Swimming Wetsuit For Better Performance

Whether you’re swimming in open water or in an indoor pool, a swimming wetsuit will help you achieve your goal better. Good swimming wetsuits offer more buoyancy, better water dynamics, and allows for better body temperature control.

However, in order to obtain the best results from a swimming wetsuit, swimmers need to use the full wetsuit. The shortie or the 3-quarter springsuit, in exposing the swimmer’s limbs, just cannot give the same amount of hydrodynamics offered by the full wetsuit. In fact, a lower priced quality for value model full wetsuit will offer more benefits to a swimmer than a top-of-the-line long john wetsuit which only exposes the arms and shoulders to water resistance.

Top of the line models of swimming wetsuits, like the Ironman Stealth, Quintana Roo Superfit, and Orca P-Flex offer more buoyancy than even the quality wetsuits. Of course, these models are more expensive because of the added buoyancy flaps, enhanced material flexibility and lighter material.

However, studies show that the new materials are so much slicker in the water than man’s natural skin that exposing parts of the body like the swimmer’s arms and legs will significantly affect the performance of the wetsuits. Thus, in order to make a swimmer move quickest through the water, he must be relatively fully enclosed in the wetsuit material. Of all the types of wetsuits and for the triathlon wetsuit, only a full body wetsuit can do this.

The swimming wetsuit is different from diving wetsuits because they have differing thicknesses in neoprene throughout the suit. Whereas a diving wetsuit has uniform thickness, a swimming wetsuit can have 3-2 modes of thickness. This is because a swimmer needs to have thinner, more flexible wetsuit material in areas where the limbs connect to the torso. This allows for better freedom of movement and less chafing from the rubber.

A diver does not have to move very quickly, but he does need more insulation from the coldness of deep water. The diving wetsuit therefore is thick, heavy and slightly loose while a swimming wetsuit is best when they are lightest, elastic and fit the body snugly.

The best swimming wetsuits, like the Orca P-Flex, have body-contour technology that eliminates creases and folds in order to reduce the drag induced by the water on the swimmer as he moves through the water. This hydrodynamic effect makes for less wasted energy for the swimmer. However, in order for this to happen, the swimmer has to have the wetsuit size that fits him exactly.

Swim wetsuits therefore come in several sizes, in order to give the chunky, slim, short or lanky swimmer a swimsuit that will fit him well. In case that a swimmer cannot get a size to fit him from the shelf, some models can be custom-fitted for him.

So if you’re going to go for a swim, whether competitively or trying to swim a long distance, try on a swimming wetsuit. You may not have to get a top model triathlon wetsuit; you will get the same benefit from a good value for price wetsuit. Just make sure you get the full-body wetsuit in order to get the full benefit offered that is available to you through the new technology of today.