Advice with putting on wetsuit hood.

[nadenal]

Hey all...
I need a little help. I just bought my first wetsuit yesterday and tried it on at home. I had a problem with the hood. It is a bibbed type and when I was zipping up the back zipper I found it very difficult of get zipped up all the way. The bib in the back of the hood kept sticking out and getting in the way of the zipper. My question is this. Is there any specific techique to make this easier? It was a real pain in the neck trying to get this zipped and snug, and get the bib to lay flat at the same time. Any suggestions on how to make this easier at the beach will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Mike Weber

 

[t-mac]

One of many reasons to hate hoods. A necessary evil sometimes, though. The only solution I've found is to get my buddy to wrestle the back into place so I can zip up. Good luck!

 

[Randy43068]

that's why I chose a hood without a zipper.

 

[CT Sean]

My wife has the same issue with her's I usually finish zipping her suit for her so I can get it as tucked as it's gonna get. I replaced my hood with a Henderson H2 with seems to have a longer neck AND a bigger bib so mine stays just fine and it reasonably easy to zip over.

 

[socaljohn]

I too have been unable to do this for myself and have my buddy tuck and zip me. He has one of those wetsuits with and integrated hood that zips across the chest so he does not need help...except that time we got beyond the surf and he realized he had not zipped it...hard to tell with the BCD in the way.

 

[rongoodman]

I find that a hooded vest is easier to deal with, since there's no bib sticking out in the back--everything lies nice and flat.

 

[socaljohn]

I find that a hooded vest is easier to deal with, since there's no bib sticking out in the back--everything lies nice and flat.

And I bet you never get that blast of cold water down your back either...

 

[KD8NPB]

I wear a 1mm rashguard over the hood's bib... It keeps the bib from popping up, and prevents the coldwater neck splash.

 

[j yaeger]

i don't care for the zippered hoods
same reason,i can't reach the freakin' zipper all the way to the end!!!!!
streaching the 7mm unzip style over my fat squash has never been an issue,and i wear a 2 pc so the bib lays flat against my farmers,then the jacket slips nice over the bib of the hood
my freaky hoods don't have bibs
dry suit only or water temp over 55*
have fun
yaeg

 

[al248005]

I've had the same problem but have found good results with KD's approach. I just went to Walmart and bought a cheap 5$ starter under armor type shirt and put my hood on first then put the shirt on and the shirt keeps the bib down enough for me to zip up...not sure what kind of suit you got but if your suit has a high neck collar, you might be able to get away with a bibless drysuit hood?