Swimskins of the Top 15 Pro Swimmers in Kona

Triathlon Forum
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Originally published at: Swimskins of the Top 15 Pro Swimmers in Kona - Slowtwitch News

It’s often been said that you can’t win the IRONMAN World Championships in the water. But you certainly can lose it. Miss the front packs of the swim and you have a very difficult road in front of you. That was the case for the 2024 IRONMAN World Championships; just 5:23 separated the swim times of the top 15 finishers on the day (Menno Koolhaas had the fastest swim in 47:02 and finished 5th, with Cam Wurf at 52:25 40th out of the water but biked and ran up to 7th).

Deboer was worn by the fastest swimmer of the day, as well as by five other men in the top 15. Sailfish was also quite popular amongst the front of the field.

Without further adieu, here’s your top 15 MPRO swims of the day and the gear they used for it.

1.) Menno Koolhaas 47:02
Swimskin: Deboer tsunami 3.0

2.) Sam Laidlow 47:06
Swimskin: Sailfish Rebel Pro Plus1

3.) Antonio Benito Lopez 47:08
Swimskin: Orca Athlex

4.) Patrick Lange 47:09
Swimskin: Aquasphere Phantom

5.) Gregory Barnaby 47:12
Swimskin: Roka Viper X

6.) Kieran Lindars 47:12.
Swimskin: Synergy Synskin 3

7.) Ben Kanute 47:15
Swimskin: Deboer tsunami 3.0

8.) Finn Große-Freese 47:16
Swimskin: Deboer tsunami 3.0

9.) Sam Appleton 47:16
Swimskin: Sailfish Rebel Pro Plus1

10.) Paul Schuster 47:17
Swimskin: Sailfish Rebel Pro Plus1

11.) Matthew Marquardt 47:18
Swimskin: Deboer tsunami 3.0

12.) Rudy Von Berg 47:18
Swimskin: ARK

13.) Kacper Stepniak 47:20
Swimskin: BlueSeventy PZ4TX+

14.) Kristian Blummenfelt 47:21
Swimskin: Deboer tsunami 3.0

15.) Braden Currie 47:22
Swimskin: Deboer tsunami 3.0

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Noob question, but is there a big difference in swim skins? How would you even test it

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Cut, Fit and Fabric Choice. Things that the average swimmer would notice… Almost 90% would be “Fit”. They are 100% faster then not having one though… Back in the day when they used to allow rubber on them… Now those where the days of glory :slight_smile:

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As Eric mentioned – it pretty much comes down to fit.

Some of your top guys (Ditlev, for one) have them custom done up for themselves to maximize the benefit. But it’s a lot like getting your pool racing tech suit right. I wear Speedo most of the time for jammers in the pool, but I wear Arena when racing as they simply fit better and give the most leg lift I can get.

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Presumably the same way a wetsuit is tested - in a pool to ensure a consistent environment. Just compare one to the other. I’d be surprised if there is much of a difference from one brand to the next.

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Is the best fit just as tight as possible?

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@mathematics NO!!! That is when you get it trouble when you’re closing off your chest and ability to rotate your hips as you swim. It should fit “snug” but not “Super tight” One of the things to make sure fits right is the “neck line” if that is loose then you’re just going to be a torpedo with a drag suit.

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Glad I asked!!! Mine is def snug, the only place where it can sometimes be uncomfortable is the leg cuffs. I did notice the neck drag in an older wetsuit.

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@rrheisler Ryan - curious which Arena jammer gives you leg lift? Thx

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If you are asking about a swim skin then yes. You want it as tight as possible. It is the compression that is the #1 factor in its speed, material next. Of course it should fit properly, but tight is right with this suit, different from a wetsuit…

And all the big companies are making a great suit now, just looks at the diversity in the top 15 list here. Highly doubt there is a measurable difference in any of the top of the line brands suits. I did a lot of testing for this site back in the day and I found a 2 to 3 second per 100 advantage in the top suits. The tighter fits tended to be the faster ones too back then. I imagine with the new material tech that you might add a couple tenths to those old tests I did, but that would be it. As I said, compression is most of the advantage, and we had tight suits back then as now…

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This is a pool racing suit. Do you swim in Masters meets???

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Help me out with the compression…I never wrote understood the point for a swimskins. If you squeeze body mass out of one area it just move to the uncompressed area? Like you can’t really compress the human body in any significant way without killing the human.

I know I’m missing something

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Yep, sometimes like to show off how mediocre I am at just one sport.

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@monty that’s not really true though Think average person not YOU the professional swimer. Even @Slowman has talked about this alot when it comes to “Fit” “Super Tight” can cause all sorts of unessary issues

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What about a pro triathlete who’s a bad swimmer? Like 60min IM swim bad swimmer? I could care less if it’s uncomfortable. SPEED!

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Comfort is always going to equal speed…

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But it is true that the compression is the #1 factor in speed, I think you are trying to say that some people cannot take full advantage of that compression. And I get that but a lot of slower swimmers can for sure take advantage of this compression at the higher levels. People just need to know that a comfortable looser fit is not a fast fit, and then make decisions based on knowing that information.

We had this debate about wetsuits 40 years ago, when folks went by feel when making their choices. Of course a long John feels better, no wetsuit feels best!! But we now know that a little discomfort = a ton more in speed, and then adapt to get those better results…

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My gravel bike is 100x more comfortable than my tri bike…

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Haha