For all the advances in technology in triathlon over the last five or so years, there’s one place that has seemingly stayed somewhat consistent — wetsuits. It’s been a long while since we’ve seen revolutionary changes in wetsuit design. And in some ways, that’s a good thing — wetsuit pricing hasn’t quite taken off at the rate that we’ve seen for other parts of our sport.

Wetsuits also tend to be an area where triathletes attempt to save money — either by holding onto a wetsuit that is, quite literally, hanging on by a thread for one race too many, or by ordering the current suit offered at 50-60% off “retail” price (of course, if that discount is always offered…that’s just the price, and you may want to shop accordingly).

But outside of bike fit, a properly fitting wetsuit that matches with your body might be the best investment you can make. A poor fitting wetsuit is, at best, a drag on your swim. At worst, it can impede your stroke or even be a safety hazard. Unfortunately, it’s become more difficult to shop for wetsuits; there are precious few retailers who carry a line of suits for try-on, and even fewer who can tell the difference between a suit that’s right and suit that’s available to sell right now.

That’s where sizing charts have become ever more important, but they don’t always tell the entire story. Let’s take, for instance, the subject of this review — sailfish’s One 7 Wetsuit. With nine different sizes available, there’s also some significant overlap between each size in the run. (At 6’3” and somewhere between 182 and 194 lbs depending on the day, I opted for the medium long.) But those size charts don’t tell you, say, torso length versus leg length.

I would say that, based on my experience, sailfish errs on the longer side for torso length, which means a slightly shorter leg length. The opposite fit would likely be blueseventy’s wetsuits, which are shorter in the torso and longer in the leg. With a 34” inseam at 6’3” tall, I’m pretty squarely between those options in terms of torso versus leg length — in other words, I can make both work pretty well.

The One 7 offers a high amount of buoyancy in key regions — 4.5 mm thick Aerofloat neoprene in the hips, torso, and thighs — paired with 1.5 mm thick neoprene in the shoulders and arms to give maximal flexibility. Granted, there’s no replacement for fit — any restriction in the shoulder will be amplified regardless of the thickness of the neoprene — but the arms are about as thin as anything I’ve ever put on.

Speaking of — the One 7 I find to be one of the easier suits to put on. No need for the classic shopping bag trick (unless you’re *very* sweaty when attempting to put this on); just a little lubricant and it slides up. Getting the suit into position was quite easy. It did take a minute for me to get used to the zipper; I’ve been wearing a B70 Helix for so long that all I know is the reverse zipper. But that’s a minor niggle.

Swimming in the suit and you find the Aerofloat panels do, in fact, provide the level of buoyancy you’d expect. It’s like swimming with a permanent pull buoy, which is a godsend for someone like myself whose kick consists of barely tapping his big toes together. And there’s zero shoulder restriction. Coming up on ten years since my big cycling crash, some of those niggles in the back and shoulder creep up on me, and thankfully there’s none of that wearing this suit. It isn’t as comfortable as going sleeveless — but it’s also around 3 seconds per 100 meters, in my testing, faster than going sleeveless.

The One 7 is a fast suit. It’s pretty easy to put on and live with. It should fit a pretty wide swath of the marketplace. And at $725, it undercuts other top-end wetsuits on price by anywhere from $25 to $250. That’s a hell of a deal for triathletes seeking maximum floatation help with a lot of flexibility in the arms.

Or, in other words, if you didn't swim competitively in your younger years, or you love seeing pull buoy and paddles on your swim sets — this is your suit.

sailfish One 7 Wetsuit
Price: $725
Available: Now
SLOWTWITCH SHOP

The post Reviewed: sailfish One 7 Wetsuit first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

About a month ago I wrote wrote that sizing has gotten a little confusing, and that the size charts that the companies produce are too often either incomplete or just wrong. Also, I just don’t agree with some of the narrative from wetsuit brands on how to know with confidence if and when a wetsuit fits you.

I thought I’d parlay that into how I go about choosing a wetsuit from a variety of brands, and today it’s sailfish (like blueseventy this brand eschews capital letters in its name). This is a newcomer to the U.S. market but is a fixture in Europe. This company belongs to Jan Sibbersen, for years a reliable bet to swim 46 or 47 minutes in Kona and he still holds the swim course record.

Half of you care about wetsuit purchases right now – the half who responded to a recent poll saying you intend to get a new wetsuit this year. By “this year” we really are talking about this spring. Now. Especially since a number of the important wetsuit brands are starting to get shipments in.

What are my imperatives when buying a wetsuit? What should trigger my decision to buy this wetsuit over that one?

Imperative #1: Fit.
Imperative #2: Flotation.
Imperative #3: Materials.
Imperative #4: A style of pattern-making that works for my body.
Imperative #5: Some of the accessory features of a wetsuit – like the neck, and the neck closure – that make the wetsuit a little more comfortable.

What I didn’t list in my imperatives is shoulder mobility, but in my experience the right fit – especially in the torso area – solves 80 percent of this. So, my imperatives #1 and #4 above absorb most of the shoulder mobility concern.

Let me tell you what matters least to me, and we’ll start with pulling panels. In fact, if a wetsuit doesn’t have a pulling panel that is, for me, a bonus. Why? Because I’m certainly teachable, but I haven’t found one that works. However, I have found that pulling panels provide me yet another place where I might blow a seam in my wetsuit while putting it on or taking it off.

I also am not convinced that, for me, most of the body positioning strategies bear fruit. These make more sense for accomplished swimmers who can’t abide having their perfect technique altered.

In the case of sailfish, they don’t put a pulling panel in their suits and I take that as a sign they don’t put meaningless features just to have them. They do have a hip rotation narrative, based on where they put their seams and rubber thicknesses. I don’t mind this, and it’s not surprising since Jan will value this in his own swimming. I’m not saying this is a valueless feature, rather than it’s not chief among the features I value.

sailfish makes 4 models: the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 @ $1,025; the G-Range 8 @$850; the Mens One 7 @ $585; and the Mens Attack 7 @ $475 and we'll get into each of these models below.

First let’s talk briefly about fit. These models all are made around the same patterns; I’d be the same size in all these models, and they’d fit similarly. The ML fits someone who weighs 174 to 194lb, and who is between 6’0” and 6’4”. If I was 30 years old and fit I might consider a smaller size, but wetsuit size charts – all of them, from all the brands – fail to consider age in the calculus. The older you get, the more you tend to fit in the next size up rather than the next size down. As I am usually between 170lb and 175lb this is the right size for me, weight-wise.

A wetsuit's torso length and girth are what determines 90% of a correct fit. Is this size in this brand correct for me? Yes, according to the size chart. But I don’t just take the size chart’s word for it anymore. In fact, that wetsuit has a torso length of about 60cm (I discuss how to measure this here), and that’s really the minimum for me. Because I know this measured value I know this wetsuit in this size will work. Now let’s discuss the various sailfish models.

The Ultimate IPS Plus 3 (pictured above) is a very nice wetsuit and I happen to have one of these. This suit is a possibility for me. Yamamoto Rubber Company makes what it calls Aerodome, and that might be what you see here in the chest – that honeycomb look in the rubber.

The G-Range 8? This suit’s motto is “Freedom Over Buoyancy.” The “G-Range 8 doesn’t maximize buoyancy,” says Sailfish, “so you determine your own water position, giving you absolute freedom in terms of swimming technique and speed.” We discussed this. I don’t want freedom. I’ll gladly sit in buoyancy jail. The G-Range 8 is not for me. I'm more interested in the model One 7 (pictured below).

Here’s what sailfish says about the One 7: “A Buoyancy Miracle.” Okay, now you’re talkin’ my language! “Greater buoyancy means a more stable, faster water position," sailfish writes.

The One 7 uses Aerofloat, a “three-layer neoprene with enclosed air cells that make you feel like you’re literally flying through the water.” It seem, feels, smells, tastes like Aerofloat is Yamamoto’s Aerodome, but I don't know for sure. In the image below, I’m wearing the Ultimate IPS Plus 3, and I contrast this with a studio shot of the One 7.

I contrast the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 with the One 7 in the side-by-side image below. Do you see that extra pattern piece arcing from the groin up and around to my low back? That’s the Hip Rotation Panel in the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 and here’s the pitch: “Additional flexibility in the hips allows you unrestricted hip rotation, almost like swimming without a wetsuit. You can transfer the longitudinal rotation of your body to the water and convert all your power into effective propulsion.” To me, it sounds like the goal is to accentuate hip driven freestyle, and I think wetsuits have always worked well with this technique.

But one aspect of hip driven freestle – and I think this must be what sailfish is getting at – is the deployment of a strong kick. One reason really good swimmers have a problem with fullsuits that are ultra-buoyant from the hips down is that the float inhibits a vigorous kick. We once tested a swimmer whose fastest wetsuit in the flume in Colorado Springs had a bikini style bottom. This oddly-made wetsuit, which we built just for educational purposes, had full-length arms but no rubber below the waist. She got a lot of propulsion from her kick.

Yes, I feel better, slightly, swimming in the Ultimate IPS Plus 3. But I don’t go faster. If you look at the One 7, it’s just got a slab of Aerofloat from the neck to the knees. Interestingly, there’s a hip side panel in the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 made of Aerofloat that the One 7 lacks, but in general the One 7 is just a blunt instrument set at the problem of buoyancy. I’m a leg dragger. I don’t get propulsion out of my kick. The blunt instrument is fine.

I like the Attack 7 (pictured above) fine; I like the price; but the One 7 is not that much more money, and you can feel a difference in materials.

So, it’s either the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 or the One 7 for me. If either is given as a gift, I'd take the Ultimate IPS Plus 3. But hands down the One 7 is the best value.

There is one more thing I need to talk about with this brand. If I take a ROKA, and a sailfish, each in my appropriate size, they are very close to identical in performance for me, but it’s a bit more of a challenge for me to get the sailfish’s zipper up. Less so the ROKA. The only meaningful difference is in the zipper. The ROKA’s zipper is 2” longer. I believe sailfish is using an 18” zipper in my size and ROKA is using a 20”. They use the same gauge zipper, just a different length. Yes, zippers can be too long. They don’t stretch. They leak water. But I think a wetsuit for somebody north of 6’ tall and 170lb wants a 20” zipper.

The reason I would take a Ultimate IPS Plus 3 to the race, rather than the One 7, has to do with that zipper issue. For some reason – and I don’t know why, because the zippers are the same length – I have a bit of an easier time getting the zipper up by myself in the Ultimate IPS Plus 3. I may ask for help getting the zipper up, but I need to know getting that zipper up is something I can do on my own if need be.

I note when I go to the sailfish website (U.S. version) I’m offered 15% off my first purchase. Of the two sailfish models that interest me the most, that discount would take the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 from $1,025 to about $870, and the One 7 from $585 to just under $500. There are 15 sizes in all, 9 mens sizes and 6 women’s sizes.

The post How I Chose My sailfish Wetsuit first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Quintana Roo might be best known for its bikes but this brand – celebrating its 35th year – began as a wetsuit maker. For sure wetsuits didn’t get much of a head start; QR as a bike brand is only one year younger. Also, QR’s wetsuits owned a market share in the U.S. that I don’t think has ever been matched by any brand in wetsuits or bikes. According to my memory in one magazine’s (early 1990s) poll 65 percent of triathlon wetsuits sold in the U.S. was made by this brand. There were reasons for this and as Quintana Roo launches new wetsuits for 2022 it appears to me this company has remembered them.

Remember, this brand launched the category. Prior to Quintana Roo any wetsuit sold to a triathlete was pretty much a surfing wetsuit. The idea was a wetsuit to keep you warm. The Quintana Roo wetsuits launched in 1987 were the first to be not just warm, but fast and optimized for surface swimming.

This brand is not simply living off its legacy. The new wetsuits launched today – and the policies, the thesis behind pricing, sales channels – parallel the practices that helped fuel QR’s growth in the late 80s. Here’s an example. You have 14 days to test this wetsuit, taste it, sniff it, swim in it, and if you don’t like it send it back for a full refund. The company got a lot of heat for this back in the 1980s because your LBS who sells this wetsuit was certain you’d all buy the wetsuit, race in it, and then return it for a refund. (Almost no one actually did that).

Here’s another example. You have a 2-year no-fault warranty with this wetsuit. Thirty-plus years ago ads by this company ran that said, “The dog eats it, the car runs over it, your spouse throws dries it in the high heat cycle, we’ll repair or replace it no charge.” The high heat cycle thing actually happened. That athlete got his replacement wetsuit from QR, no charge, before he knew that his original QR wetsuit came out of the dryer looking like a ball of plastic.

Wetsuits back then were sold through your LBS, or your tech running store, or direct from the manufacturer. These days you get your QR mostly via that latter sales channel. Let’s talk pricing for a moment, and then we’ll get into the nuts and bolts of these new wetsuits. These fullsuits launched today, the HYDROsix2 and the HYDROfive2, sell for $595 and $479 respectively. Why those prices? By my reckoning that's the least a company can charge for wetsuits like this while maintaining profitability. Why do I know this? I set the prices for my wetsuits back in the 1980s and that was my rationale. Back then, a QR fullsuit sold for $220 and today, inflation adjusted, that price would be $545 (and that was before I changed to more expensive Yamamoto SCS #39, which we’ll get to in a minute).

I have a pretty good idea what goes into making a triathlon wetsuit, and I have never understood how a triathlon wetsuit can cost north of $1000. There are patterns but no molds, unless you count the hardware to stamp a pattern into the rubber. But even then I question the utility of that. Vintage QR wetsuits never had pulling panels or stamped channels because the wetsuits were – argh! perish the thought! – tested, and if it didn’t add speed the “feature” was rejected. So what you’re left with is the cost of rubber, a $2 zipper, glue, thread, seam tape, silkscreening and the labor and sewing machines to put it together. My point is: these QR wetsuits are sold for a fair price and I wish I could say that of all the triathlon wetsuit makers today.

I have a HYDROsix2 and not only does the company and its policies parallel those of 35 years ago, the wetsuit itself is pretty similar in a number of ways. The name comes from the early 1990s, when QR introduced the Hydrofull. The etymology goes like this: Tommy Yamamoto would make trips over to the U.S. to try to get surf wetsuit companies to buy the rubber he made in his Osaka, Japan factory. I happened to meet Tommy at a surf wetsuit factory I was visiting, and while Tommy extolled the virtues of his jersey (the fabric adhered to the rubber) I was taken by the softness of the rubber he made. I got his business card and contacted him later, and began making wetsuits out of his rubber. But that rubber was prone to fingernail tears. Tommy came up with a solution, literally a “solution” painted onto the rubber that he called SCS; Super Composite Skin. That coating not only gave the rubber an armor against fingernail tears, it repelled water. Hydrophobic means “tending to repel water.”

The HYDROsix2 still has that signature Yamamoto rubber, and the #39 SCS rubber you see in that suit is exactly what we used 30 years ago. These suits are made with Yamamoto #39 and #40 rubber, which has not changed over the past 30 years and it hasn’t needed to. The suit is expertly crafted, the seams are artful, and it is not easy to glue 5mm rubber panels directly to 2mm panels, which is what you need to do when you move from a float panel to a stretch panel (you’ll want thinner rubber in the shoulders and arms). The neck is soundly made, fits well, doesn’t choke me nor serve as a water scoop. There is seam tape at critical junctions.

So far, so good, yes? Let’s get to the aspects of the HYDROsix2 that differ from the Quintana Roo of old, or where I don’t stipulate to the decisions or statements Quintana Roo has made. And, look, I’m going to get very picky here.

Fit

The first and most obvious thing that’s different – not just from historic QR but from pretty much all other brands – is that the sizing is now unisex. This is not a cost-saving measure. There are still 14 sizes, and back in “my day” this was the case. Just, back then, 30 years ago, there were 10 mens and 4 womens sizes. Mens XS and womens M were, back then, pretty similar. If you were 5’7” tall and 130 pounds you were in 1 of those 2 sizes and you’d be right if you said, “But wait! Women are smaller in the chest and larger in the hips!” Yes. Kind of. But I can tell you that, according to my memory, one IRONMAN World Champion male fit better in a women’s size than in a men’s size and swam in that womens-size wetsuit; and one IRONMAN World Champion female swam better in a mens than a womens size and swam in that mens-size wetsuit.

I’m not writing in favor of unisex sizing. I’m just offering data points. I’m unsure. I’d need all 14 sizes and a couple of hundred people to answer that question of whether I’m completely comfortable with unisex sizing. QR either does have or will soon have that data and we’ll all know. What I do like about these sizes is that they’re different than what’s out there. They’re accretive to the sizing already in the marketplace. We now have another fit paradigm. I fit okay in the size I have. All the circumferences are good. It fits right all in the right places, with this exception: the suit is a little short for me in the torso (by about a half-inch), and the legs and arms are an inch short.

This just means that the LG size fits somebody perfectly, and that person is me at 5’11” or 6’0” rather than the actual 6’2” me. But the suit “fits” me per the size chart. In the old days of QR, we were constantly working on patterns; constantly tweaking patterns, making new patterns, finding customers who our wetsuits didn’t fit and if we felt this was a representative customer we’d make a new pattern. I predict QR is in the beginning now of that process with this new fit paradigm. Look at the images here of a man and a woman. If you look at how the wetsuit fits in the sleeve area, it’s full-length on the man. The sleeves could be an inch longer in the very leggy woman (I know she’s leggy, rather than “torsoey”, because I’ve fit her to her bike). How to make your patterns fit all these people is the curse of the wetsuit maker.

QR says that, “When picking your size, we recommend to go on the ‘smaller’ end to increase your performance fit.” We’ll see about that. It’s their product, their company, they live with the customer service element every day. Just, I’m pretty similar in height and weight now to what I was 30 years ago, and 30 years ago if there was any question about size I erred on buying the smaller size. Today I err on buying the larger size. If QR is basing its view on how their pros and product testers fit in their wetsuits, okay, but if those product testers are hard-charging AGers who all have bodies like underwear models, that cohort does not represent me. Because today’s QR has such a tight relationship with its consumers, and has that same attention to customer service and detail that this brand had since the company’s beginning, it will become apparent pretty quickly whether this company has size-prescribing down to a science or whether there will be a bit of return-for-wrong-size as this new sizing scheme plays out. (Worst case, if the wetsuit doesn’t fit you have oodles of time to send it in for another size.)

Sub-assemblies

If you make a unisex sizing the top of the suit is going to be a little slimmer. That’s what I would expect and that’s what I found with the HYDROsix2 and the HYDROfive2. I had no problem with this. Per se. But in my own wetsuit making days one of the pattern enigmas was the space in the low back, below the zipper, trying to get that part of the suit to sit snug against the low back. When you solved that problem – and we did – there is a new problem created, which is, the suit is now narrow enough in the waist that folks with wide hips find the suit a little harder to pop over the hips. (Look at the pic above; this is a new QR fullsuit and this is the way it’s supposed to fit in the low back.) But solving this pattern issue caused us to start putting longer zippers in our suits. Rather than the typical 18” zippers we put 20” and sometimes 22” zippers depending on size. I could have used a zipper 2” longer in the LG size in the HYDROsix, and if this was my wetsuit I’d add 3” or 4” to the length of the pull cord.

Features

The neck is the part of the wetsuit that more brands struggle with than any other. This suit’s neck is fine and better than most. The other “feature” that’s in just about everybody’s wetsuit but needs to be in just about nobody’s wetsuit is the pulling panel. Why is that panel there? Because wetsuit makers are afraid to exclude it – they don’t want to be out-featured. Of course I can’t test this panel for “speed” because I have no HYDROsix2 without the panel. But I can hazard a guess: This wetsuit would have been fine if no panel was placed in the arm.

Performance

This is the easy part for me to write, and the shortest. The wetsuit performs just fine. It’s very close to as fast as 90 percent of the other wetsuits out there you may want to buy. What about the other 10 percent? This list of your “fastest” wetsuits depends on your swim abilities and your body dimensions. A QR HYDROsix2 may be as fast for you as any wetsuit made today. There is no obvious reason why it wouldn’t be. It’s got all the requisite elements.

Understand what these wetsuits are. A QR HYDROsix2 uses in my opinion the fastest rubber made, which is also the rubber likely to cause a wetsuit to fit and be comfortable. It’s made with the best construction, in a premier factory. This brand makes no outlandish claims about its wetsuit; and charges no outlandish price. It’s a well made product out of world leading materials in a competent factory, supported by a customer service team that is as good as they come. In other words, the imperatives and the execution that defined this brand 35 years ago remain in place today.

You can take a closer look at here at the HYDROsix2 and the HYDROfive2.

The post Quintana Roo Honors its Wetsuit Roots first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

“I bought my wetsuit second hand, a little too big so easy to get on and off. Ordered a new one, a size smaller, still too big in the mid area. Never been sized up for one, not in a tri club, so difficult to understand how they are supposed to fit, or what size I actually need.”

I’m going to answer this and some other questions, as I talk about about De Soto’s wetsuits.

But first, to “Tammy”, let me tell you how I approach problems, both this and just about every problem. I look at it like it’s a siege. What’s the objective? To take the castle. But the castle doesn’t want to be taken. My strategy will require patience, calculation, and a to-do list. Whatever it is I do, whether it’s building a company, or training for a race, I use the same process.

Tammy and the rest of you must develop a coherent strategy that starts with the finish – the desired result. It’s not taking the castle, in your case; rather it’s a wetsuit that fits, is comfortable, doesn’t take on too much water as you swim, is fast, and sits inside your budget. Let’s make a plan.

My wife is a “returner”. She has no problem returning stuff for a refund or exchange. I hate that process. You either need to be a “returner” like my wife, or you need a one-stop-shop process. The latter means going somewhere – to a race expo possibly – to try on a number of sizes of several styles, in order to find “your” wetsuit. Or, it might mean your club (tho I note Tammy does not belong to one), or your local bike shop, or your local run store, bring in a bunch of try-on wetsuits, early in the year.

If you want to just go the try-and-return route, you might want to see who’ll send you a half-dozen wetsuits, returning the 5 you don’t want. Perhaps you could negotiate an appropriate charge. Maybe the shop charges you 5 wetsuits times two-thirds of the retail price of each wetsuit, as a guarantee. Strike a deal. I mentioned Brian at Justwetsuits.com in my Orca installment. Maybe Brian has a process like this that’ll work for us all.

Just, if you want to end up in your best wetsuit you’re going to need to sit down and figure out your plan to take this castle, rather than sending off screaming Dothrakis one at a time.

Note to Tammy: There are anywhere from 4 to 11 women’s sizes to choose from, depending on the wetsuit brand. Beyond this, you have the difference between the “European” and the “American” fit. This is one way I’ve heard patterns described. A “European” or “athletic” fit tends to appeal to the fitter, trimmer athlete. Some wetsuits are made for those who don’t have the underwear model’s body.

But there’s also the material to consider. Were I you, I’d look for more “Yamamoto #39” rubber in a wetsuit. This rubber is stretchier. If you don’t have a body suited for a European fit, you can either wear roomier jeans for old people (like I do), or you can wear Lycra tights, right? Yamamoto #39 is the Lycra tight of the wetsuit world (Yamamoto #38, or rubber from another maker, is less stretchy).

I honestly don’t know where De Soto gets his Green Goma rubber for his T1 wetsuits, but if it’s not Yamamoto #39 it’s a pretty close imitation of it. I wrote in a prior installment that I don’t know why other wetsuit companies don’t simply copy the 2-piece design of the T1. I’ll tell you why I think it is: they’ve never swam in one. They’ve never even put one on. Simply put, too many wetsuit companies treat their wetsuits like clothing styles, and sometimes even De Soto is guilty of this. When I began my company, it began as a wetsuit company. I didn’t make clothing. I made wetsuits. The next thing I made was a bike. Too many wetsuit companies simply treat wetsuits as a style (alongside their cycling bibs or all-weather jackets), and they not only rarely try on their own wetsuits, they never try out the competition’s wetsuits.

And I get it. Life is complicated. We’re busy. But I’ve tried on, and swam in, wetsuits made by dozens of companies, and seeing what the other guys do can be humbling, but it’s also instructive. I think if some of these other wetsuit companies experimented with a 2-piece design one or more of them would come out with a 2-piece model.

That said, I’m just as happy in a 1-piece and I’ve got quite a few of them. Happy to swim in them. But today I’m talking about De Soto because for Tammy, if she’s just having trouble fitting in a wetsuit – any wetsuit – this is the one that presents itself as an option.

Some folks object to the 2-piece because they think it’s going to take a long time to get off in transition (2 pieces instead of 1). Bjorn Andersson was visiting sometime back, and I brought one of these to the pool. I asked him to swim in it and then get out of the pool and take it off. I gave him no coaching, and it was the first time he’d ever worn one. Here’s the video of him swimming in, and exiting, the wetsuit. (And notice Bjorn's consecutive breaths going into the wall, which I'll again talk about in the context of open water in an upcoming article.)

You decide whether you think this is too difficult to exit. If after watching the video you think it is, don’t buy it. Let me tell you when it’s specifically easier: if you have any mobility or strength issues on your shoulders; and if you have a hard time getting your wetsuit down over your hips. One-piece wetsuits are pretty rigid in the hip area because the zipper area, at the zipper’s base (around the hips) does not stretch, and must be very sturdy (the zipper base is a specific failure area, causing wetsuit makers to really beef this up). The “bibjohn” part of a 2-piece wetsuit has no zipper, so, no problem pulling this down over your hips. The image highest above is me in a T1 by De Soto, from a race last year; I raced in this very wetsuit last week, that was just a 1k swim and a 5k run. If it was that slow to get out of I'd have chosen a 1-piece for last week's race (because it was so short).

Were I you, Tammy, and if you keep getting stuck while trying to find a wetsuit that works, you’ll spend between $500 and $800 for both pieces that comprise De Soto's wetsuit solution. Note that if you have a specific problem – one half of your body is bigger than the other half – you can mismatch the sizing to suit.

Now, that we’ve spent a moment on this wetsuit, let’s go back to the process. The siege. The plan.

Disruption is a theme these days, and usually it’s not a new invention, it’s a logistical process. Uber didn’t invent one person delivering another to a destination. AirBnB isn’t an invention; it’s simply and only a new logistical twist. What I’m asking for is simply a logistical twist to the process of delivering you a wetsuit. Canyon has given you a logistical twist in bicycle delivery; and we’ve twisted the logistics a little more with our process for helping you choose your Canyon via the deployment of our fit processes pointed toward Canyon in a Reader Forum thread.

I don’t mean to downplay the power of solving a logistical problem. Amazon doesn’t invent anything. It’s a logistical twist. But look at what that has meant to commerce.

Tammy, I’m asking you to create the logistical process by which you end up with the wetsuit that’s right for you. I’m asking this because I know of no good logistical process in place for you. You’re going to need to try and return; try and return. But you shouldn’t have to. Your tri club, or your local shop, should have solved this logistical problem for you already. I spoke to the owner of blueseventy Wetsuits last week, John Duquette, and he told me he has several sets of demo wetsuits, just for try-ons, making their way around the country right now. They’ve been “on tour” all season long. Has the blueseventy Tour made it’s say to your town? Or, any tour? An Orca tour? A ROKA tour? If not, why not?

We have a disconnect right now. Wetsuit makers are on one side; consumers are on the other side; they’re trying to connect; the local bike shop is disappearing; the LBSs that stock wetsuits are disappearing; it’s like the depletion of ocean fisheries, where mommy and daddy bluefin tunas are having a hard time finding each other. We need a match.com for wetsuits. It doesn’t need to be the same process or pathway in every town. The nexus drawing consumer-to-wetsuit might be the local retail store; might be the local club.

Point being, this is a problem that’s sitting out there begging for a solution. And, heck, maybe I’m the problem. We’ve organized the Slowtwitch Google Tour and the Slowtwitch Saddle Tour in years past, with a protocol to help you choose the particular thing that’s hard to find (in this case the right google or saddle). Maybe we ought to create the Slowtwitch Wetsuit Tour. Let me noodle that.

Read more about De Soto’s wetsuits.

The post T1 by De Soto, and Our Wetsuit Logistics Problem first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Of everyone in this discussion, I only know of one person who owned rows of sewing machines, who built his own cutting and gluing tables, and whose wetsuits went from sheet stock to finished product all within 100 feet of his desk. Moi…! Sounds like a lot of hassle, doesn’t it! Easier just to email an order to a factory in Asia! Well, yes.

But there were real advantages to making your own wetsuits. Not only could you build your inventory as you needed it, but you could make good patterns. Making patterns isn’t a one-time thing. It’s a lot like what I do now. When I started Slowtwitch – 3 weeks after I retired from the wetsuit making gig exactly, to the week, 20 years ago today – I thought you just wrote some code, website done, ready… set… go! It took me some years to finally realize that you never stop writing code (or paying others to write it).

Likewise designing wetsuits, working on patterns, and exploring materials – it’s never finished. You realize that one size of your wetsuit just doesn’t fit right. You’ve got to tweak the pattern, just like today I’ve got to tweak the code.

Problem is, nobody makes their own wetsuits anymore. And if you don’t make your own wetsuits, how do you work on patterns? When you sub in new materials, how does this change the way your wetsuits fit? What alterations must you do to your patterns to normalize for the different stretch characteristics of that new material?

When I started, in 1987, I didn’t intend to make my own wetsuits. But I couldn’t get sufficient quantities from my contract factory, and I felt like I couldn’t move my product forward if I just ordered wetsuits. But I didn’t want to poach workers from my contract factory. So I asked those who worked deep in the bowels of my contract factory, “Who’s been fired from here? Who are great craftsmen who just have attitude problems?”

That’s who I hired. The Dirty Dozen (eventually the Dirty Two Dozen), workers who really knew the craft, and who just needed guidance. It wasn’t always easy. More than once I stood in front of a judge to keep a worker out of jail, promising to employ, mentor, and keep an eye on him. If you own a Quintana Roo wetsuit made in the 80s or 90s, this is the crew that made your wetsuit. Brilliant at making wetsuits; not always brilliant at life; nevertheless we all grew up as people, which was its own separate reward.

And boy, were these men and women wizards! Every week we catered in Taco Friday, and I’d see them out there kicking around a soccer ball. Made of wetsuit rubber! How did they do that?

Making wetsuits is about the hardest cut-and-sew operation there is. It’s also a material that gives you opportunities. When I post images here of wetsuits that look like they have the Invisible Man in them (below), those wetsuits either look like an empty sack when they’re limp on a hanger, or they look a little like they do in these images, with curves that conjure the human shape. You can do that with rubber. If you know what you’re doing.

Triathlon wetsuits today are made in Asia almost exclusively. The workers in those factories are very good, much like the workers I used to employ. There are crackerjack pattern makers over there. The craftsmanship is excellent. Mind, it wasn’t always. I remember a wetsuit factory manager from Asia visiting my factory in San Marcos, California. It was a funny conversation. “You can’t glue & blindstitch 1.5mm smoothskin rubber,” he said. “Yes, you’re right,” I replied, “and yet you and I are watching it being done right now, are we not?” “Yes,” he said, “but it’s impossible. It can’t be done,” as he spectated one of my craftsmen doing it in front of his eyes.

And I think that’s a good segue to Orca, because their wetsuits feature glued & blindstitched 1.5mm smoothskin rubber, a skill the Asian factories learned from my misfits and castoffs.

This company makes a lot of styles, and prices them to meet just about every budget. They make longjohns (sleeveless wetsuits), but rightfully emphasize fullsuits (long arm suits). Let’s put this to bed now, shall we? Because you’re going to see comments in our Reader Forum and perhaps below each of these articles in this series (I wrote about wetsuits yesterday and I’ll write about them tomorrow, and over the next 2 weeks) explaining why I’m wrong, that longjohns are perfectly appropriate. To that I have to say this: Find me anyone, anyone – anyone – who earns a living from this sport who races in a longjohn. I’ll pepper each installment with images of swim starts and finishes and you just won’t find any. That should tell you something.

Now, look, in the beginning, the true swimmers said the same thing about fullsuits that true cyclists said about aerobars: “Sure, they work for triathletes. But that’s because triathletes don’t know how to swim (or ride). I must retain the ‘feel of the water.’” But eventually the feel of getting dropped overcame the feel of the water for these folks, and what you see today is what we told these true swimmers in 1987. It just took some years for them to get over themselves.

Today we have a new generation of experts who need to learn their lessons. Look, the less rubber, the more natural it feels. For that reason, Orca makes a suit called the Alpha. It’s a beautiful suit, pictured above, and again below, to the left. Fewer seams, very flexible, and you won’t find a bit of 5mm thick rubber in it. It’s for the “natural” swimmer, Orca’s parlance for those who come from a swim background. It sells for $699 and its price point analog is the Equip, to the right of it, selling for $329. (Samples of both mens and womens versions of Orca's wetsuits are shown throughout.)

What do I think? Do not buy these suits. Is that clear enough? These are wetsuits built for swim specialists who value how the wetsuit makes them feel when they swim rather (which may run contrary to what the clock says when they exit the water). Few of you will go faster in this suit than you will in some I’ll show you below.

The suits I’ll write about below “correct” bad body position by floating the parts that sink. Natural swimmers don’t like this, because they’ve spent decades correcting their body position. But just like aerobars, that allow you to rest your upper body skeletally, allowing you to ride with a flat back for a long time – a skill cyclists mastered before aerobars – adult onset swimmers and johnny-come-lately cyclists benefit from late-coming tech. Sorry to harsh somebody’s high, but the same tech that benefits newbies also benefits natural single-sport athletes. You punish yourself if you don’t take advantage of what’s available, even if it feels like you’re paddling a surf board when you swim. Let’s just go straight to the Orca wetsuits I like the best and for almost all of you it’s neither of the suits above.

I like Orca, and I’m beginning with Orca, because as I was building my factory a couple of competitors popped up, Orca one of them. These guys took wetsuits seriously. They’ve been around a long time, more than 25 years, so they’ve paid their dues. They never looked at wetsuits as a commodity. They took pride in what they made then and they still do now. But as you see, I’m not an advocate – for you – of every style they make. Let’s talk about the styles that I do recommend.

Orca has a system. It says swimmers are either Natural (come from a swim background), Total (very accomplished adult onset swimmer), or Progressive (newbie). I don’t care about any of that. What I want are good patterns, good flexibility and a lot of flotation. There is one wetsuit out of the Total Swimmer series that I like a lot and it’s the Predator (above, to the left). Then there’s one out of the Progressive series and it’s the 3.8 (above right). These aren’t exactly cheap at $899 and $599 respectively. But they’re really good suits.

The 2019 version of the 3.8 is entirely new; it’s updated from 2018; it’s going to be very comfortable to swim in. It’s almost entirely made of Yamamoto #39 smoothskin, has a very floaty trunk and thigh, and is going to feel more flexible in the chest area than just about every other wetsuit you might choose. Why? Because it’s got 3mm #39 in the chest. Here’s the benefit: If you ever feel or think you might feel claustrophobic in your chest, as regards breathing, this is the rubber you want. Not very thick, very flexible. Here’s the downside: Because it’s not very thick, it’s not as floaty in the chest. But the hips and thighs are very floaty, and this is where you want most of the float. The 3.8 is the most buoyant suit overall that Orca makes. I think it’s the sweet spot in the lineup. It’s not horribly priced, and it’s pretty much got everything you need.

Note our friend Sebastian Kienle; you can pick him out of the start line above, and then exiting the water (just above). I say “our friend” though I don’t know him well, but I follow him because he’s a thinking man’s pro. I watch his equipment videos, and then I closely watch when he races to see if he’s actually riding what he pimps (he does). He makes wise and thoughtful tech decisions. We’ll be writing a lot about his decision to move to road tubeless (Schwalbe) tires, SRAM 1x electronic, and I’m going to pester him to explain his Speedplay pedal choice, not because I don’t know why, but because he’s one of the few pros who can explain to you why. Note the wetsuit he’s in here.

More precisely, note the wetsuit he’s not in. The action pics above are from Challenge Heilbronn, which he won recently, and he’s seen on the start line and exiting the water in an Orca Predator. The athlete further above exiting in the Orca Alpha was at the same race, and that athlete probably came from a swim background. He may well have been in his perfect wetsuit. But Sebi is no slouch in the water either, yet he chose the suit with more flotation. This is the Orca suit you probably want, if you don’t end up in the 3.8.

This leaves the S7 ($239) and the Sonar ($449). The S7 (above right) is a perfectly fine suit, but it’s not quite as buoyant and I would not buy the S7 unless you were in a position to try on multiple sizes before the purchase. The rubber in the torso isn’t as stretchy as these others, and it’s not going to be as forgiving. The Sonar (above left) is more forgiving, but I’ve noticed that the Orca size chart is one of those I wrote about yesterday, where you get the suit and it feels a bit tight if you simply refer to Orca’s size chart.

I would size up from the chart, or at least err on the side of the larger size if you find yourself between sizes. I do find that Orca’s What’s My Size? prescriber a better predictor than you just looking on the size chart. Orca produced suits in 9 mens sizes and 5 womens sizes.

Orca is a multi-channel seller. You may find its wetsuits at your local store. Otherwise, you can buy a suit from Orca, or from a number of mail order resellers. I might recommend Justwetsuits.com, because I’ve developed a relationship with its owner Brian Suddarth and I’m amazed at how patient he can be with me (no easy feat), which tells me how patient he would be with you. One thing about wetsuits in general and Orca in particular. Orca’s lineup is all new for 2019. But not their model names. You may find a 3.8 or a Sonar for less if you shop around, and that may be fine. But it’ll almost certainly be last year’s model, or the year before, or…? And this may be okay for you. But wetsuits don’t always age well. Forewarned is forearmed.

If you do choose to contact Brian, ask him about Orca compared to the other 8 brands he carries. He’s on the front lines. He takes no pleasure in shipping you a wetsuit only to have it returned because it’s the wrong size, so, Brian is more likely than I to give you good sizing guidance.

Read more about Orca Wetsuits. Or visit Justwetsuits.com. If you click that link Brian will know you arrived from Slowtwitch (which may accrue to your benefit… or not!). I mentioned that Orca is one of the few brands that does have a robust community of local dealers, which you can search.

The post Wetsuit Craftsmanship, with a Look at Orca first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Let’s expand this out a little, and talk in the context of the entire swim leg. Which is not like the other legs in a triathlon! What’s different about the swim? A lot!

It’s the only leg of the three where speed and aerobic fitness are not so closely linked. If you want to go faster on the bike, or the run, improvements in technique will pay some dividends, but mostly you need change the nature of the engine or the chassis. You can get lighter, which helps until you can get no lighter. Otherwise, you need to produce more power, burn more gas, build a bigger fire inside your body.

In the swim it is, if anything, the opposite. Fast swimmers may not be swimming any harder than slow swimmers. In fact, because they finish minutes before you, their work is done while you’re still burning matches out there. Yes, there’s less advantage to be gained in the swim than in the bike or run (because the swim is shorter by duration), but the advantage you do gain comes without metabolic cost.

Second, the swim is the leg in which tactics and positioning yield the biggest dividends. Where you line up at the start; the line you take; whether you are able to draft swimmers in front of you; how you pace your effort; and how you negotiate the surf in a surf swim; might mean a minute or two gained or lost per every 10 minutes of racing time. Nothing you do in the bike or run – unless you blatantly draft, or cut the course, or take a wrong turn – affects you like that.

Wetsuits Can Make Your Swim Safer. Or Not.

Third, there is more peril associated with the swim than with the bike or run. Few people die in the run in triathlon. Mind, footrunning is perilous. But not footrunning in triathlon. Almost no one ever dies in the run in a triathlon. Why? One reason more people die in the swim is because it’s first.

Triathlon has higher mortality rates than running, and while some of that is due to the bike, most if it is the swim. How does the wetsuit impact safety? Your wetsuit – how you choose it; how you use it – can make your swim safer. But if you choose poorly, you may lose that safety advantage.

Sales Channels

It’s a little tougher for you all now than it was when wetsuits first made their appearance in triathlon. That was 32 years ago, and back then you had a robust network of Independent Bike Dealers, many of whom stocked wetsuits. Fewer retailers have wetsuits in stock now. The wetsuit sales channel has shifted almost entirely to mail order.

May I say, as an aside, that here’s a place where your local club could provide a service, and few do this. Unless your LBS has a day or week every year set aside for this, your club could bring in a lot of wetsuits, just for sizing and try-on, either early in the season or proximate to the season’s big race(s).

There’s the way things oughta be and the way things are, and mail order – with you on your own – is the way things are for most of you. So let’s deal with the way things are.

Loose or Tight

When I was a young buck, I wanted my wetsuits as tight as I could get them. If I could exit the swim with very little water having gotten into my wetsuit – basically, I was almost in a dry suit – that was the gold standard. But I’m 62 now and I’m writing about a time when I was half the age I am now. My diaphragm, and my ventilation capacity overall, just can’t overcome the pressure of a tight wetsuit. I now need my wetsuit to be loose in the chest. The neck? That’s mostly a function of how you put the suit on, which we’ll cover another day. There’s no way to put a wetsuit on that makes the suit more or less constrictive in the chest.

Some problems that occur in the water – both safety and performance-based – may be due to wetsuits too tight in the chest. I don’t have any facts for you. I only have experience and instinct. There are two reasons your wetsuits are too tight: you buy them too tight; or you buy the right wetsuit for the person you were then, not the person you are now.

Wetsuit Sizing Charts

Maybe it’s my imagination, but I’m noticing that some sizing charts nowadays are fitting people in tighter wetsuits than they might best use. Maybe I think this because I’m older now. I bring to the size chart problem a different morphology. If I’m able to reach my current goal of 6’2” and 165lb, it’s a very different 165lb than fit into my wetsuit 30 years ago. I was trimmer then, my circumferences (waist and thighs) were smaller, and my chest was better able to overcome the sausage skin that a wetsuit can seem like.

A wetsuit size chart is nothing but a guess. I remember back when I was playing around in exercise physiology, which is what I thought I’d do for a living before falling into a different part of the industry. I built up a large dataset of people who I hydrostatically weighed, to calculate percentage of body fat. I distinctly remember one session that included two women, each 5’7” and 130lb, one who was 30 percent body fat, the other 7 percent. The latter was a severe outlier (of several thousand people tested, she was the only woman ever under 10 percent). Thing is, these women were identical per the size chart, but would fit in very different wetsuits.

You can’t simply rely on a size chart. The older you get, the more you need to size up – to err on the larger size. The longer you’ve had your wetsuit, the less likely it’ll still fit the way it needs to. If you get your mail order wetsuit and you suspect it's too tight, send it back and get the right size. Don't swim in your old wetsuit just because it still has life in it. Get the right size. Don’t fool around with this. I don't want to hear you post concerns on our Forum about swim deaths only to then see you shoehorn your recently acquired extra layer into your 5 year old wetsuit.

When a Wetsuit Needs to Work

All wetsuits work great for the first quarter mile. Because swimmers usually start at a pace not sustainable; because our diaphragm gets tired after the initial few minutes of the swim; because of the combination of a tired diaphragm, a start that’s too quick, metered breathing, the pressure of a wetsuit, and the need to keep swimming at a prescribed pace; sometimes you get a little chest tightening you might not recognize. You don’t recognize it because you don't get it in pool sessions, and you didn’t get it in the easy open water sessions when you're testing your new wetsuit. These days I can pretty much rely on that happening to me in a race with a wetsuit. It lasts a couple of minutes.

For some people, this is the "panic attack." For me, it's just the invariable, "dang!" Then I settle into a stasis, that tightness goes away, and I’m good for the rest of the swim.

How does this affect your choice of wetsuit? It needs to be roomy and flexible enough to work in the most trying of circumstances, but not so roomy it picks up half the ocean and you’re swimming in galoshes before the swim’s halfway point. This is what makes wetsuit making a little more of an art than it gets credit for.

Wetsuit Types

I divide wetsuits into two types, and it’s not the two you think I mean. It’s not fullsuit versus longjohn, which is one way of saying long sleeve versus no sleeve. The only wetsuit you should consider is a long sleeve suit. (I'm going to get a lot of comments to this article from the experts, on a number of statements with which the experts will take issue, my insistence on fullsuits chief among them.)

The two wetsuit styles I’m talking about are 2 piece versus 1 piece. The 2 piece wetsuit consists of a “bibjohn” and a “pullover”.

I’ve got both styles, I swim in both styles, and have logged many miles in both styles. They’re both great. And to be clear, there is one maker of the 2 piece style – De Soto – and every other wetsuit maker makes a 1 piece wetsuit. Let’s talk about the value of each.

A 1 piece wetsuit is easier to keep track of, because it’s just 1 piece. It might be a little quicker in transition. The right 1 piece, for the right swimmer, may be a little faster.

What I note from my 2 piece is that it’s easier to get on, easier to pull up and into place, is less likely to pull down in the shoulders causing shoulder restriction. I also think it’s got a more comfortable neck than 1 piece wetsuits. I like the 2 piece wetsuit for those with weak or compromised shoulders; who have morphologies that defy the patterns by which 1 piece wetsuits are made; and who need to mix and match bibjohn and pullover sizes.

The 2 piece sounds pretty desirable, doesn’t it? So, here’s the magic question. If the 2 piece wetsuit has compelling advantages, why don’t you see them more often; and why don’t other companies make them? I don’t know. That suit style debuted in 2002 and it’s a mystery to me why it’s remained in scant use. It’s like the beam bike: It was here in the mid-90s; then it almost disappeared. Maybe the beam bike’s return, with the Dimond, the Diamondback (Andean) and the Cervelo (P3X) means you can’t keep a good style down, and the 2 piece wetsuit’s value will be recognized in proper proportion.

I think that’s enough for today. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to write about wetsuit brands individually, which wetsuits I like, about the proper use of wetsuits, and how to use them tactically in a broader discussion of the swim leg.

If I Could Have My Way

If I could have my way what behavior would everyone adopt about wetsuits? Primarily, that you don’t try on a wetsuit for the first time, or the first time in a year, just before the race. Your club, or your local shop, could organize a day when you all could try on various models and sizes of wetsuits, so that you could know that the suit you’re going to swim in is comfortable.

Other behaviors I hope you’ll consider I’ll express in the installments upcoming, where we talk about particular wetsuits, and then generally how to put them on, swim in them, swim tactics you might employ and so forth.

The post The Wetsuit, Through My Lens first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

I swam in my first triathlon wetsuit (of my own design) 42 years ago, November upcoming. I’ve seen wetsuits change! Is there any more to be gained?

Not really, says my brain. Imagine my surprise, then, when I swam in this ROKA Maverick Pro II. There’s a video below that illustrates my surprise.

Above is my photographic masterpiece: Two Mavericks Sharing a Chair. The one with the yellow lettering is this year’s Maverick Pro II. The other is last year’s Maverick Pro. I tested both. This year’s tested incrementally better.

The first thing I notice about this wetsuit is the structure. Nothing is worse than a wetsuit that rips. This suit is built like a tank. It doesn’t swim like a tank, but it’s built like one. I think you can see below all the seam tape at the joints. The best wetsuits have this kind of reinforcement. The zipper base (a common failure place) is sturdy.

I’ve got a shot of the Maverick Pro II below against another wetsuit in my inventory that didn’t fair so well. One high stress area is where you pull on the Velcro tab to undo the wetsuit and take it off. I have several wetsuits that have this failure. The ROKA could have this failure, but it’s got reinforcement on the inside, and that’s unlikely.

Speaking of the neck, below is a shot of this ROKA’s neck, on the inside, versus another brand’s wetsuit. See how that thin smoothskin rubber is folded over, and the neck is a separate piece attached to the suit? The other suit simply has the rubber terminating, with no attention paid to making that suit’s neck more comfortable. The better wetsuits are made like this ROKA.

Below is a short video of my swim in a ROKA. I did my warm up set in this suit, and that set is typically 6x200yd. I leave on the 3:10, and usually during this set I come in at around 2:50. Watch the video to see what happened on this day.

Here’s another point of differentiation between this and other suits. To be clear, that style of neck, really good seam support, you can find this in other wetsuits. ROKA has an arms-up pattern tech that is not often found, though you will find it in De Soto’s wetsuits.

But this shot below is something pretty different. From the hips to the bottom of the leg you’ll find a “stripe” running down the side of 1.5mm (at the thickest) rubber, as an expansion panel. This doesn’t affect flotation, but does help with fit, entry and exit.

This suit costs $750, against the Maverick X which sells for $925. I’ll be testing the Maverick X in a little while, and we’ll see if the extra $175 is warranted. The Maverick Pro II comes in 10 men’s sizes and an amazing 12 women’s sizes.

Read more about this wetsuit.

The post ROKA Maverick Pro II first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Last week a reader on our forum asked the "full or sleeveless wetsuit" question. This pops up almost annually on our forum, and I'll get to this in a minute because it speaks to the utility of this particular fullsuit. (De Soto makes a sleeveless, but don't settle; its fullsuit is what you want.)

But first! We just took a poll and 5 percent of respondents elected De Soto as the wetsuit they're likely to buy. This is way too low. The first choice in that poll was ROKA and for good reason. Second was blueseventy. Both great suits! I have them both, I love them both, I'll be writing about them soon. Further, when I made wetsuits (Quintana Roo was my company, and I founded it in 1986 to sell the first of the wetsuits triathletes like you and I buy today) I only made 1-piece suits, much like ROKA and blueseventy, Orca and all the others.

But I had to keep making new sizes, one after another, and for the 8 years I owned my company and the 13 years in all that I ran it I never stopped creating another size, and another, because the human body comes in so many variations.

Now, back to the question of arms in a wetsuit. "Sleeveless [suits have] more shoulder mobility,” one Slowtwitcher offered. "Typically better for more advanced swimmers or someone [who] is top-heavy."

One Slowtwitcher with a competitive swim background, wrote, "Last time I tried a sleeved suit I was slower than in my sleeveless due to shoulder fatigue.”

"If your upper body does look like [a V shape] get a sleeveless, you will waste more energy and send your heart rate sky high trying to swim in a sleeved suit and likely swim slower than a sleeveless.”

I don't dispute anyone's experience, but I don't agree with any of these conclusions!

Another wrote, "Sleeves are just generally faster. The exception would be a very advanced Div 1 type college swimmer because they have such a refined stroke.” I've never found the D1 swimmer to be an exception to the "sleeves are faster” rule. Another Slowtwitcher decided it was the opposite: That the slowest swimmers would benefit from the sleeveless, because their technique isn't good enough to see the value of a full sleeve suit.

Nope. I never found that either. Further, no ITU athlete, male or female, feels that way. And I mean none of them or, if I'm wrong about that, you'll have to look very hard to find the exception to the rule. (I have a lot of swim start pics I can show you!)

One Slowtwitcher wrote that he conducted his own test, a series of 5 X 100 meters in a full sleeve suit, total time 5:57, and again in a sleeveless, average time 6:08. He concluded, "two seconds per 100 meters.”

Yeah, that's about right. I would routinely get 7 to 8 seconds per 100 yards of speed savings (versus no wetsuit at all) in a fullsuit, and my longjohns (sleeveless suits) were about 2 seconds slower per 100 yards than my fullsuits. But we always made, and sold, sleeveless suits. Why? Because people bought them.

What does any of this have to do with this particular wetsuit? The De Soto T1? It's because a lot of people have trouble with how their wetsuits fit. Remember all those sizes I had to make? Like, Extra Large Short, which was a suit with the circumferences of a person needing an XL, but with a fireplug body.

"Fit is near impossible for me,” wrote one Slowtwitcher. "Any wetsuit that is small enough for my short limbs is constricting on my chest and shoulders.” This is the typical fireplug.

The standard wetsuit size fits a fireplug's circumferences (chest, thighs) but were too long in the arms and legs, and also in the torso, where their suits had a roll of excess rubber around the belly. Just as tough were the beanpoles, because if they needed longer arms they may well need a longer torso too. A standard sized suit would cause the shoulders to feel tight and restrictive because the rubber in the torso was stretched tight.

It's not that people are imagining that feeling of restriction in the shoulders! It's that they either don't know how to put on the suit correctly – which is an art – or they can't find the right size (which may be because they're not in the right style).

"I tested 6 different wetsuits from 3 separate manufacturers, in Small and Medium sizes just to make sure it wasn't a mis-fitting that was causing my fullsleeve discomfort,” said one reader. "I could fit fine into the sleeveless for all manufacturers, but the fullsuit was more restrictive in all cases, likely due to my bulky lats.”

I don't dispute this reader's experience at all. It's the remedy I question. I'd love to know if a De Soto was one of the wetsuits this gentleman tested, and let me explain why this wetsuit is often the inoculant for the person who can't find a wetsuit that will fit.

Why does the T1 by De Soto fit so many people so well? Two reasons. First, the top and the bottom are not connected. This is a big deal. This is the big deal. As a wetsuit maker one big challenge in patterns was getting the torso right. There's a fixed distance between the crotch and the shoulders. If the wetsuit is too short in the torso, the suit is tight up into your crotch but it's still pulling down hard on your shoulders. Hence shoulder immobility.

Too much room in the torso area of the suit, you get that roll of rubber around your belly, or the suit is just too roomy. You'll end up swimming in galoshes.

Now, to be clear, most folks don't have this problem. Most folks will fit into a one-piece wetsuit just fine. But, more of the population has this problem than is reflected in the market share of this wetsuit, which is why this wetsuit is undersold and overneeded.

The second reason this suit fits a lot of folks nicely is that you can mix and match tops and bottoms. The fellow who had the V shaped shoulders might have found the T1 a very comfortable suit had he given this one a try.

That said, why fight it? Why not just buy a sleeveless? Because they're slower. They're slower. They're always slower. For everybody. I confidently say this for the following reasons: First, as noted, every ITU racer races in a fullsuit. So, it's either mass hysterical groupthink or they all know something. Second, I've been testing this since 1986. No class of swimmer swims faster in a longjohn. Not really fast swimmers. Not really slow swimmers. Not women. Not men. Fullsuits are faster all the time. Long distance or short.

But there are folks who swim poorly in a fullsuit. Who are they? Folks who do not have the right fullsuit. Me, for example, I'm very comfortable in blue jeans. But I have a whole bunch of blue jeans that fit really bad. I'm a Levi 550 man. If you have the wrong fullsuit, it's like me trying to fit into Levi 501 jeans. Those days are behind me!

When you see a De Soto T1 at a race it's likely to be an older person using it. Why? Because it's also extremely easy on the shoulders. The older you are, it's not just your knees that give you trouble, but also your shoulders. It's extremely easy to get on and off. I corralled Björn Andersson at our local pool (he has a training camp in town). He'd never swum in a T1. He graciously swam a 50 for me (video above), and then took off the suit (with no coaching on how to get it off), so that I could video it. This suit is very easy on the shoulders and neck, and if it comes off slower than a 1-piece, it's not by more than a second or two.

"Fit and heat for me,” said one person on that forum thread. "I overheat fast in a full suit,” wrote another. Fair enough. But in my experience, this is often a tactical error and not limited to De Soto's wetsuits, but any fullsuit. If you overheat in a fullsuit, dollars to donuts you were overheated before you began your race. If you're in a fullsuit, leave it down to your waist if the air is warm (pull it down to your waist if it's more temp-comfortable pulled down than having up and ready). Then, pull it up, zip it up, only 5 minutes before your wave is schedule to go.

Features

A bit about this suit's features, or lack of them. The rubber is not my traditional favorite – Yamamoto – but its Green Goma rubber seems and feels very similar to Yamamoto's #39, which is pretty much the gold standard. It's got fatter arms than typical, which simply makes the suits faster. Way back when – and I mean a quarter century ago – we were the first wetsuit company of any sort (tri, surf, dive, sailboard) to make our suit's arms out of 1.5mm thick rubber (I built my own factory, my office was in it, and we taught ourselves how to make suit arms with rubber considered not possible to glue and stitch). But we did that because rubber back then was not flexible and supple. Now, it is. But the habit of continuing to use ultrathin rubber persists, and it is not the fastest rubber to use in a wetsuit.

The Concept 5 emphasizes thicker rubber in the arms. You can see what the arm looks like above. This is purely a speed feature.

There is no pulling panel in the forearm of a De Soto T1. We were the first to put pulling panels into wetsuits, 25 years ago. And we sold them. Or, at least, took orders for them. But then, belatedly, I thought it prudent to actually speed test my pulling panels. They were slower than no panels. I canceled the orders. Remade our brochures without that suit. Cost me a lot of money! But, as the engineers say, one test is worth a thousand expert opinions.

Emilio De Soto has chosen to eschew a standard feature, reasoning that there's no value in a feature unless that feature adds value. (This isn't to say that no one's pulling panel works, just, it's not possible to tell by looking at it.)

One thing, and this is purely anecdotal, the Green Goma limestone-based rubber seems to have a smaller incidence of allergic reaction to neoprene. We ran into this every year. Not a lot. And, if you sell 15,000 or so thousand wetsuits a year, as we did, even a small incidence of this allergy is going to pop up. If you're allergic to wetsuit rubber you may want to give De Soto a try.

Finally, note the arms on the suits of these women. You'll see a case where the arms are too long. De Soto has a protocol for taking back a wetsuit, professionally cutting the arms and/or legs to fit, and sending it back. Or, coaching you to cut it yourself (best to just send it back and have them do it).

Speed

I have never found the T1 in all my testing to be faster than, say, ROKA or blueseventy. Neither have I found it slower. At the top end, the very good fullsuits are all fast. If they fit! Which explains I think why some folks find fullsuits slower. A bad-fitting fullsuit is not a virtue.

But I've never subjected the Concept5 to the raft of comparative speed tests and I'm going to do so this Spring. I'll let you know.

Conclusion

The reason I'm high on this wetsuit brand, and the reason I began my wetsuit overview with the T1 by De Soto, is that there are 10 or 15 very good companies making good suits. Some are really good. There are really great suits; really great values; but there is only one suit like this and I think you see from the photos I've included that this suit has the capacity to accommodate an audience other wetsuits struggle to successfully reach. This wetsuit is an example of an outreach to a morphologically diverse audience to which our sport has always failed to cater. It's an exercise in clever design. It's "grand fondo geometry” in a wetsuit.

It's not an alternative to a high performance wetsuit. It is a high performance wetsuit built in a way that accommodates a wider morphological range than does a typical 1-piece wetsuit. (If you look at the Björn video above I think you'll see that it's very successfully usable by an A+ competitor.)

There are two manufacturing disappointments in my lifetime in triathlon: The failure of the retail and consumer markets to understand the value in scaling the wheels of a bike to match the morphology of the rider; and the failure of more wetsuit brands to understand the utility of this style of wetsuit manufacture. The fact that so many wetsuit companies are struggling, lost in the crowd, unable to break out is entirely tied to their timid, provincial, uncreative approach to how wetsuits are made. In choosing the "safe" route companies have invited peril on themselves.

Read more about De Soto's wetsuits here.

The post Think Sleeveless is Faster? Then You Haven’t Tried De Soto first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

blueseventy addressed this problem with the Thermal Helix. After feedback from many of their sponsored athletes who struggled with icy temperatures during the notorious Norseman or Escape from Alcatraz swim sections, they rearranged their current flagship to protect aquanauts from unkind temperatures that might end up in hypothermia.

The Thermal Helix wetsuit is the heart of a full thermal product assortment that contains socks, gloves, a particular goggle plus a neoprene cap. Each product is particularly designed to lengthen and improve swimming in cold open waters.

The Thermal Helix has a distinct orange fleece-fabric that can be found throughout the inside of the suit. The fast drying linen is a light mid-weight zirconium jersey that is exceptionally stretchy. Although the material feels remarkably snug and dense for a wetsuit that is intended for swimming, it does not compromise the swimmers movement and makes sure that the heat stays within the suit.

The Thermal Helix version is astoundingly stretchy. Distinctive chest and torso panels made of flexible 5mm Yamamoto Aerodome neoprene help to maintain an efficient body position in the water. Straight from the first try the suit felt super comfortable and equivalent to the thinner standard Helix.

Little details on the inside of the back zipper. The full internal orange zirconium material is clearly visible. It is a pretty comfortable material that essentially feels like wool on the skin. It helps to decrease water absorption and shields against heat loss. Moreover a diminutive hook assists to securely store your keys while training.

The 1mm slim neoprene used on the arms feels particularly good and, despite the added insolation they create an unspoiled feeling for the water and a great sense whilst gliding. The pictured aqua-sell cuffs made out of extra flexible silicon stops H2O from entering the suit without being too close fitting.

One-piece 1.5 neoprene sections throughout the shoulder parts permits full movement.

Another look at the cozy inside of the Thermal Helix.

Attention to detail can be witnessed throughout the suit. The blueseventy designers made sure that the stitching and location of the neoprene stickers are spotless.

A vital slice of the Thermal offering are the neoprene socks. Previously I had certain cruel incidents with neoprene socks, but the blueseventy Thermal ones sheltered the feet in a perfect manner. The Zirconium liner isolation and the actual length of the socks benefit the user.

A good feeling for the water is vital. Where as many swim gloves merely helped the isolation of the hand, the Thermal Swim Glove surprised with a great fit and a sensation for the water. The extra long cuff works perfect with the arms and makes sure that water does not enter the suit.

In addition to the insulation gear blueseventy bids the award winning Hydra-Vision goggle. The soft frame produces a pleasant and safe fit even while swimming in choppy waters. The highlight though are the polarized lenses that offer a remarkable eyesight that can be highly beneficial while swimming outdoors throughout all the seasons.

When asked about the development of the thermal collection, blueseventy brand and product manager Mike Orton said: “We analyzed what the dive and surf industries do for cold-water adventures and we pushed our manufacturing team to establish new ways to glue, stitch and tape."

The manufacturer states that the suit is fit to use till a lowest temperature of 48ºF or 8.5ºC. We tested the products throughout lake and longer swims in the Baltic Sea with temperatures as low as 44.24ºF or 6.8 ºC. At all times the suit helped to stay warm, even though we just wore swim shorts and no other additional clothing under the suit.

A suitable head shield is fundamental during chilly excursions. The Thermal Skull Cap is similar to a standard cap but with additional wool liner inside. Soft and flexible neoprene makes this cap easy to use. Even though there was no lube used in testing, chafing was not a problem.

Straight from the first use it did not feel different to swim with a suit that has additional insulation. Even though there is extra material included this does not affect the flexibility, fit and the buoyancy. Unquestionably it benefits to extend the desires of open water swimming and supports swimmers that have their struggles with frostier temperatures.

Undoubtedly it will take a bit longer until you want to stop your outdoor swimming session with the blueseventy Thermal range.

Thermal Helix – $850
Thermal Skull Cap – $40
Thermal Swim Socks – $40
Thermal Swim Gloves – $40
Hydra Vision Goggles – $25

All images © Markus Roessel

The post In icy waters with the blueseventy Thermal Helix first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

In my opinion the company today called blueseventy did not make particularly noteworthy products during its Ironman years. The year 2005 was a watershed not only because of the name change, but because the VO2 Stealth wetsuit (about which the company made, in my opinion, silly claims in the late 1990s) was replaced by the Helix. This new wetsuit model, the Helix, was a very good suit and it became a great wetsuit with its reworking in 2012. By 2012 I felt the Helix was the best 1-piece wetsuit made. Only the TYR Hurricane wetsuits were as fast, but the Helix was more durable, less fragile than the TYR.

That takes you through 2012. What about blueseventy in 2017?

The Helix

Perhaps the ROKA Maverick is a better suit. I don’t know. Perhaps Xterra makes suits that are every bit the equal of the Helix, or maybe even better. At a certain point it’s difficult to say: When wetsuits reach a certain quality level then it’s just the match between the suit and the user. Wetsuits are like running shoes: There is the list of capable footwear makers. All a running shoe (or wetsuit) company needs to do is make this list of capable brands. Once on the list, the needs of the user overwhelm everything else, and this determines which shoe (or wetsuit) on this short list is the user’s wisest choice.

The Helix has probably been the wetsuit most used most often by more wetsuit companies as a design touchstone for the apex of the craft. That established, the Helix is not the story for this brand in 2017. Yes, the Helix remains a great wetsuit, and one of the top 3 or 4 wetsuit models in the world. But blueseventy’s strength this year is in its down-market wetsuits. The Helix ($800) and the Helix Thermal ($850) are at the top of the heap. These models sit in the $700 to $900 price point, this price range indicative of each wetsuit company’s top performer (TYR’s $1,150 Freak of Nature is really a Freak of Commerce and can be discounted). Then you have a $500 threshold.

Downstreamed models

Let’s talk about this $500 level. In a future article we’ll overview this as a price point, and pick winners. blueseventy’s Reaction and ROKA’s Maverick Elite II are each in this category and each fares quite well. In fact, I like each one of these suits more than I like each company’s top-o’-the-line wetsuit if you consider value on the invested dollar. The Reaction and other downstreamed blueseventy suits start to peel away at the rubber thickness in strategic areas. The cheaper the suit, the thinner the rubber. This leaves blueseventy open to competitors’ suits that maintain 5mm rubber in flotation panels throughout.

But blueseventy counters this by keeping premium rubber in its suits. Chiefly this is Yamamoto #39 and #40 rubber. Other wetsuit companies are not using Yamamoto’s rubber. Blown rubber giants like Sheico may make rubber as good as Yamamoto’s rubber but if so they need to prove it to me. If Sheico wants to be considered a premier maker of rubber sheet goods I’m happy to hear the argument. Sheico knows where to find me. (Inside joke for those who are not Slowtwitch Reader Forum regulars.)

Rubber manufacturers (that do their customers no favors)

Having said that, neither Yamamoto nor Sheico nor any other rubber sheet manufacturer takes its case directly to the consumer. Shimano does. SRAM does. Profile Design, 3T, wheel and tire makers, all make the case for their products. Not rubber makers. As a wetsuit maker myself this used to really cheese me off. Why should I carry 100 percent of the water for my suppliers? (Yamamoto knows where to find me.)

The Fusion at $325 may be the best all-around value that blueseventy makes. It’s a Yamamoto SCS-coated suit which means flexibility and float along with durability and hydrodynamics. Yet again the thickness is peeled off a bit, but this suit still maintains strong flotation. The arms are made of 1.5mm-thick rubber. The patterns are good. I tried hard to make really good wetsuits for the 12 years I was in that business and I don’t think I ever made a suit any better than this one.

The Sprint is a $200 fullsuit. It’s very hard to make a $200 fullsuit these days. It’s near impossible to make it with Yamamoto SCS-coated rubber. But blueseventy has nevertheless done it. This suit’s obvious competitor is the Xterra’s Vortex, a $400 suit routinely available at $200. The Vortex has what the Sprint hasn’t: 5mm rubber (the Sprint’s rubber is 4mm thick). The Sprint uses rubber of a quality that may surpass that of the Xterra (Sheico knows where to find me).

This $200 fullsuit category is important. These are the wetsuits companies sell in droves in the week leading up to a big race. Xterra does very well in this category because of its expert ability to fulfill as a direct seller. blueseventy will do well because its retailers have the wetsuits right there, in town, you can try them on, retailers will be at the race expo.

When I poll Slowtwitchers here is what I find: There are three companies that rule all the others: Xterra, ROKA and blueseventy. Then there is the cult following for De Soto because of the unique and compelling virtue of the 2-piece. This is where the majority of the market is. Whether it should be here, that’s a good question and as I write about Orca, HUUB and the other companies we’ll talk about that.

Sales channels

One important question to be answered is the question of sales channel. If a brick & mortar retailer is going to remain a viable channel for wetsuit sales this channel must step up. It can’t try to sell from meager inventory. It must convince the manufacturer to adhere to a liberal return and exchange program, and in return for this the retailer must order wide and deep (in which case each side has proper protections). The retailer then must stand on top of its inventory and exchange when necessary.

When I owned and ran Quintana Roo here was my policy: a retailer could exchange any product I made for any other product I made. The retailer paid the freight back to me. No restocking charge. That was good until August 1, and the only goods that could be returned (beyond warranties and user-returned products) were new, current model inventory; and you couldn’t return goods as a way to pay your bill. The retailer could return bikes for wetsuits or vice versa. It could return wetsuits for a better size run distribution. It could return anything as a credit against the upcoming year’s delivery. It was shocking to me how few retailers took advantage of this very liberal policy.

Imagine this: You could buy 150 wetsuits from me (back then), sell 100, keep 20 as an inventory for later season purchases, and then send 30 back as a down payment against the next year’s inventory. Only one retailer would routinely do this with us (he was smart then and he’s smart now as a leading maker of triathlon saddles).

This kind of policy is important because, as with ROKA, blueseventy is liberal in its sizes. Also like ROKA this company doesn’t shortchange women. As well as I can tell there are actually more (9) womens sizes than mens (8) sizes.

Flotation schemes

One more thing! (And I find this interesting.) ROKA and blueseventy have precisely the opposite flotation and body position theories (see the schematic just above). They both have float panels interspersed with stretch panels. Just, Roka’s thickest, floatiest rubber is in the center panel. blueseventy’s center panel is thinner, and its thickest, floatiest rubber is to either side of the center panel. Each wetsuit’s scheme works, when considered as a system. What to make of this? I don’t know. I have to think this over some more.

Read more about blueseventy.

The post blueseventy first appeared on Slowtwitch News.