The first body suit that came out, or at least the first one I ever saw/wore, was the Speedo Aquablade with its alternating stripes of Teflon coated (?) and water-permeable material. It was replaced by different iterations of the Fastskin I and II and now ProSkin, with a bunch of other companies making their own versions.
I realize all this is at least a little bit a matter of personal choice, but I have found that yesteryear's Aquablade has been the best for me for long distance events--especially the 1-hour postal swim. The reason is it's exceptionally light in the water--it makes me feel I am floating along without any additional weight. Fastskins may be slightly fasters in shorter events, but they seem to me to get heavy once thoroughly soaked. Anyhow, I do prefer the Aquablade for long swims.
You used to be able to find these fairly cheap on the Internet--in the sub-$80 range for the knee skin model. But I can't for the life of me find any of knee skins at all anymore, not even a woman's suit (which is how I got my first aquablade.)
The ProSkin is supposedly light like the Aquablade was, but it's so expensive. I haven't tried any of the other company suits, like Tyr, etc.
Does anybody out there have advice as to where I could find an Aquablade kneeskin these days, or, barring success there, what the best cheap substitute is (i.e., well under $100 and using similar technology)?
Jim,
Agon Swim has a couple fabrics that I think are close.
Former Member
I've had a few agon kneeskin suits--and I loved them. They have a lot of similar fabrics as aquablades. They also come in cool colors and designs.
Former Member
Jim,
I have an aquablade suit and a TYR aquafusion short john. They both seem very similar to me. I love my short john. You should give the TYR brand a try. Take a look on swimoutlet.com, they have great deals on the suits. Women's short john was $74 the last I checked.
I always find good prices and free shipping from djsports.com They have the speedo aquablades, speedo fastskins, also the tyr and nike fast suits.I’m impressed with DJ Sports and have bought from them in the past. However, I find that USMS corporate partners offer competitively priced items and I prefer to support those organizations that support Masters Swimming.
www.usms.org/.../sponsors.php
Chris, from your posts, you appear to have some sort of intimate relationship with DJ Sports. IF so, do you know why DJ Sports is not a USMS partner? Is it because they haven’t been approached?
I always find good prices and free shipping from http://djsports.com/ They have the speedo aquablades, speedo fastskins, also the tyr and nike fast suits.