Rear-entry drysuits: Expensive Lesson

[Sintax604]

I learned a very expensive lesson today: Back zip drysuits are not meant to be zipped/unzipped by the wearer - DUH!

Allow me to elaborate:
My zipper failed and flooded my suit on the weekend, unfortunatley on an out of town camping/diving trip. The cause was a SMALL tear between two zipper teeth, about 6" from the right end of the zipper. When I took the suit (Bare NexGen) to the manufacturer for zipper replacement the nice people there informed me that they see that exact damage all the time. Apparently it is caused by people trying to zip themselves. The reverse happens (rip on the left side) when people hook the zipper loop onto something to unzip themselves.

The suit is almost new (9 months - 46 dives) and I've only self-zipped twice. Once to see if I could do it, the other time was a bladder emergency. Anyway, Bare doesn't warranty zippers so this diver is out of the water for a while with a $300 repair bill.

There's many reasons we dive with buddies, getting zipped is apparently just as important as the rest.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I don't buy the manufacturer's explanation. As long as you are pulling at the proper angle to the zipper, unzipping/zipping yourself should not place any extra stress on the zipper. One can always use a length of cord/rope to ensure that the pulling is at the proper angle. Being fairly flexible also helps. Having a buddy do it would minimize the possibility of accidentally getting part of your undergarment caught in the zipper. I regularly unzip/zip up myself...and I have yet to observe any in-between zipper teeth damage.

I'd say that a more likely explanation for the small tear in-between zipper teeth is placing heavy gear on top of the zipper. My girlfriend had this happen to her Bare Nex-Gen. She went on a trip to Catalina Island and opted to "check" her drysuit in the soft-sided, flimsy Bare backpack for the 1-hour ferry ride. She noticed later that the there was some prominent cracking in-between the zipper teeth in one location (about 6 inches from the right side). Based on how she had been taught to fold the drysuit and the fact that the zipper damage did not exist until that trip, we deduced that the damage occurred while the drysuit was in the luggage area. Lesson learned. We always hand carry our drysuits on ferry rides, airplane trips, etc. Packing it in a hard-sided case and checking it in would also be acceptable.

Take care of that dry zipper. Typically, it's the most expensive thing to replace on a drysuit.