I'm very afraid of hot weather and prefer to swim in cool water. (unfortunately all triathlon / aquathon races, and all but one OW swimming race in my place are held in hot seasons where wetsuit is never legal, which for me is a great disadvantage especially in the run)
I'm seeing people wearing a wetsuit in temperature that I consider too warm for me to swim at race speed on skin, and wonder how don't they overheat in a wetsuit.
For a mile swim, what temperature will you start wearing a wetsuit, assuming little difference between air and water temperature and little wind?
mik -- I'm not so sure that you're going to get many responses/votes for your poll in this forum. The question/poll is probably better suited for the Open Water Swimming forum. forums.usms.org/forumdisplay.php
Dan
A lot of people decide to wear wetsuits while racing because they are faster, not because of temperature.
I've actually never swum in a wetsuit, but I voted for 68. That's about the water temp where I think I'd start feeling cold without one (although it's certainly still a tolerable temperature for a normal suit).
Agree you should move this to the Open Water Swimming forum.
If you do that, you might consider adding some temperatures below 60. For me, I've only ever worn a wetsuit twice (it was required for the races) and the water was in the low 60s. Wouldn't have worn it if I was required to. Later, I swam a few swims in the upper 50s without a wetsuit and did fine. I guess theoretically if the water temp was below 54 I might consider that cold enough for one (still wouldn't wear it). But I might answer differently in a year as I'm about to get back in the open water up here to acclimatize myself to colder temps. Maybe in a year I would answer 50 or even 49?
I, too, wouldn't wear one below 60, but that was as low as the poll would allow me to respond.
I typed the options according to triathlon rules, if you are racing below 60 probably you would be forced to wear one.
