Looks like Masters swimmers have decided on the best new suit available right now - probably a combination of price / value / and length of use.
I am at the Long Beach SCM - west coast "nationals" and the winner is: The Blue Seventy by a ratio of about 50 to 1 over the LZR.
People are either wearing one of the older suits (some of them are to be had for $25) or a Blue Seventy. There is still a bit of "confusion" over which Blue70 to get - I saw quite a few of the open water models. But I think I have seen a total of 3 (including mine) LZRs at the entire meet. No kidding Speedo wants the coaches to ban the Blue70.
Personal comparison - 50 Free - Blue 70 = 23.25 /// LZR = 23.44 (but I had a poor dive and a poor turn - I would still rank them about even)
Swam at the Long Beach meet this weekend and had some decent swims. I used both the Xterra and B70 for different races.
Had a life time personal best (50 back) in the B70 (age group record at the top end of the age group). But, the suit has unraveled after a few swims (26, 5'8", 175). The elastic around the neck is exposed! I'll post a picture on my blog.
If there is a B70 rep reading this, do you have an exchange policy? You might learn something about quality control by doing a failure analysis; e.g., where to reinforce seams, etc.
Question: why do these suits have to be so tight?
I hypothesize that the suits have two effects: 1) minimizing laminar flow resistance and 2) increasing buoyancy (my subjective opinion and mentioned in other forum posts).
If the hypothesis is true, I believe that the optimum suit would be snug or tight enough to minimize laminar flow (and prevent water intake) while not leaving welts and constricting inhalation. Also, maximizing the amount of material should increase subjective buoyancy.
I also hypothesize that the recommended suit size (extra-tight) places undue stress on the seams of the suits and reduces the expected life of the suit. After examining the rubber coating of both the Xterra and B70, I believe that the material may be more resilient than lycra, but unfortunately, we as consumers, have no independent testing capability and have to rely on ancedotal forum reports.
Personally, I like these suits. I would like them to last longer and I believe that if they could be better designed that they would capture a greater share of the market.
BTW, Xterra is having a sale: www.xterrawetsuits.com/sale
Either they are getting out of the market or they have something new coming down the line.
Lastly, how many suits can be worn in competition? There were unsubstantiated rumours of record setting performances attained through the use of multiple suits. I suppose that anyone that could physically wear more than one of these extra tight suits deserves some kind of award, but if the buoyancy hypothesis is correct, the use of multiple suits poses ethical if not legal questions.
Swam at the Long Beach meet this weekend and had some decent swims. I used both the Xterra and B70 for different races.
Had a life time personal best (50 back) in the B70 (age group record at the top end of the age group). But, the suit has unraveled after a few swims (26, 5'8", 175). The elastic around the neck is exposed! I'll post a picture on my blog.
If there is a B70 rep reading this, do you have an exchange policy? You might learn something about quality control by doing a failure analysis; e.g., where to reinforce seams, etc.
Question: why do these suits have to be so tight?
I hypothesize that the suits have two effects: 1) minimizing laminar flow resistance and 2) increasing buoyancy (my subjective opinion and mentioned in other forum posts).
If the hypothesis is true, I believe that the optimum suit would be snug or tight enough to minimize laminar flow (and prevent water intake) while not leaving welts and constricting inhalation. Also, maximizing the amount of material should increase subjective buoyancy.
I also hypothesize that the recommended suit size (extra-tight) places undue stress on the seams of the suits and reduces the expected life of the suit. After examining the rubber coating of both the Xterra and B70, I believe that the material may be more resilient than lycra, but unfortunately, we as consumers, have no independent testing capability and have to rely on ancedotal forum reports.
Personally, I like these suits. I would like them to last longer and I believe that if they could be better designed that they would capture a greater share of the market.
BTW, Xterra is having a sale: www.xterrawetsuits.com/sale
Either they are getting out of the market or they have something new coming down the line.
Lastly, how many suits can be worn in competition? There were unsubstantiated rumours of record setting performances attained through the use of multiple suits. I suppose that anyone that could physically wear more than one of these extra tight suits deserves some kind of award, but if the buoyancy hypothesis is correct, the use of multiple suits poses ethical if not legal questions.
