Lobby: Off topic slightly - Wetsuits and doing a survey on clubs and communities

My brother-in-law did it in a 2/80/21 competition with a surfer wetsuit, which probably has the same flexibility or better said the lack of it a a diver's wetsuit. It worked and it was absolutely necessary due to the low temperature of the water. It was 16° Celsius. I have no idea, what this means in Fahrenheit, but below 14° swimming is forbidden in triathlons and above 24° wetsuits are forbidden in Germany. However, it was a clear disadvantage concerning speed although it had no sleeves, which makes it a bit easier for swimming. One thing as you said is the cramping of the shoulders. The other problem is that it "leaks" at the neck, so water is running into the suit, which of course makes you slower as well and increases the exchange of water in the suit. Depending on the temperature of the water this can as well lead to a lack of isolation respectively could water in the suit. To put it short, he and other mates in our tria-club too said that one should if ever possible avoid swimming in a diver's/surfing wetsuit.

I bought a second hand wetsuit through an internet forum, a green turtle from Australia, sold by a German, for 80 EUR, approx. 120 $ nowadays. It would have been 100 $ when I bought it. Of course you take a risk as it might not fit and you never know if the description is true. The seller and myself exchanged the height and weight (the latter seems to be more important). Both didn't deviate very much. I transferred the money and got a fine tria wetsuit, which served my needs now for 2 years. In the meantime I brought it to a diver's shop, who worked over it with some neopren glue on those few and small parts, which were damaged by fingernails. As the material is very flexible it is weak as well and you have to be very carefull while putting it on and off. You better cut your nails to a minimum. I had to pay 5 EUR for it and it still is fine.

Just in case you understand my nickname I have to add that I did breaststroke, when I did my first triathlon 5 years ago. Since 3 years I swim crawl style.

I recommend to ask at your local tria club in order to have a look at the suit and try it on or to look in a tria internet forum for a second hand wetsuit.

Good luck for this and for the competition.