Right On Rip Curl

I am on my 2nd Rip Curl Ultimate E-Bomb wetsuit. This one is a chest zip. Overall, I love the suit. Keeps my core warm even in ice cream headache water allowing me to surf as long as I want. The flexibility is great, especially with the chest zip.

The zipper pull tab on my first E-bomb corroded off when the suit was about 2 1/2 year old. It was getting ratty, so I customized the zipper with a piece of copper wire and bought a new one. That wetsuit is now a back up or second session suit. Having a dry wetsuit for that second surf is magic.

A few months ago the zipper pull tab on my "new" E-bomb corroded off. Not only is this a disturbing trend, but at just over a year old this suit should have a lot of life left. I checked the Rip Curl website and of course nothing over 12 months is covered by warranty. I decided to return the wetsuit to Rip Curl for repair. Since it was a corrosion failure and a trend, I felt they should fix it for free. If they did not feel the same way, I have heard good things about Excel Wetsuits.

To return an item for repair in North America ship it to:
Rip Curl Service Center
3030 Airway Ave
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

You can call, 714-422-3600, if you like but the voice mail will just tell you to ship it with a note and they will call you when they get it. It is kind of a cryptic system, but it works.

When the young lady called me she told me that as a non-warranty repair it would be twenty something bucks. Seems like a fair price, but I get hung up on the principal of things sometimes. I told her I believed that the suit should be fixed for free and why. She said she would ask.

That is the last I heard from Rip Curl until the FedEx truck rolled up yesterday. Not the best communicators, but Rip Curl makes a great wetsuit. Since they are willing to stand behind it, my next suit will probably be a Rip Curl E-Bomb Chest Zip. Hopefully, they will have improved the zippers by then.