A friend of mine who just competed in the Kona Ironman sent me the following blurb:For immediate Release- 10/11-2008
Kailua –Kona, Hawaii (from San Diego based XTERRA WETSUITS)
For the second year in a row, The Velocity Speedsuit by XTERRA WETSUITS posted the fastest swim time of the day at the Ford Ironman World Championships.
In 2007, Mark Van Akkeren posted the fastest swim split with a time of 49:50 wearing a Velocity Speedsuit. This year, Noa Sakamoto posted the fastest swim split with a time of 47:01 wearing a new version of the XTERRA WETSUITS - Velocity Speedsuit.
John Flanagan, (also wearing a XTERRA WETSUITS- Velocity Speedsuit) was only 1 second behind Noa posting a time of 47:02. The XTERRA WETSUITS- Velocity Speedsuit was victorious by more than one minute and 30 seconds faster than the next swimmer Andy Potts.
The Velocity Speedsuit is considered to be the fastest Speedsuit in the water. On 09/09/08, the Velocity won a gold medal in the European Open Water 10K Championship. The new technology behind the Velocity Speedsuit continues to dominate anything that involves water.
Website for this suit is here. It is approved by FINA for OW competitions and I can only assume that applies to pool races as well (but perhaps I'm mistaken).
My friend said that about 80% of the people competed in one of the new FINA-approved "speedsuits" (I guess this is what the OW purists refer to as "real swimmers swimming naked" but I digress...) and that the B70 was far and away the most popular.
So my question is this: if the Xterra suit is similar, and its swimmers posted the fastest times (which may only mean they are better at choosing who to sponsor), why is it that the B70 gets all the love in pool swimming? Is it because of Roque Santos? (If so I hope they are paying him a lot.)
I'm not trying to muddy the waters here...I don't think any of these suits has a HUGE effect, and I certainly don't think there is a big difference between them in performance -- if you are going to wear one, factors such as price, comfort, durability should be more important, IMO.
I am just curious about how this happened. Why not Xterra? (Other than the fact that there is no getting around the fact that THIS IS A WETSUIT.)
some notes from a discussion on the subject below. it seems there is a big difference in performance and the causes are being studied...scientifically.
There are 1 physical and 1 physiological reason for the significant advantage of neoprene suits over traditional fabrics. (1) The skin coefficient of friction and fabric such as nylon is significantly higher than for neoprene or the other newer synthetic fabrics. That is, we literally glide through the water quicker with the newer suits – or from a physics point of view, we experience less drag in the water. (2) Due to the compression of the suits on the major muscle groups, the human body naturally secrets less lactic acid (for reasons that can best be eloquently described by physiologists). With lower perceived and actual levels of lactic acid in the body, one can perform at a higher level.
...
In fact, the American College of Sports Medicine will finally formally start studying the compression effects on human performance in November 2009. A press conference on this topic will be held in Washington D.C. on October 28th.
I have seen studies that use almost identical language used to explain the effect of SHAVING on lactic acid. As far as gliding through the water, most discussions I have seen have speculated that this is mostly NOT due to decreased surface friction but due to changes in the shape and rigidity of the "hull." Many swimmers I know also report that they ride higher in the water, although this wasn't mentioned above and the suits are supposed to be non-buoyant.
I'm glad that there will be some studies of this and hope they are well designed (especially shaved vs suit-clad swimmers). But from the wording -- it is hard to tell -- it looks like they MAY only interested in the physiological effect of compression on the muscles (which is also interesting).
In any event, it still doesn't address my main question: why haven't people been using the Xterra suit, especially in the pool? I don't hear much about it compared to the others.
some notes from a discussion on the subject below. it seems there is a big difference in performance and the causes are being studied...scientifically.
There are 1 physical and 1 physiological reason for the significant advantage of neoprene suits over traditional fabrics. (1) The skin coefficient of friction and fabric such as nylon is significantly higher than for neoprene or the other newer synthetic fabrics. That is, we literally glide through the water quicker with the newer suits – or from a physics point of view, we experience less drag in the water. (2) Due to the compression of the suits on the major muscle groups, the human body naturally secrets less lactic acid (for reasons that can best be eloquently described by physiologists). With lower perceived and actual levels of lactic acid in the body, one can perform at a higher level.
...
In fact, the American College of Sports Medicine will finally formally start studying the compression effects on human performance in November 2009. A press conference on this topic will be held in Washington D.C. on October 28th.
I have seen studies that use almost identical language used to explain the effect of SHAVING on lactic acid. As far as gliding through the water, most discussions I have seen have speculated that this is mostly NOT due to decreased surface friction but due to changes in the shape and rigidity of the "hull." Many swimmers I know also report that they ride higher in the water, although this wasn't mentioned above and the suits are supposed to be non-buoyant.
I'm glad that there will be some studies of this and hope they are well designed (especially shaved vs suit-clad swimmers). But from the wording -- it is hard to tell -- it looks like they MAY only interested in the physiological effect of compression on the muscles (which is also interesting).
In any event, it still doesn't address my main question: why haven't people been using the Xterra suit, especially in the pool? I don't hear much about it compared to the others.
