I've rather irritatingly put a hole in my drysuit today
(Ascent/back-kick into a presumably very sharp and unfortunately placed piece of the Aeolian Sky.) I'm not sure whether the TLS material is really delicate or I was just unlucky (I've certainly bumped into stuff significantly harder in my previous suits without any issue) I hope it's the latter.
There is now a 1.5cm long cut in the thin material at the back/side of the calf. The cut is straight, smooth edged and fortunately away from any seam, so looks fairly easy to fix. Is this something that's easily fixable or should I send it back to a DUI dealer? Would repairing it myself cause an issue with the warranty on the rest of the suit?
If it's something to patch up myself, can anyone recommend a supplier for a suitable repair kit - I've had a look through my spares etc and (to my surprise) have realised that I don't actually have a repair kit with patches. Also, would you patch the inside or outside or both?
If it's something I ought to get sorted by a dealer, who would you recommend (preferably to be back to me on Friday 20). I presume the options are Hydrotech or SDS?
On a side note: It was quite odd to be able to feel the water coming in an moving up the suit, but fortunately the water temperature was pretty warm so getting wet was only inconvenient and not dangerous. Bizarrely, the leak was much worse whilst vertical at the surface than when horizontal for the ascent (which may be worth remembering if the water's colder). (Although by the time the leak had got half way up my chest so that I was effectively lying in water, I was considering seeing whether other angles would have been better). I would have assumed that keeping the leak low would have been better, perhaps it got worse due to the increased pressure difference between top and bottom.
And finally, I did learn one obvious but useful lesson - a spare drysuit is a lot more useful when it's on the boat than when it's left behind in the flat!
David