These should sell like hotcakes. If I get one of these suits, I literally will not need to go to a pool. Just get on my vasa trainer for 10 minutes per day and pull hard on the water on race day cause my body is going to be riding way above the water line. My upper body has excellent conditioning anyway from 1500-2000K of XC skiing per year and I won’t have to worry about pool times
Based on what Emelio was saying in the other thread, there appears to be no USAT limitation on wetsuit thickness. I can see a nice sleeveless suit with 7 mm rubber all around and a sleeved suit with 7 mm through the legs and torso and 3 mm arm panels etc…so when are you guys coming out with these?
Now, this would not change my goal of trying to swim 5 hours a week. I still believe swimming was the single thing
that took my race game to the next level. Can work the help out of the lungs, and not have to beat the body up
running.
It seems to me that unless you are a body builder (read "a sinke"r) that would be like paddling one of those pool lounge mats with your feet kicking ineffectively in the air andonly your forearms getting any pull sincw your elbows will be out of the water too!
Not so. Ask Monty about the speed of 7mm rubber. If its legal then using a 5 mm suit is the equivalent of diLuca showing up at the Giro ITT with a road bike and sitting up like a parachute.
If we’re going to have an arms race on the aero gear front, let’s see the wetsuit guys do the same for our hydrodynamics. Seems silly to give away speed by sinking if 7 mm is legal under USAT!
Actually, I think that the best would be 7mm in the front of the torso and legs, 5mm on the back of the legs, and 3mm on the back of the torso and 2-3mm on the arms. This would put the rubber where it would do the most good, and thin it out where it would not matter as much for lowering the overheating issue.
Who does Monte work for?
I have been in a few 7 mil suits and floated like crazy. Those were dive soits too, so none of the special extra flotation air pockets.
Heck with that much rubber on the front I want 1 mil arms, with maybe a 7 mil strip down either side of the arm to give me some extra grab since I have skinny arms. Maybe on the sides of my calves too! I also would want a mesh panel on the back to cool me off since I am floating so high. (And I apparently cannot spell today!)
Thor Hoshovd signed me up for his leadout train. Not sure how effective I can be with my 250w FTP as even a 1000w leadout is well beyond what I can do for a microsecond, but he figures that he wants to do some off season practice and weaving through 2000 age groupers is a good place to practice. The BBox team who can’t seem to hold a line in a TT asked if I can help them navigate around 2000 dudes on aerobars without falling off their bikes, cause they could not even stay on the road in the aerobars in the TdF TTT. The protour guys figure that the tri age groupers have it all nailed down to a fine art, so I’m heading over to check out the action.
Hopefully Jimmy can do something like 30 guys every 30 seconds or so over 1.5 hours, but who knows if that would even work. I’ll need the 7 mm wetsuit to participate in the half marathon race or else I’ll be off the back by T1!!!
Until they move this thing to Monaco or some other super hilly venue, I think we pretty well have to accept that there is an ITU race for age groupers every year in Clearwater. I’ll consider it a bonus if the waves are spread far enough that it is viable to ride legal.
Bottom line is that I wanted to go so that I can take some downtime in Sep and ramp up for Clearwater and then go into XC ski season (priority number 1) with really good fitness, rather than my usual which is trying to catch up to race fitness while all the XC skier dudes have been training in camps in Yellowstone, Silverstar and Alaska. You can’t come off downtime and in Nov and hope to be up with these guys in Jan…and since I have done ITU Age Group Worlds, World Military Games Triathlon and Kona, Clearwater just makes sense to touch on each so called “world championship” in our sport. I guess I can hold the Epicman world championships next year too and see if anyone shows up. WTC does a better job than I do on that marketing front.
Is there a rule against wearing two wetsuits? If not the solution already exists. You’ll just have to decide whether the sleeveless goes over or under the one with sleeves.
heck, if you are going to go big go REAL big! How about a bladder system in the back of the suit that we can fill with our sport drink like a camel back I am certain that no air would get in there.
7mm chest, 10mm at the thighs and down to 4mm at the calf so it fills off fast…
The request is not a joke. 7 mm neoprene could be the easiest way to shave 2 min off a half IM swim split. The diff with the extra buoyancy should be beyond a linear gain in that your body is much higher over the water than a conventional 5 mm suit. Agreed that the back should be thinner, but I don’t see a downside with the entire front being 7 mm neoprene assuming one is not racing ITU. Use conventional arm thickness.
I don’t have any idea what Emilio is up to, except that it will be something thicker. But with todays rubber, personally I would lean more towards some 10mm stuff in the suit. Why not?? There are areas of a suit where the thickness would not hinder anything, and any rubber in the water, translates to a higher body. And as far as I could tell from the old cheater suits, higher meant faster…
I expect that I will be getting mine as soon as they are avaiable, so I will give you all my report as soon as I can…
I am going to reply to you right now then post my official announcement later. I was going to wait until right before Interbike, but here we go!
The De Soto Triathlon Company the first company to offer a wetsuit that goes beyond the majority perception of a 5mm limit for wetsuit thickness. Ladies and Gentlemen of Slowtwitch, you are the first audience to learn about the New T1 Water Rover!
8-10mm of Yamamoto #39 rubber strategically located along with 2, 3 and 5mm rubber to maximize flexibility, flotation and speed while minimizing overheating.
MSRP: $620.00 for complete suit
Water Rover Pullover: $270.00
Water Rover Bibjohn: $350.00
Available for Sale: February 1, 2010
Sizes available at above date: 3, 4, 5, 6
Sizing will be the same as all other T1 models.
Preordering will be available at a limited number of dealers.
More information will be included in the official announcement.
See what happens when you think outside the box. Why stop at 7?
I might have named it “paddleboard” becasue that it what it is going to feel like. In fact, you might have a secondary market for the body surfers. That thing would be crazy to ride wave on/in.
I am certain that no air would get in there. 
