This is a long shot but I don't suppose anyone has an old trashed neoprene drysuit with a working ahoulder zip I could scrounge do you? My oldest neoprene diving suit's zip has just expired and it's not worth the cost of a new replacement as the suit is getting on a bit (and has had a hard life). It would need to be a neoprene suit because the zip can be cut out still attached to a neoprene panel - which could then be butt joined onto my existing suit.

People sometimes keep old neoprene suits for the neoprene; I wouldn't want the whole suit, just an 18 cm rectangle of neoprene off the back with the zip attached to it. If anyone can help please can you send me a PM? Thanks.

Hi John,

Sorry, but can't help. But I've got exactly the same problem!

Good luck, Cheers.

Have either of you thought about buying a new zip or buy a new drysuit

Toplink said:

Have either of you thought about buying a new zip or buy a new drysuit

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No, not if the damaged one is recoverable and still has some life left in it.

Brand new drysuit zips are very expensive and the suit's not really worth it. (Sorry, I tried to explain this in my original post above.) This particular suit is used for very hard underwater digging use, so I'd not use a new suit for that purpose anyway. Not when the old one is very easy to repair.

What is the zip problem?  They can be fixed, sometimes.

Not in this case Ian - I surfaced from a long cave dive and was undoing myself with a krab and sling (you know - "tree thai chee") and the zip jammed. Looking in the car mirror revealed a tooth on the zip had loosened in such a way as to prevent the slider moving far enough to get out of the suit. If someone else had been there it might have been possible to get the slider past this damaged tooth using a pair of pliers - but there wasn't. Things were also getting urgent as I'd not rigged the P-valve up that day. So in the end I had to take the decision to knife the zip so I could get the suit off. As it was an across the shoulder zip you can imagine that this was quite interesting, especially as I only wanted to sacrifice the zip, not the whole suit. The old zip is now resident at Craven District Council's tip outside Skipton, with absolutely no chance of repair!

Two caving friends have now kindly offered me second hand zips, so I may be sorted - just got the faff of gluing the replacement into this particular suit.

Try Kermit at Warmbac; he's got some and will be at Hidden Earth so could take them up there. Phone number here:
http://warmbac.com/contact.php

Pitlamp said:

Not in this case Ian - I surfaced from a long cave dive and was undoing myself with a krab and sling (you know - "tree thai chee") and the zip jammed.

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Drifting off topic - but I recall a story about a well known diver who tried the same trick but using the door handle of a pub and the zip stuck and he ended up having to wait until the pub opened.

You still in need of that zip? if so i have one at my old flat i could grab later in passing....

Folks - I've had some excellent offers of help, for which I'm very grateful. I think Beardy has now sorted me out (but won't be certain until the replacement zip's in and tested).

Thank you everybody. (Si and Jamie - if I hit unexpected problems I may come back to you directly - but hopefully it should all work out OK. Si - hope you got my text before going out of your way.)