Improvised neck gasket repairs

I just got back from five days of kokanee and lake trout fishing on Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which straddles the Utah-Wyoming border.  As I was putting on my drysuit on the first day, its neck gasket ripped.  Why didn't the gasket rip at the end of the first day of fishing, or at the end of the last day of fishing?  I have apparently accumulated some bad karma, possibly as a result of killing lots of fish.  Or this may just be another example of the inherent cruelty of the universe.

So I fished for the first day with a ripped neck gasket in windy weather on 48 degree water.  I was staying in Manila, Utah, which has only one store, a combination grocery store/hardware store/fishing tackle store.  That night I bought some one inch wide "Gorilla" brand duct tape and some window cleaner.  I scrubbed the neck gasket off as well as I could with the window cleaner, and then taped the gasket back together.  This repair held for the next four days of fishing, in other words, eight stretching cycles as I put on and took off the drysuit.

Taping the neck gasket back together was a challenge, because a neck gasket has an exaggerated coke bottle shape, and the tear curved towards the bottom.  I pressed the remains of the gasket as flat as I could against a water bottle, and then applied tape to one side of the tear, with the tear running down the center of the tape.  Then I stuck the other side of the tear to the tape, carefully lining up the edges of the tear.  Because the tear curved, I had to tape the tear in two sections.  Then I put duct  tape on the other side of the tear, and rubbed the tape down hard.  The first picture below shows the newly completed repair.  The second picture shows the repair after four days of fishing.  As you can see, the gasket is slowly pulling out from between the two pieces of tape.  If I hadn't cleaned the body oil and suntan lotion off the gasket well, the tape would probably have quickly peeled off the gasket.

I thought about taping one side of the gasket, and then putting a bead of Aquaseal or Marine Goop along the taped-together tear.  However, the neck gasket wouldn't lay flat, so the Aquaseal or Goop would probably drool, migrate, and make a mess.

My Kokatat drysuit has a loose neoprene collar which protects the neck gasket from sun, but isn't tight enough to be at all waterproof, at least on my scrawny neck.  Because I was concerned that the repair might fail, I also bought some elastic, self-adhesive, re-usable, and allegedly somewhat water resistant athletic compression tape. If the duct tape repair failed, I was going to use the athletic compression tape to hold the neoprene collar tight against my neck.  I think that this would have been quite waterproof, but fortunately I didn't need to test out this theory.

I was surprised when the neck gasket ripped, because it was only a year old, and wasn't getting weak and flabby or developing fine surface cracks.  However, when I inspected the gasket after it ripped, I found a small crack in the lip of the gasket next to the tear.  The tear apparently started in another such crack.  I periodically inspect my neck gaskets, and if I find any such cracks, I cut a small amount off the lip of the gasket to eliminate the crack.  However, I missed the cracks which developed in this gasket.

If I'm going on a several day trip, and my neck gasket is looking questionable, I bring along a new neck gasket and the tools and materials required to install the new gasket, such as the clamping tool shown below, which I made from heavy Masonite.  However, you could lose a day of fishing while repairing a neck gasket.  A deteriorated neck gasket can last a long time, but if your neck gasket is looking cheesy, and you're about to leave on a several day kayak fishing trip, consider replacing the gasket before the trip.

Have you ever seen an option to replace a latex gasket with a neoprene one making the suit a semi-dry suit?  The reason I ask, is I had the neck gasket replaced and within a couple months it tore again.  I have never seen that as an option to switch it out to neoprene.

Have you ever seen an option to replace a latex gasket with a neoprene one making the suit a semi-dry suit?  The reason I ask, is I had the neck gasket replaced and within a couple months it tore again.  I have never seen that as an option to switch it out to neoprene.

What kind of dry suit do you own? And does that manufacturer sell replacement neoprene gaskets?  Kokatat's web site offers replacement latex neck gaskets, and it has a link to a video which shows how to replace latex neck gaskets, but it doesn't offer replacement neoprene neck gaskets or tell how to replace neoprene neck gaskets.

What kind of dry suit do you own?

Mine is a Kokatat.  I was looking on their website and only saw like you described.  No option for replacing with neoprene.

I noticed that the drysuit which I use for snorkeling and speargunning for pike was developing a small area of deterioration on its neck gasket.  So I brought my kayak fishing drysuit with me for a couple days of speargunning as a backup, in case the neck gasket on the speargunning drysuit ripped.  The deteriorated neck gasket might last for quite a few more days of speargunning, but it also might rip the next time I tried to put it on.  I'm about to head out for a couple days of speargunning, and the deterioration on the neck gasket was preying on my mind.  So I cut off the deteriorated gasket and put on a new one.  It's a relief not to need to worry about my neck gasket ripping, and it's a relief not to feel that I need to bring a backup drysuit.