blue seventy

I am sure they will be slower. However: -- permeable material can certainly still trap air if it is hydrophobic enough (I have grabbed a hydrophobic filter in lab by mistake and tried in vain to force water thru it; it doesn't work even though the filter is porous). I suspect buoyancy (density) of the material was a bigger reason for flotation of the previous suits; I've always thought the air trapping thing was a red herring. Even practice suits will trap some air. -- maybe, though I hesitate to put limits on the abilities of material scientists and suit manufacturers to innovate. -- I definitely think coverage is maybe the most important factor of the new rules for men. But how significant is coverage of shins/calves? Some but not (say) 5%. It is just one datapoint but in a trials/finals format last summer I fast just as fast in jammers as in legskins; at the very least this implies (for me anyway) that the extra coverage is not a huge factor. -- less compression without the zipper; another important factor. For women, my gut feeling is that (a) loss of buoyancy of the material and (b) less compression will be the most important factors. Just my :2cents: I frankly think durability will be the biggest factor... I think on the women's side, at least, these suits will still be plenty fast.

I am sure they will be slower. However: -- permeable material can certainly still trap air if it is hydrophobic enough (I have grabbed a hydrophobic filter in lab by mistake and tried in vain to force water thru it; it doesn't work even though the filter is porous). I suspect buoyancy (density) of the material was a bigger reason for flotation of the previous suits; I've always thought the air trapping thing was a red herring. Even practice suits will trap some air. -- maybe, though I hesitate to put limits on the abilities of material scientists and suit manufacturers to innovate. -- I definitely think coverage is maybe the most important factor of the new rules for men. But how significant is coverage of shins/calves? Some but not (say) 5%. It is just one datapoint but in a trials/finals format last summer I fast just as fast in jammers as in legskins; at the very least this implies (for me anyway) that the extra coverage is not a huge factor. -- less compression without the zipper; another important factor. For women, my gut feeling is that (a) loss of buoyancy of the material and (b) less compression will be the most important factors. Just my :2cents: I frankly think durability will be the biggest factor... I think on the women's side, at least, these suits will still be plenty fast.