Subject: RE: Sleeveless wetsuit or full? I went back and forth on this question too, when I bought my wetsuit. I live in MN, and the water temps are still pretty chilly (60 or so? ) during these spring months, but during the summer they are warmer, of course. So, I was torn. I ended up going with the sleeveless because of the range of motion issue, and because I am one of those people who naturally gets really, really warm/red-faced during a workout. Your own tendency to run hot or cold might factor in for you too. If you tend to run on the warm side, then a sleeveless would probably be fine as far as temperature goes. For buoyancy, I'm certainly no expert, but I'm not sure that the increased buoyancy from sleeves would make a ton of differnence from a sleeveless, but I could be totally wrong on that.
An alternative is to get to get a sleeveless wetsuit that offers the optional sleeves that can be worn with it, like this:
http://www.wetsuit.com/store/detail.cfm?product_id=340
Incidentally, I used my sleeveless wetsuit in open water for the first time last week, and I was totally comfortable; not cold at all. I also found it to be very buoyant, to the point that I almost felt like I was wearing a life jacket.
Kelly |