Saturday's high is projected at 87 with a low of 76. There is no way the water will be wetsuit legal unless they drop a bucket of ice cubes in right before they take the temperature. People who worry about their ability to safely complete the distance without a wetsuit should really not even be entered.

I live in Tampa and fish a couple of evenings a week. Water temp Monday evening was 85 degrees at 6pm. So, it's not just warm, it's freaking disgustingly hot already. The weekend before at about 530am I was heading out to catch bait and it was 82 bay temp. It's supposed to be high 80's air temp the next two days.....

**I just emailed my buddy who lives on Snell Isle right on the St. A's course. He has a thermometer on his dock that relays real time water temps to the house: Water temp is 84 and it's been overcast and raining since early this morning here in Tampa, not sure about St. Pete. Gonna guess the chances for a wetsuit are slim to none.

Coming up from Sarasota to do the race on Sunday. We've had above normal temps in this part of FL for the last couple of months and based on the forecast I don't see anyway the race would be wetsuit-legal.

I actually prefer to race without my wetsuit, so no problem from my standpoint.

I'd agree with the comment that if you need the buoyancy of a wetsuit to make up for lack of swimming skill / fitness, then you probably shouldn't be doing the race.

Mark

I'll be there Sunday. I'd love it to be wetsuit legal but that doesn't mean I NEED it to be wetsuit legal to safely complete the swim.

My bigger concern is the weather forecast for developing thunderstorms during the day, especially since I'm in one of the later waves.

Mark

HuffnPuff - Who said anything about safely completing the race?

That could really suck

+1 on this.

84 degree water...damn that's warm...like sweat while you're swimming warm.

The forecast is looking better for Sunday. It looks like the thunderstorms are going to hold off until Sunday night.

Water temp is still in the low 80's.

Mark

I'm doing the race on Sunday. Even if they were able to get the water down to 1/10th of a degree under the limit to make it wetsuit legal, I still wouldn't race in one. Not worth the heat issues, especially since I run hot as is.

Of all the issues anyone could ask or talk about this particular race, the one you brought up was whether it would be wetsuit legal. I'm not saying you personally couldn't make it, but really, why even ask the question when the water is already in the mid 80s. And St Anthony's has a reputation of attracting marginal swimmers who need the organizer to find some cold water pocket so they can survive 1500m. Fortunately, they now have the sprint option for those folks.

The FL 70.3 was just a few weeks ago, and about two weeks out from the race, guess what the number one topic was? Yep, would it be a wetsuit legal swim. A week before the race the water was 71 and by race day it was 81. O - M - G, the whining! I am an AOS, and swim better with a wetsuit like many people, but this is Florida and folks should just expect that wetsuits are the exception, not the rule. Pack one and you may get lucky, but no need to start a thread on it for every race.

Meanwhile, good luck this weekend.