Any winning swimmers in non-tech suits?

To me the most underrated suit is the aquablade. I agree with lefty on this one. I have owned and used the Victor, Aquablade, Fastskin I, Fastskin II and Blue Seventy Nero Comp. I swim just as fast in the Aquablade as with the others. All are about comparable to full-body shaving which I won't do anymore because of the discomfort during the re-growth period. The main reason I use full body suits now is that the knee length suits severely constrict my thigh muscles. Too many years of playing defense in association football, I guess. I suppose I could have thigh-muscle-reduction surgery.

I found this interesting. www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../21308.asp Interesting article. The assumption of cause and effect between times and technology is very questionable. Has no one considered the amazing changes in training techniques, stroke technical prowess and the rules that have allowed substantial time gaines? Consider the training. In my day we routinely logged 20 to 30 thousand meters per DAY. Mindless repetition which destroyed shoulders and ambition but rarely contributed to success. Sports science has since proved the law of diminishing returns from this training. Consider the technical expertise these days: just about any age group swimmer has a better, more effecient stroke as compared to Olympic stars of yesteryear. Just watch old tapes of Mark Spitz. Fast guy, but his strokes were far from pretty. We now understand that swimming is a technical sport first, a fitness sport second. Consider the rule changes. Can we even compare the backstroke times of the eightees and early nineties to the times of today? How many swimmers remember the old "bucket turn" or the "suicide turn"? I certainly do and I still do those turns when I race once I get tired and stupid towards the end. The breaststroke is another good example: we were not allowed to completely submerge our heads and the idea of doing a butterfly kick off the wall was nothing short of cheating. The suits are just part of the equation. I might decide to buy one when I am satisfied that my times are good enough to prove me more than just a wannabe pretender, until then I will hammer my natural body into a better torpedo.

Could Michael Phelps blow everyone out of the water in the 400 IM wearing a non-tech suit? I think the answer is yes, as no person is within striking distance of his record or time at this moment. I doubt the same thing could be said of the 50 or 100 m free though. I don't think that Phelps would win a single gold medal without a tech suit, in fact I don't think he would make the Olympic team. But either way that is just an opinion so I won't try to convice you! However, in comparison to the competition, Phelps best event is the 200 free. The #2 in the wold swimmer in the 200 free, Park Tae-wan is 1.83% slower than Phelps (1:42.96 / 1:44.85). IN the 400 IM Laszlo Cseh is only 0.95% slower (4:03.84 vs 4:06.16). I think Phelps 2nd best event is the 200 IM; his best is a little more than 1% faster than Lochte's best.

Yesterday @ the Tualatin Hills meet in Oregon, plenty of Masters swimmers were wearing B70's. (And I have no problem with that.) :hijack: Swimmj swam great until her calves cramped up. Hope you're feeling better, Swimmj! Allen Stark got a state record in the 200 butterfly. Great job Allen! I said hi to Allen a couple times; he looked at me like I'm a space alien. I'll have you know I'm proud of my Martian heritage, I learned to swim despite there being no pools or even any water on Mars, and besides the swim cap keeps my antennae down to where you can hardly notice them. No worries, Allen! :bliss: I was happy with my results - despite being untapered and unshaven, I put up three times that have a chance at the top ten. And while the other two times I posted will definitely not threaten the rankings, they were lifetime bests. Also, yesterday was the first time I've ever swum LCM indoors. The pool doesn't seem quite as huge that way!

Yesterday @ the Tualatin Hills meet in Oregon, plenty of Masters swimmers were wearing B70's. (And I have no problem with that.) :hijack: Swimmj swam great until her calves cramped up. Hope you're feeling better, Swimmj! Allen Stark got a state record in the 200 butterfly. Great job Allen! I said hi to Allen a couple times; he looked at me like I'm a space alien. I'll have you know I'm proud of my Martian heritage, I learned to swim despite there being no pools or even any water on Mars, and besides the swim cap keeps my antennae down to where you can hardly notice them. No worries, Allen! :bliss: I was happy with my results - despite being untapered and unshaven, I put up three times that have a chance at the top ten. And while the other two times I posted will definitely not threaten the rankings, they were lifetime bests. Also, yesterday was the first time I've ever swum LCM indoors. The pool doesn't seem quite as huge that way! I'm sorry I am a bit of a space alien myself at meets.I get really focused/oblivious.Also after the 200 fly I had no oxygen flow to my brain so I am not responsible for my behavior after that(one could say that swimming the 200 fly was proof I wasn't responsible before that.)

I'm sorry I am a bit of a space alien myself at meets.I get really focused/oblivious.Also after the 200 fly I had no oxygen flow to my brain so I am not responsible for my behavior after that(one could say that swimming the 200 fly was proof I wasn't responsible before that.) Hey results are up! :chug: www.swimoregon.org/.../ResultsTHillsSummerLCM062009Splits.htm

I agree with lefty on this one. I have owned and used the Victor, Aquablade, Fastskin I, Fastskin II and Blue Seventy Nero Comp. I swim just as fast in the Aquablade as with the others. All are about comparable to full-body shaving which I won't do anymore because of the discomfort during the re-growth period. The main reason I use full body suits now is that the knee length suits severely constrict my thigh muscles. Too many years of playing defense in association football, I guess. I suppose I could have thigh-muscle-reduction surgery. I agree with both Lefty and Meldyck. I loved my Aquablade and wish I had bought a dozen of them (the high neck knee skin types) when they were en route to being discontinued. I have never felt such a sense of glide, even with the B70, that I got with the Aquablade. And unlike the FS1 that took its place, it didn't feel heavy on distance events or open water swims. The Tyr Aquapel is pretty good substitute, and if you can fit in one of the sizes they have left at swimoutlet.com, the sale price of $12 is pretty unbeatable. www.swimoutlet.com/.../1442-1.jpg If anyone knows where you can still get a body suit Aquablade, please let me know.

Tim, they are pretty true to size. I've been wearing the Aquapel's for 5 years now and love them. I just bought 2 more at this price so now I'll have 4 waiting to wear out. My first one lasted about 4 years of about 8 meets a year. They are great suits and I wish they hadn't discontinued them.

The Tyr Aquapel is pretty good substitute, and if you can fit in one of the sizes they have left at swimoutlet.com, the sale price of $12 is pretty unbeatable. www.swimoutlet.com/.../1442-1.jpg Are these sized like a reasonable waist size, or some other mysterious sizing like I've seen for the B70? There's a size 30 available, which is my normal waist size, but not sure how the top portion would fit... (edited to add) well there was just 1 left at that price, so I bought it. if it doesn't fit, I'm sure I can find a home for it somewhere. never owned a tech suit, not even jammers.