I'm a scuba diver and use a 5mm neoprene wetsuit. After a week's diving the dive suit begins to smell like Jacque Cousteau's socks.

I've drafted my wife in on this reply, and she suggests a three part solution:

a) Put them in the bathtub, cover with cool water and dissolve a little laundry detergent (no bleach). Wash.

b) Drain the water, refill the tub with clean water and rinse out all the detergent.

c) Drain the water, refill the tub and soak overnight in clean water.

[For particularly hard cases, apply detergent directly to the spots that still smell and repeat (a) to (c).]

d) Drip dry out of direct sunlight.

Now that I know what she does to return the wetsuits to like-new condition, I have new- found respect for the Old Buzzard! (I think I'd just buy some new ones and send the old ones to Dave Vedder.)

PS Our wetsuits are footless, so we don't have to worry about getting water in a bootfoot wader, but I don't think you want to get the inside of the boot sections wet -- I'd prop these up.