How to Hang a Wetsuit
Wes Severson January 24th, 2024 Posted In: How-To
How to Hang a Wetsuit
So you just got a new wetsuit and now you’ve found yourself googling how to hang a wetsuit. The truth is, you’re smart for researching how to hang wetsuit because you can easily damage them by not hanging them up properly. You want your suit to always fit the way it fit the first time you put it on.
If you don’t hang it the right way while it dries there is a big possibility you’ll run into issues that are easily avoidable.
The Wrong Way
The best way to explain how to hang a wetsuit the right way is to explain the wrong way first. The reason is, we have been taught our whole lives to hang shirts, jackets, or anything with sleeves with a clothing hanger. The hook part of the hanger sticks out of the neck hole with the shirt hanging by the shoulders. You may have noticed that hanging T-shirts or sweaters this way stretches out the neck and shoulders.
Well, the same holds true for your wetsuit but because it is much heavier and stretchier the damage will be exponentially worse. You will notice the shoulders are loose and that more water is being let in through the neckline. In some cases, you’ll actually see little round protrusions from the sides of the hanger on your shoulders.
The bottom line is, avoid the natural instinct to hang your wetsuit with a traditional clothing hanger on the shoulders.
To avoid this, you might be thinking that you should just slide your wetsuit through the hanger, so it is essentially folded over somewhere in the stomach. This is also a bad idea because once your suit dries that fold will likely not go away leaving you with an odd line in your stomach and a suit that doesn’t fit as well as it did the day you bought it. Hopefully, you’re starting to see that we really just want to avoid any unnecessary stretching and hanging. At this point, you might be thinking that a hanger is not the way to go but don’t count it out just yet.
How to Hang a Wetsuit: It’s a Step By Step Process
I am the type of person who takes very good care of things so learning how to hang a wetsuit is important to me. I am in the ocean at least 4 days a week and so I really depend on my wetsuits to keep functioning for me month after month. One way I keep my wetsuits working like new is by making sure I am hanging them correctly from the moment I take them off and rinse them down with fresh water.
Step 1:
After you rinse and your wetsuit is soaking wet, I like to use a laundry drying rack and lay my suit over the top of it so there are no folds. I do this while the suit is inside-out and I usually let it sit for about an hour, flipping it over after 30 minutes so it dries more evenly. Do not hang the wetsuit to dry in direct sunlight though!
Step 2:
Now is the time to use the hanger but you will also need a towel to accompany it. Fold the towel into a square or rectangle that is just a little shorter than the width of the hanger. Feed that through the hanger and fold it over the so it creates a large, rounded edge. Then feed your wetsuit through it so it is folded over in the stomach area over that nice, rounded edge we created with the towel. Let that hang for a few hours.
Step 3:
Remember, your suit is still inside out. After you feel that the inner linings are all dry, flip your wetsuit back to the normal way so the outer layers can dry out. When you do this, you will notice that the towel is pretty wet. I like to replace the towel with a new, dry one just to help increase the overall drying process. Then just do the same thing. Fold the new towel over the hanger and feed the suit through over the rounded edge. At this point, with a fresh towel in place, you can let your wetsuit dry out the rest of the way before taking that entire towel hanger setup and hanging your wetsuit in a closet until the next time you use it.
I have watched several explainers on the best ways to hang a wetsuit and I have found that this one is the most effective and doesn’t cost anything. Pretty much everyone has a hanger and a couple of old towels.
Special Wetsuit Hangers
There are several versions of hangers that are specifically made for wetsuits, but they can cost upwards of $25. I also would be very careful with using any type of special wetsuit hanger that is made to be used as a traditional hanger. Just because it says it is made for a wetsuit doesn’t mean that it won’t cause damage or stretching when the wetsuit is hanging while it is soaking wet.
The hanger with a towel method is always a safe bet!
I hope you try it out!
Editor’s Note
This article was originally published in 2021 and has since been reviewed and updated.
