I am just back from the SPMA meet where all the top finisher were wearing the latest generation tech suits,mostly B-70s(or were named Jeff Commings.)I have here to for been in favor of the suits,but now I am not so sure.First,they eliminate the old bench marks.I went my fastest 100m BR in 5 yr in my LZR,but it was only .3 sec faster than I did untapered 5 wk earlier in my first swim in the LZR.So was my swim good or not,I'm not sure.Also,instead of focusing on technique or pace I found myself ruminating over aspects of the suits,how many more swims did the suit have,is it the right size,was the reason I didn't get better results from my B-70 because it was too big?etc.The B-70 has somewhat mitigated the "too expensive,not durable" problem,but for how long.
Lets say a company comes up with a suit that is much faster,say 4 sec/100.Further that it is very expensive(say $1000) lasts 4 swims and is very hard to make so that quantities are always limited and the fastest way to get one is to bid up to $3000 on ebay. Now lets say your nemesis has one,or that getting one is your best chance to get TT or AA or a ZR or WR,or that your child is close to making JO cuts,or finally beating his/her nemesis etc. Is it worth it and where does it stop?
What a logistical hassle that would be.
Yes, you are right. It wouldn't work. I was trying to find a solution.
Wet suits have their own division because the suits make you artificially faster. More money means more speed. I know the rabid capitalists say so what. I guess you could buy off the timers, and be really fast.
At what point do you become uncomfortable with equipment that makes you significantly faster?
Hey I have a Blue Seventy question. I can get a free BS suit. (we own a running tech shop/triathlete stuff too) but I don't know which one would be the best value for me. My favorite races are 1650 (1500), 1,000, 500 Free and any open water freestyle. Any suggestions?
I'll give up my relatively inexpensive tech suit when I go to a triathlon and don't see a fat dude riding an all carbon bike with carbon soled shoes in a $200 helmet and a $500 wet suit. Until then, no cyclist is allowed to ever speak to a swimmer about gear again and no whiney swimmers are allowed to tell me how to spend my money.
When cyclists go back to steel framed bikes I'll ditch my suit. Until then, zip it.
I'll give up my relatively inexpensive tech suit when I go to a triathlon and don't see a fat dude riding an all carbon bike with carbon soled shoes in a $200 helmet and a $500 wet suit. Until then, no cyclist is allowed to ever speak to a swimmer about gear again and no whiney swimmers are allowed to tell me how to spend my money.
When cyclists go back to steel framed bikes I'll ditch my suit. Until then, zip it.
100% AGREE!!!
IMO a suit that aids in cutting through the water is the same as a suit that floats.
Get rid of tech suits, put men in briefs and then it is the swimmer and training that are measured.
Then get rid of caps too...plus goggles...they help one cut through the water faster too.
Someone said swimming is about "body and mind" reaching goals. Last time I checked, ALL sports are about that too.
And you have all this crap going on at college dual meets where one team is suited up and another is not and it screws with the meaningfulness of any college meet where people are either all suited up or all not suited up and all you get is people asking "was he suited up when he did that time, pretty lame for such and such school to suit up in season against a non-suited team, etc..."
This sort of thing pre-dates tech suits by decades. Except in the old days it was about one team slightly resting and shaving their swimmers for a dual meet -- usually it was the weaker team doing so and it would come as a surprise to the other team. It was as lame back then as it is now. (Although, to be fair, in some cases only some swimmers would be shaved and these might be swimmers who wouldn't make the conference team and so it was their chance to swim fast.)
I notice that everyone seems to agree that tech suits are in a class by themselves: superior to tank suits (briefs), but not buoyant, unlike traditional wetsuits. And everyone also seems to agree that tech suits are faster than tank suits, which acknowledges what Speedo, TYR and Blue70 have been investing in all along.
Rather, this debate seems to be about whether it is reasonable to put tech suits in a division with tank suits. For my part, I'm all for having a division that showcases the latest, greatest technological advances and the records they help great swimmers set. A division that showcases advances in technique would be nice too. But I feel it's imperative to protect the essence of the sport: it's about strokes, not suits. I might also question if there is a double standard here, where a heavy hand is applied to developments in swim techniques (e.g. requiring one to break the surface in a backstroke start before the 15), but the hand is so gentle when it regards developments in gear.
Be that as it may, since "my" races are long distance open water, I am particularly concerned with the way tech suits will reshape those races, whose roots are in the feats of man and woman versus nature, red and raw, cold and cruel. I am not interested in leveraging human ability with gear. I'm interested in human ability. And that is why I swim.
Open water swimmers will generally agree that the outcome of a race -- before the tech suits -- depended on toughness and skill: withstanding cold, maintaining efficient technique over a long period, shrugging off bottomless depths and invisible sharks, ignoring searing jellyfish stings, and, of course, drafting and passing strategically. Many of those challenges disappear with a friction-reducing body covering.
Furthermore, a tech suit that gives a swimmer a one second advantage over 100 meters, gives a ridiculous advantage over 5,000 or 10,000 meters, to the point where it makes the race foolish. And of course the suits change the nature of pack swimming, team work and drafting, both because they diminish the need, but also because, as some people believe, they create dangerous situations whereby swimmers' bodies are less attuned to the presence of others. There are venerable open water racing organizations, such as the Manhattan Island Foundation and the Channel Swimming Association, which recognize that tech suits so fundamentally alter the sport of open water swimming, that they are disallowed, or, in those races where they are allowed, they are appropriately placed in a wetsuit division.
I have yet to hear a rational argument that, all things being equal, the man or woman in a tech suit is the superior athlete over the man or woman in a tank suit, particularly when it comes to crossing through an hour of 70F chop and lions' mane jellyfish. The tougher athlete is the one wearing the least protection. And the laurels should go to the tougher athlete, not the better-protected, or the better-sponsored, or the more moneyed.
It is natural for the sport of swimming to embrace technology and change, but new divisions (if not new events) may be needed to maintain a level playing field. Other sports have done this to accommodate developments in technology, most notably auto racing. Different strokes for different folks.
The beauty of open water swimming is that although man or woman is humbled by nature to the extreme, we still emerge. Channel swimmers (English, that is) have long agreed that a tank suit, goggles, lanolin and a couple of swim caps is all you get. Anything more and you don't even get mentioned in the books.
In New York City, open water racers are blessed with choices. We have a full calendar of highly competitive races with divisions for those who prefer to race in nothing more than a tank suit. The overwhelming majority of racers choose to enter this division. However, for those who want to wear a tech suit or wet suit, there is a separate, and much smaller, Chicken Division.
Get rid of tech suits, put men in briefs and then it is the swimmer and training that are measured.
Do you actually swim and compete? If so, you know that a fast suit does not make a slow swimmer fast. Nor does it supplant training. I have never lost to a slower swimmer in a fast suit, nor have I beat a better swimmer when I was wearing one.
Briefs are from a bygone era, move on, get over it, we aren't going back and no amount of your whining will change that.
