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This has
been the question for over forty years. In talking with
people who have this allergy, we have heard all sorts of
stories about good ideas and not so good ideas all
attempting to solve this problem.
Harry “Butch”
Linden is a surfer out of Santa Barbara, California. He
has been surfing for decades and is a past US Champion
on the senior tour and routinely competes in surfing
contests on the West Coast. The challenge with the west
coast is that the Ocean Currents come down from Alaska
to the north. This makes California water cold, very
cold, especially in winter. Harry has the Rubber Allergy
and is faced with giving up his passion for surfing or
dealing with hives and rashes from his
wetsuit.
Harry
writes;
Just
for your information here is what I have tried and none
of these have worked. I went to my doctor and he gave
two prescription antihistamines to try as I found some
relief with over the counter Benedryl. The Benedryl
worked better. I also went to a specialist who of course
suggested not surfing or going without a wetsuit.
Obviously this person never had a passion for an
activity. I tried the full body dip in Vaseline and
that did not work. The biggest hope I had was spraying
the entire inside of my wetsuit using two cans of Plasti
Dip "rubber" coating. It is actually a styrene. It
stiffened the suit up a bit but also did not work as the
neoprene could stretch further and the coating was
immediately separated. I also tried some of the skin
guard lotions but they immediately dissolve in water.
You
are my last hope.
Harry
We
have also heard stories about surfers and diver wearing
multiple layers of Spandex body suits. This may help you
look better on the beach but the suits have no
insulating value at all. Even if you wear them under the
wetsuit, histamine in the neoprene will be carried by
the water, through the layers of Spandex and into
contact with your skin. So what is a water sports
enthusiast to do?
Until now the only options were to
give up the sports you love, freeze, or deal with the
results of the allergy. We at  just didn’t like those options.
We set out to do something about it.
Our answer to this problem
is  , a material
similar to Neoprene but entirely synthetic. It does not
contain the plant proteins and histamines of natural
rubber. As a result it is 100% hypoallergenic and will
not cause any skin irritation or allergic reaction. It
insulates better than neoprene, is soft and flexible,
durable, and most importantly, can be sewn into a
wetsuit.
The following is a Material
Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on .
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