Another Wetsuit Question

What is cold to you? For me, 75 and lower is pretty cold. Since losing body fat (I'm down 10 percent from 4 months ago) I get cold in the water easily. I went with a long sleeve because the open water around here stays in the 60's and 70's until Late August.

Depends on the water temp, and your cold tolerance. Me, I'm a wimp, so I like having a full suit in 60-degree water. The negative, of course, is wearing full sleeves in 70+ degree water can seem hot. For the record, full suits are a bit faster (4-5 min over IM distance).

My solution was to buy an item called "Tri Sleeves" from ProMotion (http://www.wetsuit.com/store/detail.cfm?product_id=401), which is a jacket-like top that fits under a sleeveless wetsuit to convert it to full. They're just $66 for the '03 model, so you could spend $130 for a sleeveless, and then $66 for the sleeves to have it both ways for under $200.

Or, go sleeveless for now, and realize that you can add the sleeves later.

I have worn my suit(s) in 2 races:
2003 Black Diamond half IM, 60-degree water, I wore the sleeves to make a full. Very comfy. Maybe a third of the racers had sleeveless, and they seemed to be fine. (2 crazy guys went bare, but that's CRAZY).

2003 Great Floridian full IM, 77-degree water, I went sleeveless, and that was comfy. Maybe a quarter of racers went with full, and I did hear of a few who thought that that was too hot. A decent number went bare, which is more understandable, but I'd rather take the help when I can get it.

I have two races coming up this year, both in 60-65 degree water, so I'll be very happy to have the full.

Good luck!