So I've entered a sprint relay triathlon in August which is in Nottingham in the man made lake. I was planning on just wearing swimming costume but been advised to get a wetsuit. I am going to try and borrow one as at present I don't really want to fork out on one. I've had a look at ebay but otherwise where can you buy a super cheap begginers one? What should I be looking for? As I've been told triathlon ones are significantly different to surfing ones (which are hard to swim in).
Oh and what do I need to know about open water swimming? I'm scared as only used to pool! HELP ...what have I done! can't pull out now either as in a team of 4! ARGH!
If I were you I'd hire one from wetsuithire.co.uk. Also bare in mind that chances are wetsuits will be banned in August due to high (!) water temperature. There were events on this past weekend where no suits were allowed as the water temp was above 22 degrees.
For general tips, take a look at tritalk.co.uk
Oh I never even thought that they may be banned due to weather! Good thinking! I will definately have a look at those websites, cheers.
If you're doing it at Holme Pierrepont then my advice would be to watch out for drinking the water - blue/green algae has been a notorious problem there for as long as I've been going (20ish years - for rowing events)
See if you can hire one - some of the big events have them available. Wetsuit is good for bouyancy if you're not a supremely comfident swimmer.
You may be able to get away with a shorty if the weather is warm enough - might feel like an intermediate stage between speedos and full wetsuit.
if you do buy one, get Tri specific. They are more flexible around shoulders, and the good ones have different thicknesses all over the place to help swimming/bouyancy. Good companies are (were really) Orca and Snugg.
Open water swimming is good, especially if you are in a calm environment (i.e. no waves or current). Just relax, get your head up occasionally to make sure you are going in the right direction and try to swim right on someones hip or just behind them - drafting makes a big difference. Biggest differences to pool swimming are: no lines on the floor so you need to navigate (back to getting your head up now and again) and no stopping at the end of a length - have a practice in the pool at tumble turns to get you used to swimming without those convenient pauses (you'd be suprised at how much rest you get by just hanging on the pool edge for half a second...)
And good luck 😉
You can get by with a surf/watersport one - I did for a while. A pretty thin shorty will do - anything more and you'd be boiling hot - although the flexibility around the arms isn't great. Fine for the 750m of a sprint tri, once you get into longer distances a proper suit can make a big difference. Or just hire.
Don't bank on the water getting hot enough for a wetsuit ban - it'll only happen with very high air temps and in fairly shallow water. There is a (only slightly) lower temperature where they become optional, but even that doesn't happen a lot.
Oh Clubber yes I think that's where it is! Maybe I could use a snorkel!? Are they allowed!!??? I shall have to see about borrowing one first before I spend £100 and never do one again! I imagine I will enjoy it and want to do more but we'll see!
So Richard .. talk to me about tumble turns. I did 100 lengths of 25m pool yesterday and kept thinking about having a go at tumble turns but I have no clue what to do and don't want to donk my head on the wall!!!!
I did my first sprint triathlon in Liverpool a couple of weeks ago. I got wetsuit from wiggle, its an orca S2 suit (£100)and they are offering them with a buy back scheme - at the end of the season I can send it back and get back £50. I'm not sure how this compares to hiring, but I have it to get out and practice rather than just hiring for the day. I've been going practicing outside at Salford Quays in Manchester where they hold outdoor swim session and have found it really helpfull. Like you I was quite nervous about the swim and getting to try before was great for building up a bit of confidence, the things I found hardest were the poor visibility in the water and not knowing where I was going. I also found the added buoyancy from the wetsuit really helpful, although if you are happily doing 100 lengths it might not be an issue for you.
Sounds to me like a litttlle marketing spin from the swim suit companies in an effort to differentiate their suits. Surfing requieres far more flexibility in a suit than swimming and there is now way that a like for like thickness suit from a small company, like snugg, can compete with a top of the range surfsuit from any of the big 3 wettie companies who have the resources to develop their own fabrics. Ripcurls elasto suits are amazing, a 5/3 is more flexy than a 3/2 of the 80s.
Sounds to me like a litttlle marketing spin from the swim suit companies in an effort to differentiate their suits.
Not marketing spin at all, flexibility in different places required for swimming wetsuits versus surfing ones. No way I'd want to swim any distance in a surfing wetsuit, I find them too floaty for one.
I'm looking at the Orca S2 from wiggle also, if you've got gold membership they're less than 100 plus you can get 50 quid back if you don't want to keep it.
Always been advised to drink coke after going in the water at Holme Pierrepont, kills the nasties apparently
People aren't really selling it to me talking about "killing nasties" I'm wondering if there's still time to pull out and stick to my original plan of doing one in a swimming pool, or maybe i'll just MTFU and accept my healthy body will kill nasty bugs on it's own 😯
So I'm still on the case to borrow one but otherwise I found this one on wiggle, the cheapest I've been able to find
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Womens/11/Orca_S2_Womens_Wetsuit/5360041585/
is this okay??
If you really are looking for an alternative, the [url= http://www.erewashtriathlon.com/ ]Erewash Novice Triathlon[/url] might be worth looking at the week before. I was going to do that as my first last year (but I forgot to enter!)
You could even do both!
The wiggle one is fine, that's the one you can get 50 pound back if you return it at the end of the season.
