How to dry a wetsuit?

After your wetsuit is washed the best way to dry it is to hang it in the shadow out of the sun. Sun and UV rays will accelerate the aging of your wetsuit. If it’s also a bit windy then this are the ideal wetsuit drying conditions. Since a wet wetsuit is pretty heavy you need to use a wide hanger to hang it. A thin hanger (like a wire hanger) will make indentations in your shoulders and stretch your wetsuit and if you leave it hanging like this for too long, the indentations can be permanent. So it is even better not to use a hanger at all but throw your wetsuit over a wooden stick (like a broom handle) so that a half of your wetsuit hangs down on each end.

If the air temperature outside is low then dry your wetsuit inside where its warmer. You can hang it in your garage and put a bucket under it, or you can hang it over your tub or your shower. Also squeeze the end of wetsuit arms and legs after it hangs for a while to drain away some water and make it dry faster.

Sometimes you need your wetsuit to be dry really quickly and then the only option is to dry it in the sun. If you dry your wetsuit in the sun:

  • make sure you turn it around every now and then so the sun doesn’t shine on the same side all the time and
  • take it out of the sun as soon as it dries. Don’t leave it hanging there to bake after it has dried.

You can also buy a special wetsuit hanger that has an inbuilt ventilator that blows air through the inside of your wetsuit and greatly shortens the time of drying. It is called HangAir.

7 Comments

  1. Gloves are tricky. Two sticks with gloves on them over a heater. High enough that gloves don’t get hot but low enough that rising warm air still gets to them. That’s how I do it.

  2. The hangoose is the right way to hang your wetsuit, from the waist. I got the SlideHanger ‘caues it was only $15 and it’s made out of recycled, heavy plastic in the USA.

Leave a Reply to Phil Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.