I’d like to hear some opinions on what to get for my next wetsuit. I am an FOP swimmer (top 10 overall swim at WF, 6 min faster than anyone in my AG).
I’m still using a Profile that I got through a team, a suit that was top of the line five years ago. Now the legs are all covered in Neoprene repair glue. Seems like I ought to replace it. I don’t have a sponsor (at the moment) which does free me to choose.
The new Rokas look good, and Huub, but so do all the other high end models (and no, I’m not gonna spring for a Freak - without a deal). I’d really like one that didn’t tear at every use, but I guess that’s a lot to ask for. Can some one point me to a meaningful review or data (or shower me with their Sheldon Cooper-like un-assailable opinion)?
You are indeed a studly athlete (swimmer included). I’m in the AG below you and the results show me as the fastest swimmer in the AG but for sure Sheeper was faster and likely some others, but, anyway…
That was my first race in a new wetsuit, and, first in a long sleeve. I bought a Xterra cheapie $160. I’ve used it another race (last weekend) and like it just fine. My theory is: The better the swimmer the less difference it makes in making you faster. Of course, I always cross my fingers for a no-wetsuit swim. But, that’s only happened for me once in three years
Bottom line, you’re going to only go faster, but, I’ll bet, not that much faster - and you’ll still be FOP. Strangely enough, if you were 35+ swimmer a better wetsuit might make a bigger difference, but, is no substitute for being a fast swimmer like you are.
Hey Tom, nice race there. We are in the same AG and swim about the same, too bad i could not be there to take advantage of your draft (-;. I did the short race last year there and won the swim overall(40+ heat i believe), after drafting a much faster swimmer than me and we both were wearing the DeSoto two piece wetsuits. I have found that suit to be the best as it is the only one that has no pull on the shoulders, other than the material itself. The nice thing with this suit is that it is just as fast in the 2nd half as the 1st, and you can up the turnover if you need to without any extra shoulder pinch penalty. There are some great fitting one piece suits, but even the best possible fit will not be without that body pull on the shoulders, just the physics of the suits.
And i have found a lot of others in the older AG’s that are front pack swimmers that also rock the DeSoto. Also in our AG is Halfspeed here and Ken Lehner, both off the front swimmers in the 55+ and about your speed, both also wear the desoto suits. I believe if we all4 showed up at nationals one year it would be a DeSoto sweep of 4 off the front for sure. I did nats last year and just one guy hung onto my feet, he would have been toast if i had some nice feet. (-;
Back in the UK I have been involved over the years in the development and design of the Snugg wetsuit. Even for the fast swimmers I believe the more buoyancy the better. I would always go for the tailor made suit,a nod you can always dictate the thickness of the panels. Snugg use the most up to date neoprene and do not rely on any marketing hype to sell the suits.
To give a bit of background, we are fast swimmers ourselves and designed our suits ourselves, for ourselves, after being frustrated with what was on the market. We didn’t outsource the design or just ask some pros to validate it after the fact. We literally started by cutting up existing suits to understand how they worked, and then we started from a speedo and added back what we thought we needed to go fast. After we designed our first prototype and raced in it, we spent another year working with Jesse Thomas and a bunch of slower swimmers to figure out how to improve the suit for them without compromising performance for us. The results have been awesome and we haven’t had a single return yet, except for size swaps.
As for the other suits you mention, we own all of them and tested them during various stages of product development. Some of them are interesting in our opinion, others not. All have strengths and weaknesses, but we’re confident that our suits are faster.
On the neoprene tears you mention, that is fairly common with high quality neoprene, such as Yamamoto #39 and #40. We’ve seen rips across all brands, including some you didn’t mention. I agree neoprene tears are an annoyance, but it’s a pretty easy trade-off in my opinion. Those fabrics have considerably more stretch and other beneficial performance attributes compared to cheaper fabrics. Like a quality carbon disc, you have to be careful, but you get better results.
My $0.02 would be to try a bunch of brands out and see which works best for you. Use your LTS to test their stock (especially if they’ll let you swim in a suit) and supplement that with others as needed.
I would go for Desoto, it is the most comfortable suit out there and when I stopped racing professionally and paid for my first suit it is what I bought. Also I don’t care how good of a swimmer somebody is I would always suggest more rubber than less. I always swim in a full suit if suits are allowed.
Thanks for all of the input. I do want to try out some suits before I decide.
Odd thing - I was thinking about DeSoto before WF, and talking to a guy at WF during my warmup who had one on. He was raving about it, when the zipper broke off and he had to swim without the top. Just a coincidence of course, but seemed a bit ironic.
Was that Sheeper I chased around the lake? I know Tim from 10 yrs ago - and it didn’t look like him when we ran up to transition. And I ran past him (Tim wouldn’t let me do that :-)).
Was that Sheeper I chased around the lake? I know Tim from 10 yrs ago - and it didn’t look like him when we ran up to transition. And I ran past him (Tim wouldn’t let me do that :-)).
I wouldn’t know. Assuming you started in the first wave of “old guys” then it’s possible. His splits for swim and bike don’t show in the results. But, given his track record - ya, a 26 minute swim is possible.
Off topic item #1 I’ve been in races against him since '87. Try as I might, he’s beaten me (by way too much!) every time.
#2 Off topic question (kinda). Did you look at the race clock exiting the water? I ask because my time read 28:20 but I get credit in the results for a hair over 27 (perhaps I was dazed and confused) but I even did a double take look at that clock. Given that most people thought the swim was a good minute “slow” I wasn’t surprised. Any comment?
