G’day.
Seeking opinions on or experiences with the Speedo Thinswim wetsuits, particularly the Tricomp Thinswim model which is all 2mm #39 neoporene (http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=77763). I currently swim in an old Orca P-Flex which I bought used. It is a good fit for me (I am 174cm and about 68kg) but I find it too restrictive. I was considering a sleeveless suit but am also drawn to these thin Speedo suits. What do people think of them and if anyone has experience in sizing them would I be correct in assuming I would be a size S/T?
Cheers.
For the price, I’d say thats pretty impressive and worth a shot. I can’t swim well in a full suit, I like to have my deltoid right up by my ear, and a lot of wetsuits don’t make that movement easy or natural. A couple years ago I was looking at a 2mm fullsuit, but I can’t pull the name out of my head to save my life. Now I swim in a desoto, the pullover part of the suit is 2mm and since its not tied to the legs allows a really high arm and long reach with no problem, you also get the added buoyancy of the 5mm to 3mm bib johns. I have the 2mm vest with it also and in my experience lets in very little water since once again its not being pulled from the leg portion of the suit.
I wouldn’t hesitate to give this a shot at 170 bucks, but for me the biggest problem with a full suit is just the fact that everything is connected which, even though there are 1-2mm stretch panels in high end wetsuits, they still just don’t work as I would like. Fact is, you don’t need the 2mm portion in the legs, b/c it won’t effect the flexibility of the suit, so overall this may not feel different from a good high end wetsuit with 1mm stretch panels, which you seem to indicate are already too restrictive.
I agree that it might not feel too different in terms of flexibility to a high end suit with thin stretch panels but I can’t afford such a suit. My budget limits me to the lower end suits and I have to doubt they would feel quite as natural. Buoyancy is always nice but is not my primary concern. As an alternative, the Orca S4 (current entry level suit) is full #39 with 2mm stretch panels and a 5mm leg/chest area. Could be nice but is a little more expensive.
Yeah, you could always buy a used suit. If you’re as picky as me even the stretch panels won’t make you feel like you do in the water naturally, I used a TYR cat3 and Blueseventy Helix. Both are nice suits but just didn’t do it for me, in addition even though I’m very low body fat, I overheat very easily in wetsuits, so that just added insult to injury. If you’re a swimmer and crave that natural feeling, seriously, you should check out Desoto, there are so many options and the stuff makes fitting individual shapes easy. They have a huge sale on their 2012 stuff, like 60 percent off. You could get a 5mm speed tube leggings and a 2mm speedvest for like $210, seems a lot of the bib johns are sold out for the 2012, but sometimes they have returned stuff, so you could always contact them that way. I don’t work for Desoto but like how they think about wetsuits, and they make swimming in a wetsuit actually fun, instead of a chore, which it seemed like it always had been. Trying the speedo suit could be interesting too, just let all of us know the story on it after you swim in it.
My current suit isn’t junk. I think it’s just getting to the end of its usable life span. I’ll check out Desoto and I’ll post a review of whatever I get. Cheers.