I wouldn't, you're going to burn up. I wore one in 70 degree water and that was tough.

Speed-suit yeah, wet-suit no.

If you push hard you could really heat up. If you go moderately then maybe you'll just get warm. Those are the kind of conditions were a shorty wetsuit is optimal.

Everyone's different, but for me:
-I'm happy to wear a wetsuit at 75 degrees and would hardly give a thought to not wearing it because it might be too warm. Though I also ask everyone at masters 'are you cold' when the water drops to 79.5 degrees.
-about 7 seconds/100m in a pool.

I agree it depends how hard you're going to be working on the swim.

I just did an OWS event 2 weeks ago where the water temp was ~72f and felt perfectly fine, heat didn't even cross my mind during the swim.

A lot of time savings though, so as long as it's legal to wear one and still get A/G awards, I'll wear one!

I'd be warm but not warm enough to give up 2 to 3 minutes to my competition.

That's why I own a sleeveless suit as well as a good full suit.

jaretj

I burn up at that temp, so I got a speedtube this year. Works great for anything above 70 for me. Below 70 I generally wear full sleeves.

I would wear the full suit and not think twice about it. I can't believe anyone who wants to be competitive in a 1.5k swim would ever consider not wearing a wetsuit in 75 degrees. It's not THAT warm.

I wouldn't wear one at 75 deg. I'd get too warm, but that's just me.

I'm a long-time swimmer and swim better without a wetsuit. It's just a necessary evil for me when the water temperature is too cold.

Mark

I would burn up in 75F and wetsuit. I don not wear it above 72-73F, that is too warm for me but I tolerate it. The last thing you want is elevated body core temp going into a hot day. You will give all the gains back later during the bike and run. You will look at the powermeter and wonder why you can't produce watts you intended.....

Given the choice, I always wear a wetsuit. For me it would be worth 2-3 minutes easy, less maybe 10-15 seconds to get out of it. If the run was right after the swim temperature might be a problem but a nice fast bike ride will give you plenty of airflow to cool down for the run. As another poster said a sleeveless suit would nice for these conditions. Watch for the sales and you'll be set in the future.

This is where not relying on a wetsuit all the time can be invaluable. You should probably already know exactly how much time it might cost you from having done a non-aided swim in a race or a practice. Is it possible to maybe take this race as a learning day? Not sure if this is a race you have peaked for. It's all individual, but for me overheating is a game over scenario. I'd burn up by the first buoy in 75 with a wetsuit and slog through the bike and be dead at T2. I just don't recover from overheating unless I totally stop and get in the shade. For instance if I overheated on a 2.4? Very likely I'd sit in the tent for half an hour b/f deciding on pulling the plug. I just don't do well overheating.

I just did an Olympic race Sunday. I measured the water a little over 78. I used the full sleeved wetsuit. The only time I really felt overheated was when I swam in water at 82.

.

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

This is just a training race on my way to HIM in October...so performance in this race won't make/break my season. That HIM swim is expected to be similar water temp (72-76), so whatever I do try this weekend could be applicable. I have evaluated my one piece tri kit in the pool vs. normal swim jammers (negligible effect on 1000 yard repeats +-10 sec), but not in open water...to your point, maybe this would be a chance to do that.

Good maybe this is a little bit of a data day? Find out how much of a speed cost there is and see how your body likes the temps. Have a great race! Everyone handles heat differently I really think the overheating aspect has to be explored individually. I have a friend who cries when the pool drops under 85!

Just a post race update:
I had decided to swim without the wetsuit, but in transition, I noticed about half the field wearing them so I changed my mind and put mine on.
It turned out okay, but i definitely did start to feel uncomfortably warm about 70% of the way through the swim. I was able to pause and pull the collar open to refresh myself with cool water twice which got me to the end in reasonable comfort. My time was similar to other wetsuit swims so I don't think it hurt my performance much if at all.
Conclusion for me is that 75 is too warm for me for the full wetsuit...I'll look to get a shorty or swimskin for the HIM in Miami.
Thanks to everyone for the opinions!

I'm keeping my ancient circa 1998 sleeveless Aquaman just for 74-76F+ races.

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