What is everyone doing with their old wetsuits? Does goodwill accept rubber? or do you know of anyplace else i can donate my old gear. Is recycling an option?
I have sent some forum members my old ones for "free" (just S&H). If your suit is even somewhat usable people on here will take it for free. I have found that this is the best method. I'm sure they could also turn the suit into beer holders or other useful items if the suit is too badly worn.
If the suit is still in usable condition, goodwill or anyplace like that accepts, or maybe someone on this forum could use it. Grom it! Is the suit is beyond use- this guy Mike in the NJ area has been doing some cool stuff with recycled suits Check it out: http://www.lavarubber.com Send him an email, he's really great guy!
I made a sleeve for my laptop out of an old 5/4 a few weeks ago. I didn't want to pay for a sleeve since I had the exact same material already. I'm NOT a tailor by any stretch of the imagination and I was able to do this in about an hour.
If you have a design school in your area, see if you can find a student that wants to use it for a project. I was able to do that with a student in my area. Helps them out b/c neoprene is expensive to buy, but cool to work with.
If anyone is looking to ditch a 5/4 for a guy about 5'11" and 170 I'd be happy to take it off your hands! My season is coming to an end since the only suit I have is a 3/2.
I too will take anything. I'm trying to get some friends into surfing but they don't want to jump in with an investment of a $200 wetsuit.
I used the stomach area of the wetsuit so I only had to sew up the bottom. I also sloppily added a zipper to the top. All of it was done with my roommate's sewing machine. It won't win any beauty awards, but in terms of function it's working perfectly so far, which is really what matters in my mind. Here are a couple of pictures:
