Hello all. I am a newbie to the sport and have one main question I have been resarching for a few days. Is a wetsuit (say a bib or short john) overkill for the waters here in Guam? Obviously temp is not a problem. What I mean is the bouyancy effects as beneficial as everyone says? I am a pretty stocky guy, 5’8 and 205lbs with 16% body fat. I can get in the pool and using a pool buoy, swim 1500 meters with no problem. I know for some this is nothing. However, without a bouy I struggle to make 100 meters as my hips and feet sink and no, I am not raising my head. I have plenty of OW to swim here but am a little worried with my current problem that the same will happen in OW. I am thinking of purchasing one mainly to help train myself (and my mind) that I can get over this in OW. The bike and run portion are not a huge problem, although my last name is Trout, I guess I am not the fish I thought:) So, does the wetsuit really make such a huge difference? And, would it be overkill to use one here in Guam? Thanks for any responses.
Jason
It is just too damn hot to swim in a wetsuit there. The waters are a constant 80 degrees. Are you swimming with the GTF guys? PM me, my wife and I used to be members of the GTF board and I can give you lots of good gouge.
The other thing to consider, is if you buy a wetsuit to help your buoyancy, then you really will never learn to control it yourself. Get back in the pool, dump the pull buoy and work on drills, drills, drills. Use the pull buoy if you have to for the endurance aspect, but you gotta work on getting those hips up without the use of aids. There aren’t any wetsuit legal races in those parts, although you will occasionally see the Japanese wearing wetsuits, but I don’t recommend it.
Thanks for the info. I was looking at pics from previous Tris on GTFs website and noticed only one or two. I mainly wanted to use it for OW training but thought it was probably overkill for here. I guess its back to the pool today:) Yes, I plan on becoming a member of the GTF sometime soo. Just want to make sure I have all aspects of the race covered pretty comfortably before I sign up for one.
Jason