I know there are many of you out there with strong feelings against technical suits. While I respect your opinions, I am wanting to try a technical suit for the SCY 2011 state/national meets. What I am looking for here are suggestions, tips, and/or recommendations from people who are using technical suits as to what I should be looking for - other than "FINA approved". If you have any advice for someone looking to buy her first technical suit, please let me know. If it makes a difference, I am focusing on mainly freestyle and fly.
Thanks!
On the subject of cheaper women's tech suits, for what it's worth:
I feel like it does pull some things in and compress a bit, but not as much as I gather a fancier tech suit would.
I did the same last year, where I found an old Speedo Aquablade kneeskin on ebay for about $50. My first knee-length 'tech' suit and I thought it was fine. I gather lower-end tech suits like the Xcellerator, Fusion, and the Yingfa kneeskins are in the same realm.
Later on I was able to score a Nike Hydra 1 kneeskin also on eBay for ~$80. At that point that particular model was a few years old or something, and its original retail was $275 I think. COMPLETE TOTAL difference compared to the Aquablade. It even ended up being a size or two larger that what would have been ideal, but I STILL felt that it had a far better cut and a ton more compression than the Aquablade. It felt totally awesome in the water, way less water retention....a HUGE difference in my opinion. I recall thinking to myself, "so THIS is what a REAL tech suit feels like!" after diving into the water for warm up lol. But I have to admit, while it definitely felt superior I can't say it it had a huge affect on my times ;)
So if you don't want to break the bank, I would advise tracking down late-model/discontinued higher-end tech suits. While the technology isn't the current-best-on-the-market, you will still get the techy-ness but without the crazy costs. I know metroswimshop has lots of the late-model Nike Hydras and Swifts for ~$150 or so. Check eBay too, you can find great deals there as well. I am curious about the $120 Arena kneeskin......
On the subject of cheaper women's tech suits, for what it's worth:
I feel like it does pull some things in and compress a bit, but not as much as I gather a fancier tech suit would.
I did the same last year, where I found an old Speedo Aquablade kneeskin on ebay for about $50. My first knee-length 'tech' suit and I thought it was fine. I gather lower-end tech suits like the Xcellerator, Fusion, and the Yingfa kneeskins are in the same realm.
Later on I was able to score a Nike Hydra 1 kneeskin also on eBay for ~$80. At that point that particular model was a few years old or something, and its original retail was $275 I think. COMPLETE TOTAL difference compared to the Aquablade. It even ended up being a size or two larger that what would have been ideal, but I STILL felt that it had a far better cut and a ton more compression than the Aquablade. It felt totally awesome in the water, way less water retention....a HUGE difference in my opinion. I recall thinking to myself, "so THIS is what a REAL tech suit feels like!" after diving into the water for warm up lol. But I have to admit, while it definitely felt superior I can't say it it had a huge affect on my times ;)
So if you don't want to break the bank, I would advise tracking down late-model/discontinued higher-end tech suits. While the technology isn't the current-best-on-the-market, you will still get the techy-ness but without the crazy costs. I know metroswimshop has lots of the late-model Nike Hydras and Swifts for ~$150 or so. Check eBay too, you can find great deals there as well. I am curious about the $120 Arena kneeskin......
