Blew 6 hours swapping a drysuit zipper in Galveston

Had a zipper fail on my DUI drysuit right before a Thursday dive contract. Tried to patch it with wax and grease, no luck. Ended up driving to a shop in Texas City, waited 3 hours for them to fit a new zipper, then paid $340 on the spot. Got back to the site at 4 PM, missed the morning window, and had to rebook the job for Friday. Anyone else keep a backup suit around after a zipper nightmare like this?

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grant.margaret1d ago

Keeping a whole second suit for a zipper problem never made sense to me. That's a grand or two sitting in your truck doing nothing but the same thing a backup zipper would do. Learn to swap the zipper yourself and you're not driving to Texas City or paying $340 ever again. It's not that hard once you've done it twice, and a new zipper costs maybe $60 online. The shop had you over a barrel because you were on the clock, and that's exactly why you got charged that much. Keep a spare zipper and the glue in your kit and you fix it on site in an hour.

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