Hi all, I’m a relative newbie to the tri-sport lifestyle. I currently have a love-hate relationship with my wetsuit. 1st, the term ‘triathlon’ should really be ‘quadrathlon’ because of the effort it takes to get into suit prior to competing. A good warm up! I love my suit because it has certainly helped this novice swimmer (learned how to swim to compete in these events) quicker, and I’m less likely to go & stay under with the bouyancy.
However, trying to get the suit off in a hurry in T1 is a joke. I’ve read some posts about cutting off some of the bottom of legs, & trying gobs of vasoline. I’ll try the vasoline before I cut anything. Any other suggestions? Next race is Cayuga Lake Tri 1st weekend in August. I’ll be in it with the big dogs since it’s the sprint nat’l championships (although double the winning time & I might be crossing the finish line!)
To get in put plastic grocery bags over your feet. They will slide right in no problem. Also, check out Bikesport Michigan’s web page (Tom Dermerly posts her a lot) and they have a good step by step for putting a suit on properly.
To get it off, I simply put a lot of body glide on my legs from about halfway down the calf down to my feet. Suit comes right off.
I also have had a lot of problems getting out of my wetsuit…it used to take me ~ 30s to get it past my heels. This year has been much better, due to 2 changes: getting a properly fitting wetsuit (Orca Sonar) and using TONS of bodyglide on my calves (from about mid-calf to the ankle). I used to just put 1 coat on my ankles, and it would always get stuck. Now my wetsuit removal time has been cut in half.
Skipping the marketing bit, there is a nice video of fast wetsuit removal in the DeSoto video: http://desotosport.com/wetsuits/video.html I imagine it’s not to different from brand to brand once you get past the top.
It just takes practice, racing and time. Try all the tricks and find what couple tricks work for you.
If it makes you feel any better, in my first oly tri. (the first with a wetsuit) my T1 time was 4:30!!! Three minutes of that was getting out of my suit, at least. Then the next year I finally got it down under 3 minutes, but it still sucked. I’m pretty decent (top 5-10% in races) so I felt even more like a spaz as all these people passed me in transition.
I’m better now, but still 30-40 sec. off the guys and women who can do the: "100 yards jogging across the lot+everything off+helmet, glasses, shoes on and leave T1 in 60 seconds. Sprint races are very hectic for a spaz. Six years and I am still trying to get it …
Spraying pam on my ankles and the outside of the suit seems to help, it doesn’t wash off during the swim. I’ve heard it can be bad for the neoprene, but my suits on its fifth season and still holding together relatively well.
+1 to Pam. I started tris on a poor college student budget when a $10 stick of bodyglide may as well have been a gold rolex. Spray your legs and arms like your chicken dinner and you’ll wriggle out of the thing right quick.
Man, guess I have been lucky with my wetsuits, never had any issues, and have never used any spray stuff.
T1 is much easier since the top is totally off and out of the way. I have just always quickly rolled the suit down as
far as I could and then step on one side and pull my leg out, and then do the same with the other.
A well fitted wetsuit should take a bit of work to get on, so don’t worry too much about that.
As for removal:
The sooner you exit the water that you take the suit off the better, particularly the legs. The water trapped in the suit will help the suit slide off. If you are having problems getting the suit down your legs, try taking it off right at the water’s edge and then running with the suit in your hands to your bike. Many races these days have long runs to the Transitions area from the waters edge. By the time you get to your bike, much of the water that is in the suit will have run out making removal at the bike, a challneg for those that have problems getting the suit off.
Foot size and lower leg shape are what is going to make getting the legs fully off quickly problematic. Basically the bigger your feet are, the more issues you are going to have.
As others have suggested, use Body Glide or another wetsuit friendly lube on the lower legs and ankles to help if you need it.
We have directly addressed this issue in all of our Nineteen suits by using much more flexible neoprene on the lower part of the leg to aid in suit removal. The EasyOff panel on the back of the calf of our Frequency model has been sited by many testers as making the Frequency the easiest and fastest wetsuit to get off that they have ever tried.
There was a recent thread on cutting the bottom of your wetsuit, I did it and it worked really well. I took off about 1 1/2" - 2", do it carefully and keep the v angle. I did not but you are supposed to seal the bottom with aquaseal. Good luck
Vaseline, or other petroleum based products are not so friendly to the wetsuit, so I would avoid them in favor of something like body glide…
One tip is the roll the wetsuit inside out as you take it off. As you pull your arms out the wetsuit arms should roll right off leaving the sleeve inside out. Same thing with the legs. It is very difficult to “shimmy” or slide the wetsuit down, but it will roll right off. Keep up your momentum when you get to your ankles and don’t be afraid to give it a lil effort… just avoid those fingernails.
Thanks for the info - had heard about the dangers of petroleum based products. Any input on PAM? I’ve slathered myself w/ body glide & it didn’t make much of a difference.
I think the next step is to cut a bit of the leg off. Coward that I am, I’d start w/ .5 inch. Easier to chop off a bit at a time than add it back on!
I’ve got to agree with the other Pam users on this thread - it’s great, and you can’t beat the price. I used to just spray my calves with it, but finally somebody clued me in to the obvious fact that the wetsuit is inside-out when you’re sliding it off of your legs. Sprayed Pam on the outside calves of my wetsuit for my last race, and the thing slid off wicked easy during T1. Didn’t even bother to sit on my towel like I used to do - stepped out of the wetsuit with no more difficulty than taking off a pair of bike tights.
I use Body Glide on my feet, too, but this is just as much for blister protection on the run as anything else. I also goop up the insides of my running shoes with Body Glide for this purpose.
You may have already seen this, but here’s a good transitions video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=brHcsqKM_mo
Among the other tricks here, it shows a good one for leaving your goggles and swim cap inside your wetsuit sleeve.
Will try PAM. I see a bunch of Neosport wetsuits on the Amazon site that was recommended. Anyone know anything about 'em? I have a full suit, was thinking about investing in a john because of the warm water temps here (relatively speaking!)
My advice, and what has worked VERY well for me is this:
#1. I use CVS brand personal water-based lubricating jelly. This is what most of you may know as KY jelly. A little embarassing perhaps, but lets the suit come on and off very well. I put a light coat from my ankles up to the bottom of my suit, and it makes the wetsuit a breeze to get into. I’ve found it works better than BodyGlide, is quicker to apply, and cheaper as well.
#2. Pam on the outside of wrists and ankles works well to let it slide over itself.
I know it grosses some people out, but I have never had an issue in T1 with this system, and anyone who i’ve let borrow my KY instead of BodyGlide has switched after trying it.
Hi,
Another option (if the dry land results continue to be poor) is to remove the suit before leaving the water (seriously)
When the water gets to 3-4 ft deep at the end of the swim,
get to either side of the swimming flow (ie: be nice and do not stop in the middle of the pack),
remove the wetsuit while still in chest deep water…it can literally be kicked off your feet.
Exit water and run to T1 and shoe/helmet/leave
Fast (read experienced and practiced) transitioners (word?) will always be speedy in the dry land wetsuit strip,
but I have had strugglers drop their wetsuit escape times down to 10-15 secs with the immersion escape method.
It’s too early on Sunday to stock up on KY Jelly & PAM (I live in the sticks) but I can sure try removing the suit in the water this a.m.
I’m off to Taughannock to meet another group of worthies for a 7 a.m. S/B/R training session. As I mentioned, the sprint national championships are being held here 2 Sundays from today. Right in my back yard (well, almost!)