Sunscreen and Wetsuits

[Georgia bubble blower]

I'm not sure if I am posting in the right forum but since this question pertains specifically to wetsuits I figured I would give this one a shot. OK, here's where I need your help. I finally broke down and bought myself a realy nice new wetsuit. After reading a few posts on here I saw where some sunscreens can damage the neoprene of a wetsuit. So...I hit the web and found plenty of places that says some chemicals used in some sunscreens can and do damage the neoprene of a wetsuit. However, after several hours of searching on the web I cannot find anywhere that tells me which chemicals causes the damage. If I don't know which chemical then I don't know which sunscreens to aviod and if i don't find out my head is going to explode. If for no other reason than just to know. I generally don't wear sunscreen when I dive but on occassion i will. I just gotta know, this is driving me crazy. Anybody got any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Eskasi]

I would like to know too! just bought 2 new suits and I ALWAYS slop on the sunscreen.....I guess I could just slop my face and wear a rashguard

 

[prthd9]

If I were either of you I would just put on your face before you leave the house and then take a shirt to put on during SI if you are going to take the wetsuit top down.

 

[fjsala]

I just put a bit on my face a good 30 minutes before the dive.

 

[Georgia bubble blower]

On most occassions I do not wear sunscreen at all when i dive like when I am on a dive boat that has some shade. I very rarely use it on my face no matter what. I'm not fair skinned at all but I do have sensitive skin and just about everything i've tried to use on my face just burns my face worse when i put it on than if i get a slight burn. However, there are occassions where I find the conditions do call for some sunscreen regardless. It is these occassions that I want to make sure that I do not use a sunscreen that might cause damage to my wetsuit.

 

[paulwlee]

I don't know, sunscreen and wetsuits never occurred to me.
It is pretty serious for latex seals on drysuits though.

Since wetsuits typically only last a few years anyway I wouldn't really worry about it. Most wetsuits die because of the compression over use and scraping on rocks, etc.