Used Wetsuit - Buy or Pass?

If the leg length is the only problem, you can trim a couple of inches off the bottom with a pair of scissors.

Just make sure that the price is right bc a lot of places have big wetsuit sales coming up. They also can be cut fairly easily just make sure that you use sharp scissors so the cut is good.

Thanks guys! I'll check out some of the sales before making my decision (no rush). However, I'm not sure cutting with scissors would work b/c there are zippers on the ankles.

here's a thought for you - don't forget that it seems like half the people who own wetsuits pee in them (I haven't yet broken mine in yet that way, but I suspect I will yet (or maybe that would be "wet") this year).

And now after yesterday's tri, I have to admit that my wetsuit is no longer in, uh, pristine condition.

Never thought of the pee thing, and I have been using my brother's old wetsuit. Thanks!

Anyway, it is actually a shortie diving suit, with short sleeve arms. I realize most tri-suits have no sleeves but I have to wonder if the shortie is that bad. I could feel the resistance when I lifted my arms to stroke but it occurred to me that it happens when my arm is out of the water. I actually felt a little spring-back when I started my armstroke in the water. Isn't this a good thing, i.e. added power in the water? Or was I imagining the spring-back?

A couple things - first it's not necessarily the case that most tri wetsuits are sleeveless. Some of the reasons for the popularity of sleeveless is that they are generally less expensive, easier to take off, and cooler when the water is relatively warm. In actuality for most swimmers (very proficient excluded), though, full suits will be faster.

Second, diving suit (or any other non-tri wetsuit) is different because tri suits were specifically designed to swim in and not much else. One of the specific things of a suit made for swimming is that it minimally restricts your arm movements and provide bouyancy to your legs in particular to reduce drag. With non tri wetsuits, you might also experience chafing at the neck because the suit isn't designed with that much movement in mind. With the diving suit, you might have felt a spring back, but at some point you had to "wind up" that "spring" (i.e. the resistance you felt) which is not a good thing since you're expending energy to do so.

You will definitely notice a huge difference between a shortie wetsuit and a swimming wetsuit. I recently upgraded from a paddling wetsuit and the difference was remarkable - athletes that I would normally be 6-8 minutes behind I was 2-4 minutes behind (over an OD swim).

The zippers may make it hard to alter, however there are many people who cut their suits up to midcalf length to ease transition so if it's a good deal and you are willing to cut that much away I'd say go for it - I don't worry about the pee - it's sterile anyway

Shane

Edited by gsmacleod 2006-09-18 6:03 PM

Thanks to everyone for all the great info. I think I'm going to go for it and buy this used suit (pee and all). Trimming it off just above the zippers will work for me. Heaven knows, I have many other tri-related things that I "need" and can put the extra saved money to good use!