that $30 or so towards a new suit or a gently used one from Ebay.
If you wanted to get creative, you could try cutting a slit across the groin area and then aquasealing a tube of neoprene around it with a roll-down, drybag sort of seal. Would probably work but would look pretty obscene walking around (kind of a wetsuit codpiece).