To wear my wetsuit or not?

A friend, a former collegian swimmer who typically came out of the water in the top 3 overall, always opted for the wetsuit.  Good enough for me.

I generate a lot of heat swimming. I am a FOP top 5% (+ or -) out of the water in local events. In my last Oly the announcer kept warning of the warm water and encouraged people with full suits to go without. I opted to swim nude only to find nearly everyone wearing one. I gave up at least 90 seconds to the field as a result. I'd recommend that you swim with a suit whenever it is legal (people on this forum have said this before - I should have listened)

So what is the worst that could happen? You get too warm. If that happens try the following.

1) Take your cap off after the swim starts. You can do this by putting your goggles on under your cap and leave the cap loose on your head. (gosh I don't know how it came off).

2) Briefly pull the neck of your wetsuit open in the front and let some cool water in.

3) If you are still too warm just swim easier. Chance is that you will be going as fast as you would swimming hard without a wetsuit and using less energy at the same time. That is energy you can use later in the race.

4) If you feel you are still overheating you can always pull you zipper down the middle of your back, but I can't see that ever being necessary at a wetsuit legal race.