For 300m I wouldn't bother with the wetsuit

Depending on your swim, you'll probably still be faster with it.

I'm 5-10 seconds faster per 100 with mine so if I can get it off in 10 seconds, I'm ahead at least 5 seconds still.

A quick john wetsuit--remember those?-are super quick to remove and can work for the sprint events as well as longer ones.

Every year I've done the super sprint at Triple T with a wetsuit and have always felt it was the right thing to do

In roka SIM shorts i am about 5 sec faster per 100 in the pool, guess i could also just race in those to?

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

A wetsuit should never add transition time. It should be down to your waist by the time you hit transition and you step out of it while putting on your bike helmet. It's really not even a question it's always faster.

If you are 5sec/100m faster with just the shorts, you are probably 8-10sec. faster in a full suit. Wear the wetsuit (unless it's a pool swim....don't be that guy).

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IT'S A FRAKIN' 300 METER SWIM...

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lol, oh yes i know! First world problems for sure.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

great point! Wetsuit it is....will see if i can hang with those 2-3 guys i know are faster then me now, they are not going wetsuit.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

What does the distance have to do with anything? Time saved is time saved. If the bike is only 6 miles would you take off a disk and deep dish front and go with training wheels?

I had this debate this AM at a sprint race that was 400 yards. usually I never question wearing a wetsuit because it always faster for me, but this AM I was feeling lazy and didn't feel like struggling to put it on (hadn't worn it in 6+ months, weigh 15+ pounds more than usual and pulled the wetsuit out of a drawer yesterday). I finally did and decided it was good practice.

Good practice putting it on (seriously...putting it on took longer than my 5 minute swim), good practice swimming in it (felt fine after a 500 yard warmup) and taking it off fast (still need practice with this as I fell over trying to take it off...so the time savings swimming was probably erased by that, but it was an early season sprint tri instead of a race that mattered more to me).

Great point, but this is a matter of contingencies - a marginal gain for the 300m distance will be couple of seconds at best, but tripping over the wetsuit will diminish this time saving and might add some on top. Additionally the OP might rip the wetsuit by accident - certainly not worth it for the race he is feeling lazy about using the wetsuit.

74f and you are asking if you should wear a wetsuit.

There's something wrong with this picture

Are you suggesting that wearing a wetsuit adds zero time to your transition?

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John Hartpence, Athlete & Coach
tripence@gmail.com, @coachpence

If you are removing your wetsuit correctly yes. You pulldown your wetsuit down to your ankles as youre reaching for your glasses and helmet. While your putting glasses and your helmet on, you use one foot to hold the wetsuit on the other leg and and step out of it. The do the opposite with the other leg. Sometimes it may add 1-2 seconds if it gets stuck on a leg, and you have to reach down, but if you body glide your ankles and feet it shouldn't be an issue.

I've been doing this for years and am almost always in the top 5-10 transition times. If taking a wetsuit off is adding to your transition time more than sometimes adding 1-2 seconds you're doing something wrong on the lead up to transition of in transition.

Grant's correct wearing a wetsuit shouldn't add time, the difference is negligible if it's been practised and is executed well.

We have a really short swim for our Monday night club Tri, it's usually 200m, and I get laughed at for wearing my wetsuit but I'm consistently out with my wife who swims without a wetsuit and is a far better swimmer than I.

I watched her for years in transition trying to figure what made her so much quicker than the others at ITU level in T1 and realised it came down to her footwork taking the wetsuit off. Just as Grant describes she would be taking the bottom half off whilst putting on helmet, but the key was she used to jam her non planted foot in really tight against the leg she was attempting to release that foot. If you do this, the neoprene has little room to stretch and the leg pops straight off, if you don't you end up with an elastic band between the legs and take considerably longer to release.

This may be just me... But I always get all the "free speed" I can. I'd go wet suit.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

I tested just a swim skin it took me more time to peel that stupid thing off than I would save over a short swim.

Tri-suits are pretty fast in the pool at least by B70 is.

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Follow up with anecdotal race evidence:
Top 8 overall finishing times at race: 3/8 wore full wetsuit, 1/8 wore sleeveless wetsuit. Same 8 guys had t1 times ranging from 29 seconds (overall winner) to 32 seconds. I wore full suit and my t1 time was 30 seconds. Guess i could play devils advocate and say the 4 of us that wore wetsuits would have had the top t1 times if we had not worn them. My personal conclusion is i would wear it again. I do have a 15+ yr surfing background so been taking wetsuits on and off almost half my life so maybe that helps?

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

Yes to the wetsuit, always (provided it's legal).

I'm familiar and experienced with the technique and agree that it's the fastest way to remove a wetsuit. I was just asking for clarification, as I don't recall hearing anyone say that a wearing a wetsuit should make no difference in time if done correctly.

I've also had very fast transitions, but I've never had a T1, wearing a wetsuit, where I thought it didn't made any difference in my transition time. More like a handful of seconds.

I do, whole-heartedly agree that if you can wear a wetsuit, you should. And I laughed at the OP's comments about his fast swimming friends thinking it was ridiculous to wear a wetsuit. I've known alot of swimmers who've thought the same thing, until they did a triathlon swim w/o a wetsuit, and got humbled by inferior swimmers in wetsuits.

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John Hartpence, Athlete & Coach
tripence@gmail.com, @coachpence

One thing to factor in is how fast can you run in the wetsuit vs without?

Last year, in my one and only tri, I was second out of the water, about 10-15s behind another guy who I would normally be ahead of (I wasn't wearing a wetsuit, don't own one), and he was wearing a full suit. The bike racks were about 200m from the lake, uphill. I wound up getting into the racking area about 10s ahead of him, and was out of T1 about 20-30s ahead.

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This type of thread is the perfect advertisement for De Soto Speedtube bottoms. I wore them yesterday at the race (did the sprint so 500m swim) and they were perfect. I was actually faster in them than wearing my full suit 2 weeks ago at the same distance.