Trimming Dry Suit Seals

[Garf]

Hi All

Got myself a shiny new dry suit, which is cool, but the neck seal is astoundingly tight. I'm no expert, but Im sure you're not supposed to feel like blacking out within 60 seconds with the wife standing there laighing her head at the fetching indigo colour of your head.

I'm told that I can simply trim the neck seal down to avoid such unwated side effects whilst maintaining integrity of the suit.

Now I know this is a newbie question, and just begging for sarcasm, but exactly how tight should this seal be on my neck, and what is the proper way to trim it without buggering it up.

Cheers for any help.

Gareth

[Andy Phillips]

Hi,

Before you trim, be patient. Try stuffing a football in the seal and letting it stretch a little. Most seals will slacken off a little over time. The number of seal I have seen that are useless because of some over zelous trimming is scary.

A little gentle warming, and I mean gentle with a hair drier can help. And then if all else fails trim a 5mm bit off at a time.

Andrew

[DanG]

Be careful not to leave any jagged nicks in it though or you could tear it.  
Also lubricate your neck with moisturizers to let it move into the most comfortable place and avoid those embarassing rashes.

[daz]

Or stick a cylinder through the neck seal over night.

It should be reasonably tight but not to the point where you go a funny colour.

A couple of words of warning,  some lubricants will rot the neck seal, KY jelly will not perish the latex seal.

If trimming it then you need to trim off a fraction at a time.   The small amount you trim will make quite a difference all the way around.

If you bought it from a dive shop, go back and see if they will trim it for you if neccessary.  

Finally if you do trim it yourself, then as said before make sure it is nice and even, no nicks that can tear.  Find the sharpest implement possible for trimming and then look around for something even sharper     My LDS use a pair of extremely sharp sewing scissors.

HTH
Daz

[Finless]

Gareth,

I'm not sure if you have a latex or neoprene neck seal. If it is latex there should (probably?) be concentric circles visible on the inside of the seal to give you a guide for trimming.

[Dominic]

My basic rule of thumb for trimming seals:

Don't.

Hope this was of help

[String]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (AndyP @ Sep. 03 2003,23:57)]The number of seal I have seen that are useless because of some over zelous trimming is scary.

Oy ! I resemble that remark

/me still looking for a suitable sized elastic band...

[Mary]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Dominic @ Sep. 04 2003,14:09)]My basic rule of thumb for trimming seals:

Don't.

Hope this was of help

especially don't let a pissed mate (even if he's a 1st class diver and regional instructor), attack it with nail scissors!