Meanwhile over at SwimNews.com, Craig Lord is just in a tizzy over tech-suits. He turns out an article per week minimum proclaiming that they threaten the future of swimming itself as a sport..........ugh.
His latest is to essentially label the "old guard" of companies like Speedo, TYR and Nike as the good guys. He then loves to paint any company from triathlon (Blue Seventy, Rocket science Sports) as just this side of evil.
For his latest rant click here swimnews.com/.../6576
At least he's passionate, just a bit too over the top IMO.
He makes a few good points but definitely oversells it. I basically lost interest halfway through and skimmed the rest. "Less is more" is definitely a lesson he needs to learn.
I don't really like all of these suits and would be happy if they go away. But I disagree vehemantly with Lord about this distinction between "old guard" companies who deal with the swimming community in "good faith," and the triathlete-focused companies.
The goal of any of these body suits -- from legskins to the LZR and B70 to full-blown wetsuits -- is to increase speed. If B70s are becoming more popular than LZRs it is because they are a better product: comparable gains in speed at a lower price and with a longer lifetime. Speedo and its apologists just need to stop whining and do a better job.
To paint swimmers as somehow ethically superior to triathletes is just plain wrong. If you want to buy speed, that's fine, just be (wo)man enough to admit it.
I have hung out with enough triathletes to get a pretty good sense of their (sometimes obsessive) focus on gear, and I see the exact same attitude now among swimmers who are comparing the different equipment (suits) they can buy to go faster.
When you start talking about swimmers wearing TWO of these suits to go faster -- close to $1000 of short-lived equipment -- well, that EASILY matches anything I've ever heard from a triathlete. At least their equipment tends to last; my carbon-fiber bike is still doing just fine after 5 years.
Lord lambasts B70s for making many swimmers feel more buoyant...almost every swimmer I have spoken to who has worn a Speedo techsuit, from the FSI through the LZR, also reports feeling more buoyant. But Speedo are the good guys, so that's okay?
Meanwhile over at SwimNews.com, Craig Lord is just in a tizzy over tech-suits. He turns out an article per week minimum proclaiming that they threaten the future of swimming itself as a sport..........ugh.
His latest is to essentially label the "old guard" of companies like Speedo, TYR and Nike as the good guys. He then loves to paint any company from triathlon (Blue Seventy, Rocket science Sports) as just this side of evil.
For his latest rant click here swimnews.com/.../6576
At least he's passionate, just a bit too over the top IMO.
He makes a few good points but definitely oversells it. I basically lost interest halfway through and skimmed the rest. "Less is more" is definitely a lesson he needs to learn.
I don't really like all of these suits and would be happy if they go away. But I disagree vehemantly with Lord about this distinction between "old guard" companies who deal with the swimming community in "good faith," and the triathlete-focused companies.
The goal of any of these body suits -- from legskins to the LZR and B70 to full-blown wetsuits -- is to increase speed. If B70s are becoming more popular than LZRs it is because they are a better product: comparable gains in speed at a lower price and with a longer lifetime. Speedo and its apologists just need to stop whining and do a better job.
To paint swimmers as somehow ethically superior to triathletes is just plain wrong. If you want to buy speed, that's fine, just be (wo)man enough to admit it.
I have hung out with enough triathletes to get a pretty good sense of their (sometimes obsessive) focus on gear, and I see the exact same attitude now among swimmers who are comparing the different equipment (suits) they can buy to go faster.
When you start talking about swimmers wearing TWO of these suits to go faster -- close to $1000 of short-lived equipment -- well, that EASILY matches anything I've ever heard from a triathlete. At least their equipment tends to last; my carbon-fiber bike is still doing just fine after 5 years.
Lord lambasts B70s for making many swimmers feel more buoyant...almost every swimmer I have spoken to who has worn a Speedo techsuit, from the FSI through the LZR, also reports feeling more buoyant. But Speedo are the good guys, so that's okay?
