by slowly but painfully sawing thru my neck. Anyone had a similar problem with their Predator suit and come up with an effective fix? Did a long-ish OW swim this week-end and my neck is a little carved up. Racing a 1/2 on Sat. and would love to have this little issue behind me…
R U using Bodyglide?
Too small?
Didn’t yesterday, but I do in races. Doesn’t seem to help. I think the problem is that when I sight the back of my neck catches the edge of the velcro somehow…
Nope. The fit is good.
My other guess, then, would be that your are zipping it up wrong.
I’ve got a Predator too, and I’ve never had any kind of neck rubbing problems with it.
Make sure when you zip it up, that that little piece/strip of rubber is flipped up between your neck and the suit.
not to be a SA or anything but…Aquaman?
Had somewhat the same problem. two things: first make sure you put it on right. I mean pull that thing up from the bottom, same with the sleeves. With me, I just had to buy a QR… all fit
try Sports shield from Two Toms, www.blistershield.com don’t know how it’ll fare against scratchy velcro but it works a lot better on wetsuit necks than body glide. I still use body glide on a daily basis but like Sportsshield better for wetsuits or other really high friction areas.
I’d like to think I’m doing it up right, but I’ve screwed up simpler things…
I’ll lounge around the house in it for a bit tonight and double check the final assembly. Might start a ‘show me the back of your neck’ thread with a pic tomorrow.
thanks all.
I put a little Duct tape over roughly the last 1/3 of the velcro and it has been great ever since. The duct tape has even stayed on through multiple races.
what about wearing a rash guard under?
Hi,
I have the same suit and the same prob. What i find is, depending on how the velcro is sealed is how it affects my neck. I make sure the velcro closure (the flap attaching to your shoulder) is below the top edge of the velcro on the shoulder. I have not used body glide or anything else, but know if the velcro is sealed properly or not by just trying it out for a minute or two. It helps to have the same person close the velcro for you and having them know about the issue. If the closure is too high, this is when the chaffing becomes unbearable after a few minutes.
Good luck with this.
YES YES this is the thing! I’ll have to pay more attention to the vecro/flap/seal thingy.
I have the same problem with my Predator2. Bodyglide and limiting myself to sprint tris has helped with neck burn. Making sure the velcro is not too high is a good idea but you don’t know if you got it just right until about a minute or two into the race.
BTW, I keep getting tears in the thighs and butt of my Predator 2 (no they’re not from my finger nails). I think I just got some bad rubber which rubber cement only fixes temporarily.
Bottom line for me is this wetsuit has caused me more problems than it should have.
SaskRV is spot on but it depends on the model of suit. If the velcro hook, i.e. the rough stuff, is on the flap, then make sure you aren’t doing it up too high. Get somebody else to do it for you and make sure there’s a gap between the top of the hook and your neck. However, the Predator suits always used to have the hook on the suit, and the fuzzy stuff on the flap. In that case, there’s nothing you can do other than make sure it’s all covered by the flap.
tim
Mine used to. Then I made sure I hiked it way up down there and up in the sleeves so that when I swam, the shoulders didn’t pull the neck back and forth (and back and forth, and back and forth, and… well, you know what I’m talking about – sawing!!).
I make sure to get water into the suit and down into the sleeves and legs to help me pull it up even more once I’m in. I’m at the upper end of the height spectrum for my size (6’3" in a size 7), so I really have to pull it up. But now I use it two, sometimes three times a week without body glide or anything else and I’m fine.
Pull it more than you think you need to…
I think I already might - we’re still talking about the suit, right?
Yeah, the wetsuit. Pull it WAY up. Especially the sleeves, though. As that is what, in my experience, causes the “sawing.”
Same problem. Solution: A big band-aid or a strip of Duck Tape on your neck.