Water seems to work ok in a open cell but not in an open cell suit with any sort of lining eg titanium. I only worked this out a few days ago.
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Carrageen seems very promising as a potential wetsuit lubricant: seaweed-based, not harmful to rubber, lubricant, very cheap, sustainable, edible even,...
Chondrus crispus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia = E407 or E407b !
It's used as a condom lubricant - so presumably relatively harmless to (less resistant) latex rubber and sensitive skin! It even has some protective properties against disease.
This place sells it by the ton (is that $10 a ton?! Looks promising): carrageenan - carrageenan products manufacturers on alibaba.com
Excellent Azapta Viva Chile! Seawater makes sense, even less contamination and less volume & weight to lug around. It hadn't occurred to me that you might mix it up at the beach [I guess I normally change at the car & I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that some (but not all) carragen needs to be mixed with hot/warm water. I guess a flask could take care of that - and I usually take one or two of those anyway.]Well you got me thinking there X, ... Chile is one of the worlds largest producers of Carrageen.
Not only that, but I called one bigger company, Gelymar and they have offered me some free samples. Apparently its a white powder that when diluted at just 0.5% in cold water produces a slippy mess like you would not believe. How about taking a thimble full of powder to the ocean and mixing with sea water instead of lugging pre-mixed lube around
I'll let you know when I have test piloted the goop.
BTW they also offered me a sample of Guar Gum powder, apparently equally good lube, I'll try that too...
Excellent Azapta Viva Chile! Seawater makes sense, even less contamination and less volume & weight to lug around. It hadn't occurred to me that you might mix it up at the beach [I guess I normally change at the car & I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that some (but not all) carragen needs to be mixed with hot/warm water. I guess a flask could take care of that - and I usually take one or two of those anyway.]