Winter storage of wet-suits, hang, fold, other?

You can loosely fold it and put it in the closet. Just don't anything heavy on top to avoid creases.

Whatever you do, try to pick somewhere without massive daily temperature changes. Ive found this help stops the rubber on the neck and wrists from disintegrating faster than the rest of the suit.

Ihave a bunch of wide shoulder suit hangers for storing my dry wetsuits.

You never hang a wet wetsuit by the shoulders, particularly the modern super stretch suits. The weight of the water and softening of the fabric means the ends of the hangers push through the shoulders of the suit. That doesn't happen with a dry wetsuit.



For wet wetsuits I hang them across a wetsuit hanger. I only hang them in the closet when they're totally dry, inside and out. It takes some extra effort to get the panels inside the chest zip flaps dry.

After every session I partially fill my gear tub then wash each soft item. I like to submerge and soak each thing to reduce the salt buildup. I think spraying with a hose just makes stuff wet and doesn't do a very thorough job (gets water all over the place).

I finish off with soaking the wetsuit (which is inside out after the day's session), then turn it the right way out and soak again, then hang to drip dry overnight. I do the wetsuit last because it has kilos of absorbed water and a fair bit of salt in it. The smaller stuff has a much smaller water/salt load.

That doesn't completely extract all the salt (I can taste a slight brackish hint to the water), but it's good enough and everything is clean.

In the morning I hang the suit over a towel rail, above a heating duct, in the bathroom. That gets the outside of the suit dry by the end of morning coffee. I turn it inside out and the inside dries in the next hour or so.

The inside of the flappy bits need to be inverted, with the wetsuit right way out, so the covered section is exposed. It will never dry while the two layers of neoprene are in contact with each other. That doesn't matter if I'm using the suit in the next day or so.

I don't use any additives. I can't be bothered and it's not necessary. All my gear is clean and odour free.

The one trick I do have is I turn boots inside out to dry. I battled with stinky boots for years and tried antiseptic and/or vinegar with varying degrees of success. Turning the boots inside out solved the problem for good.

Somewhat ironically, it's easier to dry gear in winter because we have the heating on in the mornings. Stuff placed over a heating duct dries very quickly.

Hanging by the shoulders is a no-no, but if hanging folded in half, the hanger should be as wide as possible. And It really depends on the neoprene. I have a top of the range Xcel and it gets creases even on a wide hanger. In fact, when new it came creased from the shipping package. Top of the range Rip Curl doesn't get such creases.

So to be safe, it's better to store it rolled up.

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In any case, I'm not sure if it's really worth babying wetsuits. Over time they lose warmth anyway. I had wetsuits that looked great cosmetically after years of use, but they were cold. Had they looked shabbier, I would've replaced then earlier and suffered less from the cold.

For storage I gently fold them into big rectangular plastic bins with covers.
You may want to wrap them around pool noodles at the folds to avoid creases.

Anything with raw rubber (boots), I put talc on it, moisture is what destroys raw rubber, and put them in a zip-lock bag with a (reusable) desiccant. (same with all the spare/unused computer gear with rubber: mice, pads, joysticks...)

Here is the wood+pool noodle hanger I made to make them dry.
Note that I use a disco ball motor to make it spin and provide air circulation.