I plan on doing the 5K championships without a wetsuit, but I also plan on a non sanctioned 6 mile swim and some other team tri's this summer where I wetsuits are permitted.
I was wondering how much faster a 1000 time would be with a wetsuit. Anyone have good experience or numbers for this?
I may put it on and try a pool 1000 to see what the difference is, but I would like to avoid the test.
I would like to use the wetsuit if it will be faster.
aquageek, what gives?
I swim 15,000+ yds a week without a wetsuit. It's not like I love wetsuits, but when I race it is all about doing my fastest time with what is allowed. If this tri coming up had a non-wetsuit division I would be in that one.
It is a team tri and I don't have to worry about getting out of the suit in the transition, so to me a one mintue gain, or about 5 sec/100 is a no brainer.
This is contrary to the USMS mission. If you can’t swim… we would love to have you learn! So you can hang out with all the cool Masters Swimmers.
Rob you are right, it was a pun. I once heard a lady say this as a warning to her children. She said "don't go near the water and you won't drown".
Wow. Seems to be a a multitude of chips on shoulders around here.
Thanks, Rob C for clearing up the USMS rule re wetsuits. My observation, however, is that at USMS events, those who wear wetsuits are not the strongest competition.
Geo - I have to say, you miss the point entirely. There are a gazillion types of bikes out there, and, yes, they all have tires. But would you say, if one person is riding a heavy slow mountain bike, all the people on slick, tri-specific fast bikes are cheaters?
Bottom line (to me)..... when the rules allow a wetsuit and it is your goal to finish as high as possible, then by all means wear it. A properly fitted wetsuit will make you faster (and even keep you warm). It makes you no less of a swimmer or no less of a person.
If the water is dead calm, I may go with the fast skin. You don't object to that do you? or does it have to be a jammer?
I have no objection to wearing a swim suit while swimming. I do, however, object to wearing a wetsuit when there is zero need to wear one, other that for it's buoyancy edge. A wet suit is (or was) intended to be worn for cool to cold water conditions. Apparently now it is worn as an aid. This is why most real swimmers I know will not wear a wetsuit in OW events, preferring instead to let their swimming do the talking. I believe wetsuits are banned in the trans Tahoe relay swim.
Maybe since I can't run worth a flip I should be allowed to wear wheelies on the run leg of a tri, to me it's the same thing.
And 4) Triathlon race directors fear the swim with all of their being. Disaster can happen quickly during the swim. The absolute last thing a race director wants is a fatality. A weak swimmer can go down in a split second. A wetsuit at least gives them a chance of survival - or being found easily.
In full disclosure I'm as anti-wetsuit as one gets. If you want stay warm, buy a boat with a heater. As cold water is just part of the adventure and the training. That being said Ruffwater is right plus the reality is without the wetsuit, Triathlon would not be the participant sport that it is today. I believe most triathlon race directors go out of there way to find coldest part of the lake to take the water temperature, they want to avoid at all costs having to ban wetsuits. Not only to avoid a drowning but to make sure the race is as swim friendly as possible. Don't want get a reputation that causes entries and therefore race fee revenue to drop.
To serious swimmers it does, provided not used for it's intended purpose - warmth.
By god, if some dude can swim at the North (or was it South) Pole without a suit, then even a subpar doggy paddling novice swimmer can make it a few yards in an 77 degree lake without one.
Are you saying I am not a serious swimmer?
rtodd:
I think there is a big difference in the rules for the sport of triathlon and for swimming. Since the triathlon is a 3 sport race and the swimming portion in my opinion was not as important as the other 2 disciplines, they allowed for the use of a wetsuite in the early stages of the sport. As the popularity grew, some open water swims allowed for a separate wetsuit division to attract triathletes. I have never heard of a Professional Open Water race allowing for wetsuits but maybe they have backed off the rules when the tempertures are extreme and dangerous.
FINA has gotten involved with Open Water swimming in about the last 20 years and like George Park said Professional rules long ago were different that Amateur rules. Both organizations representing both agree and have been consistent in that they see that open water swimming is an endurance sport that pits a lone swimmer against all that a body of water can offer. In the history of Open Water and Marathon swimming these organizations refuse to allow the use of a wetsuit. In the history of mankind, swimmers were forced to swim in whatever conditions that were offered. To have swimmers permitted to where a wetsuit would provide extra buoyancy and this can lead to artifically increased speed and apparent endurance of the swimmer wearing the suit. It also can protect you from being cold and also be a shield for jelly fish stings.
Even if the water is beyond humanly cold, these organizations will refuse to monitor or recognize swims involving the use of wetsuits. That is why people like Lynn Cox and Lewis Gordon Pugh do there swims without wetsuits because they want to honor history and swim the way swimmers of the past had swam before them, meaning you swim in all and any kind of conditions and in a swim costume that has not changed at all in the history of Open Water swimming. American swimmer Ted Erikson, who swam the second two-two way crossing of the English Channel in 1965, said that wearing a wetsuit in a marathon swim is like someone completing the Tour de France on a moped.
So in Open Water swimming there is a difference to what the wetsuit provides to the swimmer. In the triathlon culture, its been part of the rules and strategy to the point where you train and compete with the wetsuits and if you don't your at a competitive disadvantage. Plus it makes up for not having or lacking the swimming skill that would be increased by not being allowed to have one.
They are not a crutch. They simply make you go faster.
Dang it! Here I was thinking they were to help you stay warm in colder water. If they are only designed to make you go faster then how are they not a crutch?
