So… I’ve done some training swims at the lake and have practiced taking the wetsuit off as fast as I can. Body Glide does the trick as far as sliding it off my legs and arms.
My biggest hurdle is taking off the sleeve as it gets caught in my wrist watch. It seems that I clearly cant just yank it, it feels that either the sleeve is going to rip open or the watch is going to rip right off my wrist.
What do you guys/gals do? Do you take the watch off in T1, take the wetsuit off and then put it back on? Do you roll the sleeve on top of the watch so it doesnt get caught as you pull out your arm?
When you’re getting your suit off, you should be turning it inside out. Unless your watch is larger than your shoulder opening, the sleeve should roll right over it. If you’re still having trouble when pulling the sleeve inside out, then I would recommend covering your watch with the sleeve first, then removing it.
When you’re getting your suit off, you should be turning it inside out. Unless your watch is larger than your shoulder opening, the sleeve should roll right over it…
Well, I see your point. However, the opening at the wrist is much smaller than my watch. The watch in my wrist must clear both openings, shoulder and wrist.
When you’re getting your suit off, you should be turning it inside out. Unless your watch is larger than your shoulder opening, the sleeve should roll right over it…
Well, I see your point. However, the opening at the wrist is much smaller than my watch. The watch in my wrist must clear both openings, shoulder and wrist.
The only advice that I can give you, then, is to practice taking it off. While the wrist opening is undoubtedly smaller than your watch, it is elastic neoprene (capable of stretching to at least 2x its unstretched diameter). If you choose not to remove your watch, then you will need to yank the sleeve over it - it won’t simply roll off. People do it all the time, and it’s hardly a monumental feat of strength. I’ve never seen a sleeve or wrist opening torn by a watch - even those huge GPS units.
Outstanding info y’all. Im headed to the lake here in a few, Ill try rolling up the sleeve and rolling it back on top of the watch as I enter the water and see how it goes.
On a related note, what about a timing chip on my ankle? I don’t cinch it down really tight so as to avoid irritating my tender achilles. I always seem to strip the chip off along with my wetsuit.
I have that same problem with my timing chip on my ankle. I can get my wetsuit all the way down so that it is almost completely off except the ankle sleeves. Normally I jam my fingers between the suit and my leg and pop it over my heel. When I have a timing chip on, I always get my fingers caught on it. Always takes me a few extra seconds and I usually have to sit down. I guess I could practice by strapping a watch to my ankle when I go for open water swims.
I have the quick release option for my Garmin 310. Love it. If I actually want data on my swim (which is not normal), I’d unclip the watch from the band and put it in my swim cap leaving the wrist band, sans watch head, empty. Easy to remove. Race. Get out of water, remove wetsuit. Remove cap. Grab watch. Clip on to wrist on the fly.
One of the things that I have seen is people putting their big GPS enabled watches under their swim caps for the swim and then strapping it to their wrists once they get to T1. From what I have been told, that allows the GPS to work in the water, something wearing it on your wrist makes problematic, and eliminates it as a problem when taking a wetsuit off.
put your wetsuit sleeve over your watch. that is the easiest way unless you want to go without a watch for the swim.
We have a winner! Put the wetsuit sleeve over the watch (or at least part way over). Then when you pull your arm out of the sleeve the sleeve is already over the watch and pulls out easily.
This goes the same with timing chips.
The other option is to cut your arms and legs shorter so the opening is bigger. Many wetsuits come with this option, as they expect people to adjust the sizes to fit.
That’s where I wear mine, but somehow it always ends up sitting on my leg in exactly the wrong spot. The spot is above the end of the wetsuit leg, but below the fold when I pull the wetsuit down as far as it goes.
I have the same problem. It seems simple to put the wetsuit over the watch, as others have suggested. I used to do that with my old wetsuit (Xterra Vortex) because the fit allowed it. However, I recently bought a new wetsuit (TYR Cat. 5) and the fit simply won’t allow that anymore. It is super tight at the wrist/forearm area plus the sleeves are high up on my long arms, so there is no way that my Garmin will fit under it.
Faced with your delima at Ironman Texas 70.3 a few weeks ago, I opted to do a little multi-tasking: While running to T1, I took my Garmin off and held it in my teeth while I pulled my arms out of the sleeves. Once my arms were free from the suit, I put my Garmin back on. Since I was running to T1 anyway, it’s not like it cost me any time or significant extra effort. It worked well, and as long as I have my TYR wetsuit and Garmin I’ll continue to do it that way.
I use a Garmin 310XT and wear a 2XU R:1 full sleeve wet suit. I put on my wet suit THEN put on my watch. I put plenty of Body Glide on the sleeve. When I’m exiting the water, it comes off pretty easily. I’ve only had one time when it became a little snagged, but it didn’t slow me down, just took more time during my run to my bike.
There should be no tri wetsuit so inflexible that the sleeves cannot easily stretch over the largest sport watch in the world. A little lubricant on two inches up the sleeves of suit (on the outside) will seal the deal.
Well, if you had a 910xt (which isn’t small) DC Rainmaker so kindly demonstrated here how easy it was to remove your wetsuit with the the watch on. If its bigger than the 910xt… well… not sure what to tell you, except, that’s a big watch!
![http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nm78evH9JWc/SlKwshFb4PI/AAAAAAAABc4/g6ckigy2JJ4/SMALL-WATCH-1[8].jpg](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nm78evH9JWc/SlKwshFb4PI/AAAAAAAABc4/g6ckigy2JJ4/SMALL-WATCH-1%5B8%5D.jpg)