damn, first day with my wetsuit, and my nails put a tear in my wetsuit. i don’t know what to do about it…is there anything i can do?
i’m afraid it will tear more, but am not sure if that is what would really happen.
this is the Xterra sleeveless Vector. 
please help!!! what to do???
I have a tear along a seam (sew) and tried some fixy stuff from trisports.com and it did not hold. I’ll check back to see what to do.
ok, i’m so sad. tomorrow we have a big practice in the lake, maybe i should not wear my wetsuit???
what do you think?
Get rid of the nails.
still have the tear.
this is for the future, not how to fix the current nail wound on the wetsuit. go for dish gloves. this dandy little aid was passed along to me by karen mckeachie (lew kidder’s wife), and it’s been great. using the rubber dish gloves solves the nail puncture problem, of course, but it also really helps in getting the suit pulled up. the rubber is grabby enough on the wetsuit that it gets a much better grip (= less muscular output of arms) when pulling.
peggy
should i swim in my wetsuit, or get it repaired first?
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Did your nails go all the way through? It they just made little tears in it, you should be fine to swim in it. I think you can buy wet suit glue to fix the holes.
Pull it on like you are putting on a pair of tights or nylons. Good Luck!
Kittycat, check a shop that sells wetsuits, they make a glue like rubber cement that doesn’t get hard but remains flexible to fix the tear. Don’t use anything else!
it went through to the “lining” and is about 1/2 inch in size. i continued to swim in it, but not for long, i was worried about it.
thanks for the cement link, i’ll get that right away.
if anyone else has insights, please continue to share.
i’m such an idiot, can’t believe i did this on the first damn time of wearing it. :(:(
you know, now revisiting the site, i should have probably bought a lower end wetsuit, apparently mine is suitable for pro racing…so it’s high end, they have ones with durability/flexability, i probably should have gone that route. oh well…it is a really nice wetsuit, hopefully i didn’t blow it with this nail tear.
My wetsuit is showing the signs of age. I just spent a half an hour sewing the bottom part of the zipper back onto the wetsuit. I’m thinking of duct taping a few of the gaping parts. I’m frankly just trying to get past these next two tris, after which I think I’m going to focus solely on running for the next few years.
That all said, I did a search on wetsuit repair and one of the really good suggestions was to find a local dive shop. They usually know how to fix or sell the stuff that can fix minor wetsuit problems.
My Orca Predator wetsuit mysteriously developed a bunch of finger nail looking holes and I don’t have any fingernails to speak of. I think it was bad rubber. Orca sent me some glue rather than a new wetsuit. Since I wasn’t pleased with this, I take every chance I get to tell the world about this.
Sorry this won’t help you. Good luck fixing your wetsuit. As Desi Arnaz used to say on “I Love Lucy” before you were born, “It’s always somthin!”
Seal Cement works fine. I’ve repaired few cuts in Orca wet suits without problems. I bought Seal Cement from TriSports.com (http://www.trisports.com/sealcement.html)
QR wetsuit cement works really well. You can do it yourself, just make sure that you gently spread the tear and get the glue deep in there and fill the tear. It dries really fast and stays flexible. Actually the kit isn’t bad as you get a patch (for larger tears/rips) and the shampoo too. I trim my nails before I put that dang thing on. 
Joanne
I’ll email you the details of the company Xterra suggests for repairs
AJ
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thanks everyone, i appreciate it! 