Wetsuit sleeveless faster than fullsleeve ? DeSoto Black Pearl

Most of your energy shouldn't be going "down"  It's more a catch, pull down your body to your toes (not DOWN towards the bottom of the lake/pool) then push behind.

And of course, the bouyancy lifts you out of the water, which has more resistance to forwarmd movement than the air which trumps any slight losses you get pushing down.

Edited by Kido 2012-09-27 3:43 PM

Hello,

Emilio De Soto here. Before you take any action that you may regret, please hear me out.

While I believe that those who replied to your post have the best intentions, none that I have read appear to own a T1 Black Pearl Wetsuit. Along with it being a two-piece wetsuit comes the simple fact that, if you own it, you probably did more research than most people and that your research made enough sense to give it a go. In addition most who do not own one, do not know much about it. In other words without studying the facts, and then testing it, others will never know how amazing the T1 Black Pearl.

Please allow me to ask you a few questions and make some comments.

How many triathlons exist where one swims in a pool?

Of those, how many triathlons exist where one swims in a pool with a wetsuit?

My point to these questions are that the best place to test a wetsuit and especially a T1 Wetsuit is in open water, where there are no flip turns, not pushing off walls, no line at the bottom to follow , and not much gliding.

The best place to test the T1 Wetsuit is to set two points in open water and compare your times in both top and bottom to no wetsuit at all, and of course if you wish just test the bottom (Bibjohn) alone against both.

You will not be the first to find just wearing just the Bibjohn to be incredibly fast, as it is a great option in races where you have warm water. But what happens in colder water is a completely different situation and assuming you are donning the T1 Black Peal properly as we show in our T1 instruction video found here:

http://www.desotosport.com/products/wetsuits/video.php

then it would more fair to at least wear your new T1 Black Pearl in open water a for a number of workouts, then answer your own question, or at least email me directly to discuss your new, more realistic, findings.

But whatever you do, please do not cut the sleeves of you Black Pearl, as by doing so you will be creating more drag, eliminating all the science we placed in the development of this great wetsuit that you now own. In addition altering the wetsuit will void the lifetime warranty we offer.

Hi Emilio - thanks for chipping into this thread.

I have the T1 First Wave with both the Concept 5 pullover (5mm sleeves) and also the Speed Vest.

I really don't have the time or ability to do my own OWS speed tests comparing the different "configurations", but I bet you have done them!

So could you share the results?

I'm assuming the bibjohn + Concept 5 is the fastest, but how much faster than bibjohn + Speed Vest (or bibjohn alone?)

10%? 20%? More??

I do like the freedom of movement of the Speed Vest (see my profile pic!) but I worry that it is costing me a lot of time over 1500m.

Thanks,
Steve





Edited by smallard 2013-06-09 8:10 PM

I have multiple pieces of the T1 wetsuit lineup. I do not believe the bibjohns would be faster than the speedtube due to the thickness of material found in the speedtube. I find the speedtube easier to get off than the bibjohns. In general, slower the swimmer, greater the advantage the wetsuit will make. Multiple references have shown sleeved versions are faster than sleeveless. But if one is going to overheat in a sleeved version, then a change is necessary.