Storage/Shipping of Freediving Equipment

[BennyB]

Hi all,

I'm starting the long voyage home from England to the UK. I'm boxing up all my possessions for sea shipping, which includes all my freedive equipment.

I have a whole bunch of things including Sphera masks, underwater camera housing, goggles, noseclips etc but the bulk of it will be my wetsuits, I have a 5mm open cell smooth outer Elios, a 3mm superstretch inner smooth outer Elios, a yamamoto smooth outer triathlon suit and an ordinary surfing suit lined on both sides.

I'm a bit worried that the wetsuits will either get stinky/moss covered or just deteriorate if they're left in a box on a ship for the better part of 3 months and then in a warehouse in hot Queensland for a few weeks. Rubber tends to go bad if it's folded for a long time too.

Does anyone have some tips/tricks or advice on transporting their much loved gear?

As a start I will rinse everything off in Milton anti-bacterial (it's a nappy wash solution) and probably dust everything off with talc. Anything else you can think of?


Cheers,
Ben

[island_sands]

Originally Posted by BennyB

Hi all,

I'm starting the long voyage home from England to the UK. I'm boxing up all my possessions for sea shipping, which includes all my freedive equipment.

I have a whole bunch of things including Sphera masks, underwater camera housing, goggles, noseclips etc but the bulk of it will be my wetsuits, I have a 5mm open cell smooth outer Elios, a 3mm superstretch inner smooth outer Elios, a yamamoto smooth outer triathlon suit and an ordinary surfing suit lined on both sides.

I'm a bit worried that the wetsuits will either get stinky/moss covered or just deteriorate if they're left in a box on a ship for the better part of 3 months and then in a warehouse in hot Queensland for a few weeks. Rubber tends to go bad if it's folded for a long time too.

Does anyone have some tips/tricks or advice on transporting their much loved gear?

As a start I will rinse everything off in Milton anti-bacterial (it's a nappy wash solution) and probably dust everything off with talc. Anything else you can think of?


Cheers,
Ben

Benny

Its important that they put silica gel in with it all - it will soak up moisture and prevent mould. ask them about it...

also, fresh dried lavender keeps a lot of silverfish at bay as well as other bugs.

You must be excited at going home!

[popolarbear]

well slightly off topic, but im under the impression that as these rubber suits dry some of the minerials in the water come out of solution and precipitate inside the cells matrix of the suit. net result is the the suit slowly loses bouyancy from lack of air pockets, and also slowly becomes heavier. if this it true then storing in mild acid might reverse or slow or possibly just be a good maintenance.


on the subject of forced desication of your wet suit. you dont feel that air drying will get your suits dry enough? if fungis is a possible problem, then perhaps just spray them down with anti fungicide like used in shoes(which have the same rubber in many models also).... once you get back and are reddy to use aagain, just wash off.

if you use the descicant packs your going to possibly need alot of descicant vollume to actualy work. you would also need to possibly seal your suits in air tight or the packs will absorbe ambiant moisture.