Spent 3 years diving with a cracked neck seal before I realized it was a $50 fix

I was at a dive shop in Port Fourchon last month getting a new drysuit zipper. The guy there pointed out the tiny crack in my neck seal and said it's probably been letting in a slow trickle of water the whole time. He replaced it for $50 and now I'm actually dry. How many of you have been just ignoring a minor fix that makes a huge difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessa_murray1mo ago

Honestly that rust in the corrugated hose thing is a good point but I gotta say something about your buddy Chris. You said he pulled rust out of the corrugated hose, but those hoses are usually plastic or rubber, not metal. The corrugated part is the breathing hose on a rebreather or maybe a regulator setup, not a drysuit part. Drysuits have wrist and neck seals, zippers, and inflator valves but no corrugated hoses. Tbh if he had rust in a hose that sounds more like a rebreather loop issue than a drysuit problem. Ngl Ive seen people confuse the two before. Just didnt want anyone reading to start thinking their drysuit has a corrugated hose to check.

karen_sanchez491mo ago

Wait my buddy Dave had something kinda similar but with a different setup. He was diving his rebreather for like a year and kept feeling like he was breathing through a straw. Ignored it thinking it was just the scrubber getting packed. Finally took it apart and found chunks of rust and gunk in the breathing hose from where his old steel tank had been dripping into the loop. Cost him a whole weekend and a new hose set. So yeah your point about people mixing up drysuit stuff with rebreather problems is dead on. I bet that Chris story is the same kind of confusion.

piper7791mo ago

Had a buddy named Chris who dove his drysuit for two years with a busted ankle zipper. Thought he just had sweaty feet. Finally took it in when the zipper completely gave out. The repair guy pulled two fistfuls of rust out of the corrugated hose. Cost him $75 and a weekend of drying everything out.