Looking after cold-water swimming kit

Neoprene is a foam with gas trapped in it, bonded to a fabric on one or both faces. Its warmth comes from the gas, its stretch from the foam, and its life is ended by three specific things: being left folded or crushed while wet, heat, and ultraviolet light.

Everything below follows from those. A suit that is dried flat and out of the sun will last several seasons; the same suit left rolled in a bag between swims will smell within a fortnight and delaminate within a year.

• Rinse in cold fresh water — Salt crystallises in the foam and stiffens it. Lake and river water carries silt, algae and whatever else. Rinse the suit, the gloves, the boots, the goggles and the tow float. Cold water only — hot water is one of the three killers.
• Do not leave it rolled up in a bag — This is the one that does the most damage and it is the default behaviour. Wet neoprene folded against itself and left warm in a car boot is an ideal environment for the bacteria that produce the smell, and the smell is a symptom of the material breaking down rather than a cosmetic problem.
• Hang it inside out, folded at the waist, on something wide — A wide hanger or a rail. A thin wire hanger puts the whole weight of a wet suit on two points at the shoulders and stretches them permanently. Inside out first because that is the side that needs to dry, then turn it.
• Out of the sun, and away from the radiator — Both destroy neoprene, and the radiator is worse because it is closer. Any shaded, airy place, however slow, is better than a fast dry with heat.

• Never a washing machine, never a tumble dryer — The agitation delaminates the fabric from the foam and the heat destroys the foam. This holds for every neoprene item you own.
• A dedicated wetsuit cleaner, occasionally — A soak in a wetsuit wash a few times a season deals with the smell properly. Household detergent strips the material and leaves residue that irritates skin.
• Rinse the zip and treat it — A seized zip is the commonest reason a perfectly good suit gets replaced. Fresh water through it every time, and a zip lubricant occasionally, is the whole of the prevention.
• Small splits can be glued, and should be, early — Neoprene cement repairs a seam or a nick in minutes and stops it propagating. A split that has been flexed for a month is a much larger repair.
• Gloves and boots inside out, every time — They dry from the inside far more slowly than the outside and they are the items that go hard and smell first. Turning them out takes ten seconds.

• The changing robe is drying kit, and needs drying itself — A lined changing robe put away damp will hold that damp for a long time. Hang it open. Most are machine washable at a low temperature but the lining mats if tumble dried, which is what turns a warm robe into a thin one.
• Goggles: rinse, never wipe the inside — The anti-fog coating is on the inner surface and wiping it removes it. Rinse and let them dry open rather than snapped into their case wet.
• The tow float is safety equipment and gets checked, not just rinsed — Look at the seam and the valve. A float that has been abraded on gravel or left in the sun will let go quietly, and you will find out at the worst moment.
• Flask and thermals matter more than any of it — The single most-used item in cold-water swimming is dry warm clothing waiting on the bank. It needs no maintenance and it is worth saying out loud, because people spend on neoprene and skimp on what they get into afterwards.