SouthSideScubaSteve
Contributor
I got a great deal on a used Mares 7-5-3 wetsuit for my daughter on EBay and it fits like it was custom made for her …. Well almost; the wrists are exceedingly tight, but 2-3” up from the end of the arms, it fits perfectly. The wrists are composed of about 2” of smooth-skin type material , which doesn’t seem to stretch very well. The arms are also about 2-3” too long. In an attempt to stretch then wrists out, I forced an Aluminum water bottle into each arm, out through the wrist… My plan is to leave them a few days and then have her try the suit on again.
Short of trying to find progressively larger diameter items to use to stretch the sleeves, does anyone have any tips on ways to stretch out a portion of a wetsuit?? Would steaming it help speed the process??
If that doesn’t work, my other thought is to cut the wrists back about ¾” and trying that, I figure I can progressively take about 3/16” to 1/8” until I’m down to about 1.5” of the smooth-skin material left. I don’t want to remove more, because I want enough to provide good seals at the wrists.
If I have to go this route, how do I seal the edges so the material doesn’t fray and prevent the stitching on the wrist from unraveling???
Short of trying to find progressively larger diameter items to use to stretch the sleeves, does anyone have any tips on ways to stretch out a portion of a wetsuit?? Would steaming it help speed the process??
If that doesn’t work, my other thought is to cut the wrists back about ¾” and trying that, I figure I can progressively take about 3/16” to 1/8” until I’m down to about 1.5” of the smooth-skin material left. I don’t want to remove more, because I want enough to provide good seals at the wrists.
If I have to go this route, how do I seal the edges so the material doesn’t fray and prevent the stitching on the wrist from unraveling???
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